Day four at Prestatyn as the final qualifying round before the final stages in Glasgow gets underway and already we are seeing some surprising scorelines coming through. Click below to read what has happened so far in the morning session:
Tag: Ken Doherty
Belgian Open 2008: Last 16 confirmed
Day two of the Belgian Open is complete and here are the scores from the first of the knockout matches to be played today as stated here:
Last 48:
John Parrott MBE 3-0 Stein De Sterck
Danny Lathouwers 2-3 Dave Harold
Kevin Van Hove 1-3 Speltincx Mario Geudens
Johan D’Hondt 3-1 Nick Vanhee
Alain Vandersteen 3-1 Guy Hendrickx
Yannick Poulain 1-3 Ricky Walden
Tom Ford 3-1 Luca Brecel
Julius Grauls 3-1 Anthony Van Loocke
Stefan Mazrocis 3-0 Gregory Kopec
Steve Lemmens 3-0 Jurgen Van Roy
Andrew Higginson 1-3 Jamie Cope
Chris Henry 0-3 Michael Holt
Lasse Münstermann 3-1 Jurgen Van den Bossche
Yvan Van Velthoven 0-3 Gerard Greene
Dominic Dale 3-0 Tino De Witte
Kasra Khavaran 3-0 Marc Dierens
Last 32:
Mark Selby 3-0 John Parrott MBE
Barry Hawkins 1-3 Dave Harold
Mark Davis 3-0 Mario Geudens
Mark King 3-1 Johan D’Hondt
Neil Robertson 3-0 Alain Vandersteen
Bjorn Haneveer 0-3 Ricky Walden
Jimmy Michie 0-3 Tom Ford
Ryan Day 3-2 Julius Grauls
Stephen Maguire 3-0 Stefan Mazrocis
Matthew Stevens 3-0 Steve Lemmens
Ken Doherty 2-3 Jamie Cope
Joe Perry 3-0 Michael Holt
Graeme Dott 3-0 Lasse Münstermann
Stuart Bingham 2-3 Gerard Greene
Mark J Williams MBE 3-1 Dominic Dale
Shaun Murphy 3-2 Kasra Khavaran
With all of the local amateur players unfortunately now out of the tournament, this at least leaves a mouthwatering line-up in the last 16 tomorrow morning. With the lowest ranked player still in the tournament being the in-form world number 58 Mark Davis, the final day should be the best yet.
Last 16 lineup:
Mark Selby v Dave Harold
Mark Davis v Mark King
Neil Robertson v Ricky Walden
Stephen Maguire v Matthew Stevens
Jamie Cope v Joe Perry
Graeme Dott v Gerard Greene
Mark J Williams MBE v Shaun Murphy
As a side issue, the highest break of the tournament remains the 142 made by Australia’s Neil Robertson on day one.
Belgian Open 2008: Day One Results
Thanks to DerMoment1608 over at The Snooker Forum, I now have access to the results and high breaks from yesterday’s action in Belgium. To view them, please click here to visit the Snookermania forums.
As far as big breaks go, the highlights of the day were Neil Robertson’s excellent 142 break in the afternoon as well as Mark Selby’s attempt at a maximum earlier in the day.
The big result however was the victory of local player Jurgen Van Roy against 1991 World Champion John Parrott in what was the upset of the day. Although Parrott is not ranked as highly as he once used to be, Jurgen must have been delighted to have won the match 2-1 and give the Belgian supporters something to celebrate.
Today the final matches will be played and the places in the next round confirmed so check back later to see how things have finished up.
Belgian Open 2008: Draw and playing times
So today marks the start of the Belgian Open 2008 and here is a link to the draw for the tournament. Note that the top two from each group will progress to the last 32 stage which will begin tomorrow.
Also available for the tournament is a list of playing times for each of the players involved in the group stage. To view that please click here.
And once again to learn about how to watch the event online, please click here for my previous post on the tournament.
I imagine that the Global Snooker Centre will be the first place to provide live scores so keep checking back there to see what is going on. The most interesting story from the first morning appears that Mark Selby was close to a maximum break early on in his first match, what a start to the event that would have been!
Since that point, Neil Robertson has knocked in a 142 to make what I believe to be the highest break of the day so far.
Having trouble finding the full results and latest tables so it’s probably best to keep an eye on GSC for now…
Pot Black Axe Confirmed
Following the omission of the tournament from the calendar on the recently re-launched World Snooker website, it has been confirmed by Dave Hendon of Snooker Scene in his blog that Pot Black will not take place this year.
It is a shame in some ways that the event last won by Ireland’s Ken Doherty has been discontinued after just three years. When Doherty won the event, despite it not being a major ranking event or a tournament run over a long distance, the victory clearly meant a lot to him. Given that many of the older players now will have grown up watching the event when they were youngsters it is easy to see why it would be such a thrill to have their names on the trophy now.
In addition the tournament was also a chance for the players to play in a relaxed environment and be able to express themselves a bit more. From the TV interviews that have been given during the event over the last few years it is clear that those taking part enjoyed themselves as I’m sure did those attending in the audience.
Hopefully the tournament can return once again in the future in some form or another.
Heads up: Belgian Open 2008
Details have emerged regarding the 2008 Belgium Open, an invitational tournament featuring some of the best players in the world that will be staged from the 19th to the 21st of September.
Official Press Release:
Belgian Open Snooker Live on Your Computer Screen!
For the first time in the history of snooker, a non-televised national snooker event will be broadcast live on the internet in what promises to be the beginning of a new era for the game.
CueSport TV, the world’s first online dedicated cuesport channel has teamed up with Connect Management and MaXimumbreak Snooker to broadcast the Belgium Open live from 19th – 21st September at the Tennis Centre in Duffel. The world’s best snooker players including John Higgins, Mark Selby, Steven Maguire, Shaun Murphy, Ken Doherty, Matthew Stevens, Jimmy Michie and Tony Drago and others will compete for the 20,000 Euro prize pot.
Neil Cummins, Managing Director of MaXimumbreak.com commented ‘The future of snooker coaching and development is most definitely with the internet and this is a unique opportunity to watch the world’s best snooker players competing in an event that snooker players would otherwise not be able to see so we are naturally delighted to be involved’.
Full coverage of the event is available for just £8.00 (€10.00, $15.00). The pay-per-view tickets are sold online via the CueSport TV portal.
Cuesport TV, which was officially launched in February 2008 has 10,000 unique viewers per month with viewers from 110 countries worldwide. Together, MaXimumbreak, Cuesport TV and Connect Management aim to bring many more snooker events to viewers on a global scale including the Austrian Open in October.
About MaXimumbreak Snooker
Founded in 2003, MaXimumbreak Snooker is an online snooker resource aimed at developing
the game of snooker globally and improving snooker ability.Cue Sport players are invited to be able to find a snooker coach in a professional snooker coaching database and to hire professional snooker players for exhibition matches and corporate events. A wealth of snooker coaching information is freely available at www.maximumbreak.com.
About CueSport TV
CueSport TV is the world’s only multi-discipline Cue Sports TV channel that offer’s coverage of pool, snooker and billiards through a 24/7 free-to-air schedule and video on demand.
The unique nature of the system means that a viewers Internet connection speed is detected on first visit. This allows the TV platform to serve a video file that is suitable for the connection, with CueSport TV you will not experience buffering or loading and most connection speeds can watch on full screen.
About Connect Management
Connect Management provides consultancy to elite athletes and businessmen. The highly competitive nature of elite sport means that the careers of sports people are usually restricted to the short term, therefore, Connect advises on tax and investment related issues.Connect is responsible for the management of leading UK snooker players, Jimmy Michie, Tom Ford and Mark King, all of whom will be competing in the Belgium Open.
Ticket Info
If you want to go one better and attend the matches in person however, tickets can be purchased from here and a full seating chart is also available on the relevant Connect Management page here.
Roewe Shanghai Masters Qualifying Quotes Round-up
Here are a selection of quotes from the players following the final qualifying matches for Shanghai yesterday as reported on SkySports.
Jimmy White:
“I played very well, I had to if I wanted to beat Ken,”
“I was very solid today and it’s great to have qualified for the first two events.
“I’ve got used to the conditions at Pontin’s now, which is important as the guys who play here all the time have an edge.
“I’m looking forward to China because snooker is very popular there, although to be honest I’m enjoying the game so much at the moment it doesn’t matter where I play.”
Ken Doherty:
“It’s a bad result, it was a baptism of fire for me,”
“Jimmy got off to a flyer and I was always playing catch-up. It’s hard coming here, you have to get your hands dirty and get on with it, but fair play to Jimmy because he deserved to win.”
Steve Davis:
“Any win is a good win,”
“I wasn’t expecting too much and Gerard was probably favourite having played a match here yesterday. But he didn’t play great today.
“It’s funny to be here and see people like Jimmy, Ken, Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens. I looked at the monitor where all the matches are listed and thought ‘wow, there’s some fantastic games on today’.”
Anthony Hamilton:
“I played solid, but a 5-1 scoreline was a hit flattering,”
“It could have easily been 2-2 at the interval, but I stuck in there and didn’t give him many chances. It really wasn’t as comfortable as 5-1 suggests, but you’ve got to win those scrappy frames. Once I’d won them I started to play a lot better.”
And Dave Harold told The Sentinel:
“It was a little bit of a shock to the system going back to Pontin’s, especially having reached the final in Belfast,”
“In Belfast I played in front of a big crowd, but there was no one in the crowd here.
“But I’m so used to playing here that I knew what I had to do. I played solidly, it was another good win for me.”
“I was feeling the pressure. Everyone expects you to win because of what I achieved in Belfast,” added Harold.
“But I played well from the word go. I twitched a little bit to get over the winning line, but there were no scares.”
“It’s tremendous to have qualified for Shanghai for the second season in a row. I’m looking forward to playing Ding.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. To qualify for the first two ranking events has been great – and of course getting to the final in Belfast.”