Premier League - A "Magical" start

05:01:00 Ramona Dragomir 0 Comments

Yesterday, at 19:30 (UK time) the first "stage" of the Premier League kicked off in Southampton. But what really made me happy, was the fact that after all that time of seeing the tournaments so blindly, I finally had the opportunity to watch some snooker on television. And it was great! That’s a fact! It was a very entertaining snooker night, with genuine snooker and many amazing shots. If I were to say only one world which would describe last night, that world will definitely be "Magic". Why? Well, let me tell you a story... :)

"I think I can pot this...yes!"
The first match of the night was the one between Shaun Murphy and the Chinese Ding Junhui; Shaun as the defending champion and Ding as a terrific snooker player, but very much missed in the latest tournaments (due to some visa problems) so...a little bit rusty, I might say.

"What has happened to me?"
The first frame was opened by Ding, who saw himself beat 1-0, although he hit a 51 break and the second one saw Murphy hit a 50 break and turning the score in his favor 2-0. Ding was becoming more and more frustrated (which is really odd to see, since he always has a very severe and "cold" look) but hit in breaks of 65 and 63 and potted an amazing black. After breaking the carambole, he put a red ball exactly on the path to the inferior right pocket and he had to pot the black. So his shot had to be very well calculated and very soft so he wouldn’t touch the red ball, but still manage and pot the black....and he did it! It was amazing! :) So, he changed the scoreline to 2-1. But Murphy " The Magician" hit an amazing 124 break in the forth frame and won the one after that. Ding had some really good opportunities in the last frame, but he missed them, so Murphy hit a beautiful 109 break and ended the match 5-1. The funny thing was that, only the black ball was on the table and since many players tend no to pot it, the referee (the tremendous Paul Collier) was about to announce the winner, when Shaun rushed to the table and potted the last ball standing! Pure class! :)

Hmm....
But the crowd was expecting the second match of the night, the one between Ronnie O` Sullivan (who by the was has withdrawn from the Shanghai Masters, the reason being a little fuzzy so I`ll keep you posted what`s really the deal here) and Marco Fu. It seemed to me that Ronnie was not in a very good mood, but seemed anxious to start the game, as well as Marco.
The first frame started and... continued with a long series of safety-shots. It seemed like no-one was "prepared" to pot the balls, but in the end Marco hit a 63 break and won 1-0. In the second frame, “The Rocket" hit in breaks of 76 and 61 ending on a 137-0 score. Both of the players were at their best, so one frame was won by Ronnie and the next by Marco. When Ronnie was on fire, Marco would sit very quaintly in his chair, with his non-expression look and when Marco was rocking around the snooker table, Ronnie would sit in his chair biting his nails obsessively (as always :P). 

"I`m on fire, baby!"
It was a tremendous night for Ronnie, who hit in breaks of 119 (in the forth frame) and 103 (in the last), the final score being 3-3, so a draw.

It was definitely a very special night and a very good start for the Premier League and all the players have played very well, even Ding had some pretty amazing shots, but in my opinion this was a "magical" night due to Shaun performance. He was playing like a defending champion has to play, with passion and eager to keep his precious trophy/title. He is a true "modern Merlin" of snooker, this magician. :))

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