I didn’t see any snooker threads, but better late than never.
At the time of writing this, one semi final has been decided and the other is still in play. My thoughts on both:
Zhao Xintong 17 - 7 Ronnie O’ Sullivan
28-year old Zhao’s first time past the first stage of the world championship, and he demolishes arguably the best player to ever pick up a cue. There was a lot of talk of “changing of the guard” but it’s hard to say because Ronnie was completely out of sorts.
Fairplay to Zhao though, whose break-building was top drawer – his potting was crisp and it was amazing how he managed to bring reds into play.
There’s never been a Chinese world champion, so this will be a big deal if he can go one more.
One last comment with this match, I felt that some of the cheering for Ronnie was probably counter-productive. While he was struggling, having people holler out “Come on Ronnie!” after making a trivial pot…it’s almost sarcastic and just serves as a reminder that you must not miss.
Mark Williams 12 - 10 Judd Trump (at time of writing)
The world #1 versus the oldest player (50) to make it to this stage.
A very even, and entertaining match. I’ve always been a fan of Mark Williams, his calm, playful demeanor and yet his play is ruthless and he’s skilled in all facets of the game.
A final between the 50-year old and a somewhat young Chinese talent would be fascinating, but so would be versus the highest ranked player.
That’s a good point, O’Sullivan has clearly been struggling with his form and his mindset, what with him sitting out recent tournaments. So one might hope that reaching the semi-finals in the World Championship might help him get back into a better relationship with his own performance, but instead, he might struggle with failing to live up to audience expectations.
Anyway, I’ll plan to catch as much of the final as I can, besides the whole changing-of-the-guard narrative, first potential Chinese champion versus the class of '92 and so on, both have also been playing brilliant snooker.
Not saying I’m personally a fan of Ronnie, just acknowledging his talent.
But yes, in terms of the GOAT, it’s difficult to compare different eras. Steve has been the first to say that he thinks the modern game has moved on a lot and natural talent has become as important as a solid snooker brain. Hard to say where Steve would be if he had been born in 1995.
In terms of personalities though, yes Steve Davis is a great character and ambassador for the sport. My mom met him and was similarly enamored.
Hendry too. It’s funny that two players often seen as boring are really warm, witty people.
Wow, what a disastrous first session for Mark Williams… I didn’t have time to watch it in full, but what I saw, he never really seemed to find his game. Zhao Xintong on the other hand played a fantastically smooth break, and offered some real jewels, like that combo to take the final frame (although he might not have tried that if he hadn’t been five frames up already). It’s a long distance of course, but Williams has his work cut out for him after this. I remember O’Sullivan coming back from trailing Graeme Dott 6:2 in the WM final, but I don’t believe there have been many similar rallies, or does anyone have some examples?