Just thought I would kick off a thread for this tournament to see if there's any interest.

Guess the first talking point would be Ding's 147 break yesterday. Saw it on TV last night, was an excellent maximum made with Ding's trademark calmness. :ok:

There's not a video of it yet on youtube, but I'll upload one in a while if one doesn't appear soon. :D

I enjoyed watching Ding's 147 and how cool and laid back is he? wow he is a great prospect and he seems a nice guy as well.

I really like this guy Robertson (looks a bit like Roddick IMO), he is pretty laid back as well and beat Williams 6-0 :yikes: Another young one doing well..

There's an excellent shot early on in the break where Ding pots a black and using topspin drives the white through a bunch of reds. Class shot :D

IMHO Ding is a "classy" player full stop!! B)

Do you think he could win the World Campionship? I think he could, he is soo laid back and nothing seems to worry this guy :yikes:

Just my thoughts.

That shot was incredible. He drove through a whole cluster of about 7-8 reds and still managed to control the cueball. I'm not sure if there's a better sight in snooker than the white hitting a cluster of reds and the spin taking effect.

And Alison - yes he can definitely win the WC. Good chance this year actually, but to be ultra-realistic, next year's more likely. One thing's for sure, he will win it at some point, I think he's gonna be the next Hendry.

I think in the next two years Ding can be WC, I just like how laid back this guy is!! Like WA say's he could be the next Hendry (I hope he is), his attitude IMHO is like Hendry's... I did not know you like Snooker WA?? Your Anna I has just won

Yep I play snooker quite regularly, Robertson's my favourite player at the moment - I can see a great rivalry between him and Ding in the future.

Hi WA, sorry BTW for my words on your into thread, I have had a bad time( can I send you a PM??), not sure how they work ect.. but I have been through Cancer treatment for the past year :angry: and your posts on BBC cheered me up (and I guess I thought they would continue over here) so very sorry..

Anyway, Snooker I agree with Ding and Roberston, two young players (and nice guys) a great rivalary between these two will be great, and both seem really laid back :yikes:

Yeh course you can PM me Alison, sorry to hear life's been difficult for you recently.

I post honestly here, but if you check out 606, I occasionally produce the odd flawless factual analysis. Just for you ;)2

Thanks WA B) I will check out 606 (just for the flawless Analysis) Cheers WA :D

I was 99% sure that when Ding hit that shot to drive the ball through the reds, that it would stick in the middle of them. But the spin was excellent. :D

Another shot I liked, and always like in a break, is potting the last black and then the deep screw shot off the side cushion to get to the yellow. Much more difficult to judge than it looks and I always mess it up when trying to play it myself. :D

What is unfortunate is that Ding comes in for criticism for being boring and emotionless. I happen to think that this is a strength though, I wonder if this lad ever plays poker. :D

I have been watching a bit of Ronnie v Carter today...what a great talent OSullivan.

Ding beats Ebdon and continues his impressive play..into the quater-finals

Dott may take a break from snooker as his wife Elaine has had a cancer scare.. good luck to Elaine and hope everything is OK!! Dott looked out of sorts against Lee and now I know why..

Ronnie beats Carter and was very impressive!! (I take it he's not depressed here) :rolleyes:

I love the snooker but must admot to havign seen very little of the masters so far, and missed Ding's 147. Well doen to him fo rthat, he is definitely a big name of the future once he's sorted out his lapses and shot selection thoroughly, as he can be lax at times. Very talented young man. :)

My sympthies for Dott, how awful he must feel. :( I hope his wife makes a full recovery. :pray:

Stevens and Hendry just made an Adams and Nixon here. Mathew was 5/0 down came back to 5all and lost the decider.

Good win for Hendry (my old time fave player) B)

When Hendry was 5-0 up, I kept thinking can he close it out... I was soo nervous for him (even though I like Stevens, I wanted Hendry to win), but brilliant play from Stevens... to come back and level it at 5-5, but so pleased Hendry won :bow:
:bow: :bow:

So.. Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Ding Junhui 10-3 in the final.

One of the best performances in terms of sheer break building that I've ever watched.

Had to feel sorry for Ding though. Did very little wrong, and was just overwhelmed by O'Sullivan. Also it was a shame what happened at the end, but hopefully Ding will learn from this and next time he plays in a hostile atmosphere, he'll be able to deal with it better.

what happened at the end?

Poor Ding........but he's had a great week and a 147, I hope this experience does not effect him in the future, great player and and really nice person.... B)

As for Ronnie of course his play was Brilliant and no-one could have won against him tonight.....I use to be a big fan of Ronnie but I went off him after his horrible words against Hendry a couple of years back (NASTY)...

Still not sure what upset Ding (someone in the crowd said something....and Ding seemed to have enough)......

Someone was thrown out in last frame (wass that someone against Ding or Ronnie? I don't know)

All credit to Ding for going back and playing, I am sure Ronnie would not have done that..he would have blamed his depression as usual.. :whistle:

Anyway not the final I was hoping for......

Was glad Ronnie won, let's face it we're gonna be seeing an awful lot of Ding in the future. And obviously his snooker was simply flawless; Ding played well but gradually weakened under the pressure of matching O'Sullivan's consistent frame-winning breaks.

The crowd had a few typical London wideboys who must have wandered in by accident looking for a Millwall match. Ding, being a young Chinese lad, simply wasn't used to their vociferous nature and must have felt like everyone was against him. Real culture shock. He'll get used to it though, this kid's gonna dominate the game like Hendry did in the 90s.

Did Ding give a reason as to why he left the arena? I think he heard something from the crowd.... and then left ...but he will have to get use to this.. or is it because he was overcome with the crowd? I am not sure?? That crowd at times is a disgrace to the other players... I don't like em (no offence to any Ronnie Fans, but he is IMHO a disgrace for pulling out of York, and here given special treatment not to speak to the press......... And no valid reason why? The mind boggles.. one rule for him and another for the other players....... I don't like that or agree with that....Just my thoughts......... :unsure:

They were due to leave the arena anyway as it was the mid-session interval (15 minute break).. but the confusion came from the fact that he went to shake Ronnie's hand (as if the match had finished, or that he was conceding).

The story goes that Ding got confused and thought it was a best of 17 frame match (therefore thinking Ronnie had won at 9-3), when in actual fact it was best of 19.

One of the stories I've heard is that someone in the crowd shouted "Chinese idiot" in his direction (mistakenly believing that because Ding doesn't speak much English he wouldn't have understood the insult anyway)... but he definitely seemed rattled by what happened. I'm all for cheering and shouting for the player you are supporting but cheering when Ding missed pots was just bad sportsmanship and really classless imo. It's the same thing at Wimbledon sometimes when players get cheered when they double fault.

In some ways though it was a good thing. Ding had been criticised by some people for being a bit of a boring player, a robot. But this goes to show that he is indeed a human being that feels emotions and that's what happened at the end of the match. Was good to see Ronnie trying to console him too, I'm sure that Ronnie would want to win the match his own way rather than because Ding had given up.

Ultimately it was a harsh lesson for any young sportsman (let alone one who was in a foreign country thousands of miles away from home) to learn but hopefully in the long run Ding will benefit from this.




No further action on Ding "abuse" : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_spor...ker/6285831.stm

Here's part of Ding's interview after the end of the match.


"My mistake on the pink in frame 6 was crucial. Ronnie cleared and considerably boosted his morale. It was getting hard"

"Afterwards, there was always somebody in the audience abusing me verbally. He was so near me. I don't know who the person was. I felt uncomfortable and thought that audience in China were always friendly to foreign players. On top of this I was behind on the score line (3-7). I couldn't get myself into the match. I didn't know how to play the game anymore."

"The security guard didn't intervene, so I was a bit afraid. This was first time to me, if he had sat at Ronnie's side, I wouldn't be that afraid. On occasions, I nearly couldn't hold myself together, but I thought that I had to finish the match. I tried my best to hold to the end."

"Frame 12, Ronnie won. I thought the suffering was over afterall. I approached Ronnie and shook his hand. However, he said "No, No" immediately to me, and then put his arm around me. He said 'our match is not over, how about let's finish the match.' I nodded and said 'yes'. We went to the dressing room together".

"I told Ronnie that somebody in the audience verbally abused me. He said he heard it as well. He said there were also some fans abusing him when he first came to London, but he worked through it. He accompanied me all the time in the dressing room, and even called the boss of his practice club, a 40/50 years old Chinese from Hong kong, over to comfort me. I was so moved.

"So I was in tears later, but it wasn't because of losing the match."

"Surprisingly, that guy continued his abuse in the final frame. Ronnie and the referee both confronted him."

"I think Ronnie is a very good friend to have. He is very friendly. He asked me to play with him in the future whenever I had a chance to come to London. He said that he likes playing with me."

"Just a bit far away (London). It is indeed a different feeling when playing against him. I can learn a lot from him".

I missed most fo the final, but terrific perfromance form the great Rnnie O, and he plays himslef down so in the interviews. I love Ronnie, lovely man and genius player, well done :bow: :bow: :bow:

On Ding, it ws dissappointing to see him get so down and lose badly, but he has nothign to be ashamed of as the Essex Exocet is unstoppable when he plays like this and better plyers than Ding have lost to him too. I did have doubts over Ding's personality to cope in big presure situations cos he often looks so sad adn lonely. it must be hard coming from such a different culture, but he is a great talent and he will get there in the end. He will need ot develop a bit more personality though to get the Brits to warm to him. I felt so sorry for him though in that match, he looked so sad and wasnt; Ronnie wonderful to him. Ding is a future World Champion in the making. :ok:

There are some wild animals out there. Why could not we simply kick those guys out straight away. This is snooker, played inside and not football a stadium. Ding shoudl learn from Cantona.... a nice kick to sort those pr1cks!