I’m delighted! Ding potted a sensational halflong pressure pink and black in the last frame to seal the deal with a 13-10 scoreline against Mark Selby. What a great day of snooker this was. Two giants of the game playing on the other table, Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, but the first mentioned match was perhaps even more entertaining (at least for me).
Ding dominating the first two sessions oddly enough, seeing as Mark Selby had showed fantastic form up to this clash. After two sessions Ding was 10-6 up and was major favorite to advance to the semi-final. But Mark didn’t give up without a fight and in the final session he took 4 frames on the trot, making it 10-all! He was looking unstoppable and back in prime form, but suddenly he broke down again and kept missing key balls. If you ask me it looked like the nerves was getting to him, but I have a more interesting theory. I think he gets such high expectations of himself whenever he gets on a good run and then loses concentration. He needs to keep his concentration and forget about the past frames. No matter, what’s done is done.
Two cracking semi-finals coming up, Judd Trump vs Ding Junhui and John Higgins vs Mark Williams. At first glance it looks like somebody messed up the seedings and that John or Mark should have been in the other side of the draw, but this is what we’ve got and by no means is it a letdown. I’m not a huge Trump fan, but may I say his game is really impressive right now. He doesn’t seem to be missing anything at the moment, playing attacking and entertaining snooker. I’m just curious to see if he can keep it up throughout the final days of the championship. If he does then 1. we’re in for some cracking snooker and 2. you know, he could go all the way.
Ding is a fighter, this he has shown in the last couple of days. Beating Stuart Bingham 9-12 down to win 13-12, beating a master of the defensive game “Iceman” Mark Selby 13-10 in the quarters. Still, I’m not 100% convinced he can break down the upcoming youngster, we’ll just have to wait and see! Mark and John is also playing solid so that match will be great entertainment. All in all, this years Snooker World Championship has been incredible and will surely be until the very last second.