Tomorrow sees the conclusion of the first event of the 2012/13 APTC series and for all of the early upsets, the winner will be a main tour professional as the field has been narrowed down to just four. Click below for that, details of the century breaks made so far in the tournament and more…
Photo by Stuart Bingham
- Click here to view all of the results from APTC1 so far
- Click here to view the latest projected seedings
Ahead of the start of the tournament I referred to some of the big names in the event as being Mark Williams, Stephen Maguire and Stephen Lee, something which was commented on by another top 16 player in the form of Stuart Bingham on Twitter and the defending Australian Goldfields Open has so far proven his worth by making it to the semi-finals in Zhangjiagang.
Having seen off Yang Qingtian in a close first match, he followed that win up with further victories against Jin Long and Lin Shuai to reach the quarter-finals where he defeated China’s number one player Ding Junhui in a deciding-frame. With two centuries along to way following his triumph in the recent Pink Ribbon tournament, Stuart appears to be one of the form players at this stage of the season and with his victories today, moves up three places on the projected seedings list to 14th, demonstrating the potential importance of playing in these events.
His next opponent will be Welshman Michael White, who added victories against professional duo Zhang Anda and notably two-time former world champion Mark Williams to his previous wins in the competition to reach the last four. Having recently qualified for his first major venue, the upcoming Wuxi Classic, Michael has put himself into contention for a place in the top 48 at the next seedings revision and who knows, perhaps is showing signs of breaking through in a way similar to compatriot Jamie Jones. Time will tell.
The second semi-final meanwhile will be contested between Stephen Lee, the highest ranked player remaining in the event, and Chen Zhe, the Chinese youngster having seen off Leicester duo Tom Ford and Ben Woollaston today. Lee’s biggest scalp meanwhile was the highly rated Tian Pengfei, which followed three victories against Chinese amateurs.
Aside from the results, a number of people have queried the century breaks made so far at the event, something which up until today had been something of a mystery, but the good news for statisticians out there is that the nice people at SportStat today linked the following tally on Twitter:
Cai Jianzhong – 127
Mark Williams – 119
Dominic Dale – 116
Stephen Lee – 112
Stuart Bingham – 112
Tom Ford – 114
Michael White – 109
Robert Milkins – 107
Michael White – 105
Stuart Bingham – 104
Chen Zhe – 102
Ding Junhui – 102
Michael White – 100
Also published today was the draw for the Sangsom Six-Red World Championship which was made in Thailand yesterday, which you can access here (pdf). With 11 top 16 players involved, as well as a string of further players who are either professional or former professional, the field is a relatively strong one and the action gets underway on the 2nd July 2012.
More immediately, the season’s first full-ranking event tournament, the Wuxi Classic, gets underway next Monday and the news is that world number two Judd Trump is for whatever reason, struggling to obtain a visa for the event. My full tournament preview will follow this weekend, but on the subject of visas, I am curious as to exactly how the system works and as to why in snooker there seems to be continual problems with problems obtaining them. If anyone could shed any light on the situation, feel free to email me at the usual address, or leave a comment below…