Players Championship

I'm sad like that. If there's a cut off point I'm obsessed with who's making the cut and who isn't.

What a thriller last night! Zhang Anda got in early in the first frame and kept it going throughout the first session, going into a 4-0 lead at the interval. After the interval, Zhang started out in the same vein with a 56 break, but carelessly missed the black and let Selby in. Selby responded with a 62 clearance to get his first frame on the board then added the next 2 frames to close to 4-3. Zhang won a scrappy 8th frame to extend his lead again to 5-3 but Selby responded with a break of 113, and added a scrappy 10th frame to level at 5-5. Zhang got in early with a 50 break in the final frame and held on to win 6-5.

The good (sort of) news for Ali Carter: He's still ahead of Mark Selby on the 1YRL, but he's still in 9th place and not in a qualifying position for the Tour Championship with only the World Open left to get the ranking he needs to qualify.

The bad (sort of) news for Ali Carter: He's still in 8th place on the official 2 year list and in a qualifying position for the Riyadh Season Festival of Snooker (RFFOS), but if Zhang Anda wins the final tonight, Carter will be 9th and not guaranteed to play in Riyadh. However the composition of the RSFOS is the top 8 on the 2YRL plus 2 wildcards so if Carter is not in the top 8 there is nothing to stop the Riyadh sponsors inviting him to be a wildcard, or nominating Zhang if he doesn't win the final tonight.

Zhang keeps getting written off by some pundits but keeps on defying them.
Brave stuff to win the decider after a comeback like that from Selby.

Intriguing final.

(24-02-2024 14:45 )Doddle Wrote:  , but maybe Zhang has more surprises up his sleeves.

He did! Hendry was in full gritted teeth mode in the interval, trying to show honest praise for someone he wouldn't otherwise give two hoots for. When Selby was coming back, it looked ominous, so I'm glad he did get across the line. He'd make an interesting winner tonight too, if he can at all tap into the form he showed last night.

Hard fought 10-8 win for Allen. What he was lacking in fluency he made up for in grit and determination.

Unlucky for Anda to end up on the wrong end of a close, hard fought match. He failed to get a guaranteed place on the Riyadh SFOS, and I don't know how they're going to choose their wildcards for that event, but if they choose the wildcards on merit, Zhang deserves a place for the outstanding season he's had.

Zhang managed another good start, but seemed to find frames pinched off him. He'd be advised to skip watching it with Hendry on commentary, though. Also well done to Allen.

Mark Allen is a much improved match player.
Absolute granite. His safety throughout the tournament arguably won him many tight frames and ultimately the whole event.
The safety success stats for him over the week were quite remarkable. He is becoming increasingly difficult to beat.

Defending Champion Mark Allen will have it all to do in the Players Championship to get into the top 12 on the 1 year ranking list for the Tour Championship. He's in 15th, only about 2,000 ranking points ahead of Lei Peifan in 16th. Victory in the Scottish Open final proved very useful to Lei for making the cut for this tournament.

Bingham gets a rematch with Robertson. Hawkins gets a rematch with Tubbs. Craptain Carter at 17th will be first choice to replace any player withdraws; so let's hope no one withdraws.

The Draw:

Judd Trump v Lei Peifan
Hawkins v Tubbs
Xiao Guodong v Wu Yize
John Higgins v Chris Wakelin
Neil Robertson v Stuart Bingham
Mark Selby v Si Jiahui
Mark Williams v Ding Junhui
Kyren Wilson v Mark Allen

Got tickets for the Friday evening session. Telford is near enough my neck of the woods .

On ITV4, which is still free-to-air (for now), this week

Some belting first round matches