With today’s quotes from Barry Hearn suggesting that he is keen to revive the snooker World Cup, it seems appropriate to begin assessing the fortunes of snooker’s biggest names this season by nation. I begin therefore by looking at the nation that has provided at least one World Championship finalist in seven of the last ten years – Scotland…
Under normal circumstances it would be appropriate to start with world number one John Higgins and discuss how snooker’s finest player at present is all set for another season of excellence and will be one of the fancied men for each tournament that he enters.
These are however not normal circumstances as the Scot remains suspended due to the infamous News of the World revelations dating back to the World Championship. Having already missed the first two events of the Players Tour Championship and now looking set to be ruled out of the Shanghai Masters and World Open events, his newly regained status as world number one could in fact be short-lived.
Not attempting to pre-judge the case, hypothetically speaking how would Higgins fare should he for example get his season underway at the UK Championship in December? I have no idea whether he has been practising or not this summer, presumably not given that a return to the circuit does not look to be imminent, but either way he will be short on match practice and I would expect him to need some time to find his very best form in 2011. That said, with the increased amount events and the Championship League set to return for a fourth season next year, there is no reason to suggest that he would not be back in touch by the World Championship. Whatever happens, Higgins’ 2010/11 season will be an interesting one to follow…
Moving on, Stephen Maguire may no longer be the world number two but he is the Scottish number two and at 29 years of age some might say that it is time for the Scot to regain the consistency that he showed during the 2007/8 season in which he won two ranking event titles. Last season started well as following laser eye surgery he won the inaugural Pro Challenge Series event and headed to Shanghai with added confidence, but following a shoulder injury which forced him to miss that tournament his season never quite seemed to get going, ending with a heavy defeat to Graeme Dott at the Crucible.
Technically I have few issues with Maguire’s game as he is as good a break-builder as there is at the moment and tactically he is no amateur either. Mentally however he has in the past let his temperament get the better of him and during the past couple of seasons he has rarely looked to have the belief that he can beat the very best players when he has come up against them in the major tournaments. If he can turn the tables and get a couple of big wins under his belt then I would not be surprised to see that belief return and to see him lifting trophies again this season, but that is often easier said than done!
Another player who has struggled to defeat the top players is seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry, though at 41 years old now the reasons for his decline are more varied than a dip in confidence. That said it was evident from a very early stage against Mark Selby at the Crucible this year that for me, he did not truly believe that he could defeat someone of Mark’s calibre the way he was playing. The positive thing for Stephen is that last season he was very efficient when up against the qualifiers and having won all six of his opening round matches, ensured that his ranking would remain stable around the fringes of the top 10. For Hendry though this is not what he plays snooker for and I have no doubt that he will be keen to be making it to the business end of tournaments this season.
The final Scot currently ranked inside the top 16 is Graeme Dott who after a tough period followed by a season of steady progress exploded into form at the World Championship this year. Indeed for me he was probably the best player of the tournament up until his final defeat to Neil Robertson in which he visibly ran out of steam and it was impressive to see him play with the confidence and flair that he did during that fortnight.
Can he keep it up? I would submit that there is no reason why not and I would not be surprised to see him climb back into the top 10 this year, particularly as he had few points to defend from the first half of the 2008/9 season…
Tomorrow sees me look at the Scots ranked outside of the top 16…