After a week of tension and high drama we finally know the identity of the 16 players who will join the games elite in the draw tomorrow and head to the Crucible next weekend with dreams of World Championship glory.
In a world where it seems everything is being reduced to bitesize portions you still can't beat the drama of the longer framed matches and so it proved again here this week with many nail biting finishes.
So after all that who have we left?
Well for starters, in what could be a sign of the way the game is going we'll have 6 players making their Crucible debuts next week.
The biggest headline grabber of them all is probably Jack Lisowski who has seemed of late to be finally moving out of the shadow of his former housemate Judd Trump.Here,although he did trail Fergal O'Brien 2-0,the result was never really in doubt and he comfortably pulled away winning in the end 10-4.You get the feeling this young mans star is just going to keep rising and there will a few of the big guns nervously watching the draw tomorrow hoping to avoid him.
Another man who will be making his debut will be Matthew Selt after he withstood a spirited fightback from Ken Doherty. It had all seemed so simple earlier on for Selt as he moved within one of victory at 9-4,but if there is one thing we have always known about the 1997 champ,it is that he never gives up and slowly he started to come back.In an extraordinary match 9-4 became 9-9 and the Dubliner was on the verge of completing one of the greatest comebacks of all time but somehow Selt managed to hold himself together enough to fall over the line winning 10-9.
Other men who will be making their debuts will be Ben Woollaston who beat former Crucible quarter finalist Ryan Day 10-9,Michael White who beat Andrew Higginson 10-4,Dechawat Poomjaeng who beat Jamie Cope 10-3 and Sam Baird who also beat Joe Perry by 10-3.
There was to be no fairytale Crucible return for Jimmy White as Robert Milkins beat him 10-5 to end his dreams for another year..Jimmy holds a special place in the heart of all snooker fans,especially around World Championship time but in truth he just missed too many today and Milkins is too good a player to be doing that against.
It wasn't all doom and gloom for the veterans though and Alan McManus,who has been playing well of late will be back at at The Crucible for the first time since 2006 after he beat Tom Ford 10-5
Mark Davis,who was knocked down the seedings one place by the return of Ronnie,reached the finals with a 10-6 win over Liang Wenbo.This was no more then Davis deserved after a season that has seen him reach the semi finals of a ranking event for the first time after over twenty years on the circuit.
On the other side of the coin Peter Ebdon has had a nightmare of a season but managed to find a little form here to beat Kurt Maflin in a tough matchplay encounter,eventually winning 10-8
Other familiar names in the draw include Michael Holt who survived seeing his 8-0 lead turn into 9-7 before he finally shook off Mark Joyce,Marco Fu who beat David Gilbert 10-6,Marcus Campbell who beat Liam Highfield 10-4,Dominic Dale who beat Alfie Burden 10-5,Martin Gould who beat Rod Lawler in a marathon 10-7 and in the last match to finish Mark King who scrapped past Yu De Lu 10-9.
All eyes now will turn to the draw that will take place at 1.30 Monday afternoon,then its on the Crucible next Saturday.
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