Before we get going,I just want to announce that I've decided to change things up a bit with the blog & it will now be a weekly column concentrating on a different issue within the sport each week,so if anyone has anything they want to see discussed,please leave your suggestion in the comment section or contact me on Twitter @thegreenbaize
Anyway on to the matter in hand and a look back at what we learned over the last week at the Ally Pally.
Well there really is only one place to start & that is with our champion Judd Trump.His 10-4 victory over Ronnie O'Sullivan was as commanding a performance as you are likely to see in a big final and was really just a continuation of what he showed all week. In truth he has looked the likely winner of this tournament from frame one.
Like so many in the past I have been very critical of what appeared to be a lack of respect from Trump for both his talent & the game as a whole, I don't agree with the opinions flying around on social media last night that those suggestions have been proved incorrect,if anything, I think, this week has strengthened that argument. Trump himself has talked about a renewed determination to make the most of his career and the changes he has made really seem to be paying off. Just as the criticisms of the past were well warranted,he equally deserves to be lauded now and will be a force to reckoned with wherever he plays for the rest of the season.
There was also plenty of talk in the aftermath of last nights final that we had just witnessed a "changing of the guard" & "end of an era". I think this may also have been a tad premature.This was Ronnie's 13th final appearance at The Masters and and it would be a brave shout to say it will be his last. If anything,for fans of "The Rocket" seeing how the manner of this defeat seemed to really annoy him last night,it may well spark a renewed effort from him going forward ,even moreso than if he'd coasted to the title here. This one hurt and he'll not want it repeated!
Elsewhere the worrying form of Mark Selby in the "Majors" continued here as after a superb performance in his opening match,he looked all at sea in his quarter final against Trump. This has been a continuation of what we've seen from him over the last season and a half and although he has lifted titles in that time,you have to start wondering are his best days behind him?
Selby turns 36 in June and although snooker has increasingly become an older mans game in the last decade I just don't see him any signs that he can still produce the consistency he once did and in many ways the same applies to Neil Robertson,who turns 37 in a few weeks.Of course such predictions may be made look very silly in the coming months!
On another note,after what has been a very poor spell by his standards, it was great to see Ding Junhui again showing a bit of form. Hopefully he can kick on from here as it would be a real shame to see his career just peter out,without lifting a few more titles and maybe giving the Worlds another good rattle.For all the talk we've heard of the young players from China coming through,Ding is still the undisputed no.1 from that part of the world and the more success he continues to have ,the more the sport there will grow.
Finally just a word on the venue which has become the natural home for this tournament in recent years.Sometimes this sort of "fake auditorium" can really have a poor atmosphere,but here they have somehow managed to make a 2000 seat arena also appear quite intimate. Even watching on tv last week you could cut the tension with a knife at times.Snooker is a sport that really thrives on packed arenas full of people engaged in whats going on.Speaking of which,next stop on the tour is The Tempodrom for The German Masters!
Talk to ye next week.
