World Snooker Championships 2018

[The Bear]

What's the first round draw look like? 

[kingfox]

30 minutes ago, The Bear said:

What's the first round draw look like? 

Being done tomorrow at probably 10am 

[Nalis]

Jack Lisowski through to the main draw. He looks like the type of guy who would have fitted right into the Tinder thread group of lads.

[Nalis]

Draw delayed by 2 hours due to technical difficulties, are Carobao running this draw?

[kingfox]

Some cracking first round ties, a number of seeds could well bow out in the first round.

 

Mark Selby plays Joe Perry

Ronnie plays Stephen Maguire

 

Other stand outs for me...

Kyren Wilson vs Matthew Stevens

Stuart Bingham vs Jack Lisowski

Luca Brecel vs Ricky Walden

Ding Junhui vs Xiao Guodong

[The Bear]

Maguire will give Ronnie a good game if he turns up. Like the look of Bingham v Lisowski too. 

 

What I will confidently say is that Judd Trump will never win a World Championship. Great potter but he doesn't have the mentality it takes to both play well and grind out matches over two weeks.

[walkerleeds]

Should be an interesting one. Plenty of big names on Selby's side of the draw. 

 

Kyren Wilson has been in some decent form recently and surely wins a major sometime soon, so i'm going to back him. Not on the kindest half of the draw though as he'll potentiall have to beat Murphy, Selby and Trump before even getting to the final.

[Bert]

In other snooker news Joe O'Connor has earnt himself a 2 year professional tour card. Lovely lad, hope he does well. 

[The Bear]

I'm hoping for Ding victory. I think he's due a good Worlds.

[boots60]

Good tournaments for O'Sullivan, Trump & Ding but Seby makes it 3 on the trot.

 

[kingfox]

The hype has finally kicked in, my favourite two weeks of the year start tomorrow, few quick thoughts, will try keep it shortish or the usual fvcks will start moaning...

 

Really can't see past Selby again, his overall form this season hasn't been great but he's hit form at the right time. He isn't in an easy section though, Perry could well be a tough opener, Mark Allen has been playing well in patches as has Kyren Wilson who pushed him extremely close at the China Open. Second quarter I'll have to favour Higgins, Trump's in there but I don't think he's playing well enough to mount a challenge, I expect him to do better than last year though. Lisowski the darkhorse of that section, in form, has finally started to show his talent consistently this season, surely has to do better than he did on his debut back in 2013.

 

Bottom half, in the third section it's a real toss up between Ding and Hawkins for me to make the Semis. Ryan Day has been playing well recently, I can see him beating McGill but I don't expect him to go beyond that. Marco Fu's eyes are fvcked so I don't expect him to do anything. Last quarter has two real in form players from this season, Ronnie and Mark Williams, I really hope they meet in the Quarters.

 

I'll go with a Selby vs Ding/Hawkins final. Darkhorse would have to be Mark Allen or Kyren Wilson.

 

 

[Ian W LCFC]

I've put a few quid on Ding E/W, he's done pretty well at the World Champs in the last few years.

 

I love Ronnie but I can't see him getting to the final with it being such a long tournament, I'd also like to see Kyren Wilson do well, his coach Barry Stark has some pretty good Snooker Youtube videos too.

[Nalis]

Cant see past Selby.

 

He is the definition of long match play and his game is perfect for it. With regards to ensuring he's safe when going for a shot to nothing, he's probably one of the best ever.

 

Not always the prettiest to watch but definitely in that sporting bracket of the snooker version of Floyd Mayweather or Mourinho's Chelsea.

 

Will be supporting Allen as usual though think he'll go out to Selby unfortunately. 

 

My predicted line up:

 

QF:

 

Selby v Jones

Lisowski v Trump

Ding v Hawkins

Williams v O'Sullivan

 

SF:

 

Selby v Trump

Ding v O'Sullivan

 

Selby to beat Ding in the final.

[isaidno]

Don't think Selby will win this year. He's got a really tough path to the final. I've gone for Hawkins .

[Facecloth]

It'd be a big ask to won a third in a row. Only two players have pulled that off in the crucible era and they ended up dominating the sport for a decade.

[The Bear]

Perry 2-0 up. 

[foxfanazer]

Selby not started well at all. Quite a few uncharacteristic mistakes

[kingfox]

Bloody hell this is getting even worse for Mark, some shocking misses.

[The Bear]

Make that 4-0 to Perry. 

 

Selby missed a red by a wide margin in the middle just that every club player would have potted. 

[kingfox]

Wow, what an interesting first session.

 

Selby's safety game in particular has been way off, when that doesn't go right you fully expect him to struggle.

 

Not surprised to see Haotian leading Fu on the other table, scoring well like he did in qualifying.

[Nalis]

O'Sullivan 4-0 down too now, what is going on?

[kingfox]

5 minutes ago, Nalis said:

O'Sullivan 4-0 down too now, what is going on?

Maybe a lack of focus again? 

 

He's had a great season overall but from January there's been matches where he's looked disinterested. Against Allen at the Masters but he was supposedly ill that day, Higgins twice but most recently at the Welsh and against Slessor at the China Open.

[Facecloth]

Got a chance and missed a ridiculously easy red.

[Facecloth]

Didn't see that green move when Maguire was using the rest?

[Facecloth]

Selby ain't winning 6 frames on the bounce in this form.