World Championship 2011 - Day 14 - Who is ready to reach the big final?

Ding Junhui, the man that`s fighting like a dragon

The Crucible magic has overwhelmed us all. It’s impossible to be a snooker fan and not love what’s going on at this moment in Sheffield. It’s absolutely magical! So many drama and emotions, so many dreams that are yet to come true, so many hearts that are beating together for the same goal...it’s bloody amazing! :-))


It’s the Pride and Prejudice of fighting for your dream, is the North and South of climbing the mountain of success, is the War and Peace that makes out of a match a genuine battle of cues, is the dramatic end of Romeo and Juliet story or is the sad song of a Thorne Bird that gives it all for her last way of singing the life, is the new beginning of "Tomorrow is another day" from Gone with the wind, is the courage that makes Don Quixote fight with the windmills or the adventure that Huckleberry Finn dared to take. It’s all about the passion for the art of snooker.

The young but powerful Judd Trump

Yesterday, the magic of the Crucible stunned us once more as the Chinese Ding Junhui put up quite a fight to come back in the match he’s playing with Judd Trump and he even took the lead.


With the first session ended on a 5-3 scoreline, in favor of the youngster from Bristol, the second one seemed to carry on in the same way as the English boy took over the first three frames with runs of 91, 51 and 49. But that was more that Ding could have taken, so he practically stormed in as to level the match at 7-7 and took the lead at 9-7 with (amazingly!) only a top break of 31. It wasn’t be most brilliant comeback in history, because it didn’t have the highest breaks ever, but it was a well-deserved little victory for the Chinese man who was now entering into the third session more confident.


A break of 66 was extending Ding’s dominancy at ten frames to seven, while Trump succeeded to win the next two and reduced the gap at just one point, 9-10. However, Ding knew what a dangerous opponent Trump is that it is for the best to keep him at distance so he hit a break of 77 to restore the two points gap.

The man to play the game of snooker, Mark Williams

But one must never mess with the Juddernaut, as the Bristol boy started potting more of those balls to level the match at 11-11 and to the lead with a break of 123. Still, Ding is not to be underestimated so an 87 was bringing back the equality in the match as the third session came to an end 12-12.


If Mark Williams was the one who dominated the first part of the match he’s played with John Higgins, the second part was going to respect the pattern.


It all started with the Welshman in the lead 5-3 and the first frame was going to extend that lead at 6-3 after just a few minutes. A break of 84 from Higgins was restoring the two points difference, but a strategically 115 hit by Williams was making him fly three points ahead. Still, at the interval, the situation was a bit more stabile as Higgins won the next frame on the black to trail 5-7.

Can the Wizard do some magic to win the match?

After the break, Williams stormed in as to hit a 103 and a tiny 32 to take two consecutive frames and go 9-5 ahead of Higgins. This was bad....this was really bad for the Scotsman. He had to do something! And he did. He uses breaks of 40 and 42 to bring back that “two frame apart” pattern from the beginning of this session, 9-7.


Today we shall find out who are going to be our two finalists and I dare in saying is not going to be an easy task to discover them. They need all the support they can get so you better follow their performance! :-))


10:00 (UK time)


14:30 (UK time)


19:00 (UK time)
* the final session


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