World Grand Prix

Ronnie O'Sullivan is the champion after recovering from 0-4 down to beat Judd Trump 10-7. The Bristolian faltered badly at 6-3 up and The Rocket took advantage to claim his second ranking title of the season.

Goodness me! I was so relieved to see Ronnie get over the line. Judd was potting beautifully and looked capable of reeling off 4 frames in a row to pull off a dramatic come back. The match could have gone either way, but on the day the snooker gods were favouring Ronnie. Ronnie was pinching all the close frames either with a bit of luck or taking full advantage of Judd's errors. Even in the last frame Ronnie fluked his first red then got lucky with his positional shot off the colour. It was a great final where the 2 players showed why they are no.1 and no.2 in the world!

Ronnie has to be favourtie for Worlds now although has he been playing to much he says he struggles over the length of the world championship

Another week, another reverse from 3-6 down to a 10-7 win... impressive stuff again.

The WST confirmed that the Welsh Open was the cut off for the World Grand Prix and not the World Open. The 32 players for the World Grand Prix in the Kai Tak Arena, Hong Kong are known and the draw has been done.

Luca Brecel's failure to beat Mark Selby on Saturday means that he misses out, and after the World Open his next tournament is the World Championship. Gary Wilson at no.32 in the 1YRL is relieved about that, but he's been drawn against Judd Trump in the 1st round. The fantastic season the Chinese players have had is reflected in how many of them are in the top 32, and they'll have plenty of support in Hong Kong. Maguire's got Tubbs again. Hossein Vafaei is no.33, and is first in line to enter if anyone pulls out.

Judd Trump v Gary Wilson
Jack Lisowski v Zhang Anda
Si Jiahui v Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ding Junhui v Xu Si
Mark Williams v Stuart Bingham
Wu Yize v Pang Junxu
Mark Allen v Jimmy Robertson
Mark Selby v Jackson Page
Xiao Guodong v Jak Jones
Lei Peifan v Elliot Slessor
Chris Wakelin v David Gilbert
Neil Robertson v Yuan Sijun
Barry Hawkins v Tom Ford
Shaun Murphy v Stephen Maguire
John Higgins v Ali Carter
Kyren Wilson v Matthew Selt

The event is due to begin on March 4th.

Hawkins, Murphy and Carter in the same quadrant is ominous.

I was a bit hasty writing off Luca's chances of playing in the Player's series. Although he won't be in the World Grand Prix he can still qualify for the Players Championship. Jack Lisowski in 16th on the 1YRL is about 60K points ahead of Luca, but the runner up prize for the World Open is £75K. If Luca reaches the final of the World Open and finds himself in the top 16 on the 1YRL, he can still qualify for the Players Championship if he's still in the top 16 when the World Grand Prix is over.

His Ronnie-ness is giving it a miss, and Hossein Vafaei is taking his spot.

(18-02-2025 14:20 )Doddle Wrote:  Hawkins, Murphy and Carter in the same quadrant is ominous.

The Misery is in there as well.

FFS.

(02-03-2025 12:43 )Snooks Wrote:  

(18-02-2025 14:20 )Doddle Wrote:  Hawkins, Murphy and Carter in the same quadrant is ominous.

The Misery is in there as well.

FFS.

But possibly not for long!