Snooker: World Championships - The Final Four
The last 4 of this years World Championships are Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Stephen Hendry and Joe Perry vs Ali Carter.
Ronnie and Hendry made their quarter finals look easy with wins over Wenbo and Day respectively. Both Ronnie and Hendry won their matches by 13 frames to 7.
Perry's and Carter's matches were a little more difficult though with Perry beating Maguire 13-12 in a fantastic final frame thriller. For me, Perry has knocked out this year's favourite so who's to say he can't go all the way. Carter beat Ebdon 13-9 in yet another very high quality match, and of course Carter, made his magnificent maiden maximum.
Now Maguire is out of the tournament, I would have to say the favourite to win the title is Ronnie, he's looking good and looks like he has his head together. I think Ronnie is just too strong for Hendry as Hendry still hasn't shown the kind of form that would beat Ronnie.
Ali Carter has done really well and played some great snooker to get to the semis as has Perry and it's really difficult to choose a winner here. For me Perry beat the tournament favourite, Maguire, so on that basis, I'll say Perry will beat Carter in a very close semi final.
I envisage is a Ronine vs Perry final, but I think Ronnie will just be too strong for the relatively inexperienced Joe Perry.
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2 comments:
Yes, an intriguing lineup. Ronnie definitely should see this a great chance to win a 3rd title, but who's to say how well Hendry might play? How far can he take his renaissance? And of course, you never know which Ronnie will turn up on any given day.
Which brings me to Maguire - he's increasingly gaining the reputation of very hot & cold player. As we've seen, on his day, he can be unstopabble, but too many times now he's shown he simply can't keep the standard up for a sustained period in the way great champions can.
Perry and Carter is wide open, and both are surprising semi-finalists. That one of them will be in the final just shows what a good standard there is all the way down the rankings. To be honest, I haven't seen much of either of them, so can't comment on who's likely to win.
Well Hendry knocked in a 140 in the first frame of his semi final and was looking good, but 4-4 after the first session has to be a bad result for Hendry. Ronnie has kept Hendry in check while not playing brilliantly and it's hard to see Hendry pulling away. I still think he needs to up his game.
I think if Ronnie plays well he could pull away from Hendry pretty quickly. I've been a huge Hendry fan in the past and would like to see him win his 8th world title, but I just can't see it happening this year.
It's amazing that Perry and Carter are in the other semi final, neither of them have won a ranking event and one of them will be in the final against either a double world champion or a 7 times world champion. It would have to be a herculean effort for Perry or Carter to win the title!!
It also worth noting that no player aged 31 or older has won the world title in the last 22 years. The last man to do this was Joe Johnson in '86. The only player in the semis younger than 31 is Ali Carter!! Odds on that the old boys will be back in town come Monday evening.
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