The Table Really Matters
It's been 3 days since the Betfair World snooker Championship started, and it has amazed us already, with stunning performances from the qualifiers, knocking out 3 top16 players already! As Mark Allen failing to make a comeback in his battle against Mark King this morning(Beijing time, & i got up at 5am), lost 8-10, I happened to realize that there might be something in common with the defeat of the other two big names as MJW and J. Higgins. I'm not defending any one of them or taking down the winners' credit, but I have to say the table really matters.
I'm sure that a lot of fans, whether in the arena or sitting before TVs / computer screens, may have also noticed there big bounces(or kicks) everywhere on both TWO match tables. Even the screen stats started to list out the KICKs encountered by both match players. I can vividly recall that there are several times when Allen, Higgins, MJW's break building was stopped by those unfriendly kicks at a some crucial time in the frame. Not an excuse, it's true~
Nevertheless it's fair to both players, I still have to say that the low ranking players know how to handle this "out of position" situation way better than the top ranking ones, as they are fighting with it all their career and have developed a strong correcting ability due to this 'practice'. On the other hand, the true masters of the game, who prone to simplify their shots with great cueball control and good shot selection, are more likely to make a mistake when going out of position too many times(not once in a while) in a game. Let's look at the data sheet, there are only 7 centuries so far in this World Championship, a strong side proof of my point!
Of course not all of the top players' game would be affected by those KICKs. I say Ronnie and Trump, who have great cue power and like to use stun shot among the other top layers, will probably meet in the final if the table contition stay the same for the rest of the event.
I'd love to see new bloods breaking through in the biggest event of the year for snooker. But I certainly don't want the whole standard be brought down by this KICK problem(i call it facility failure), which keeps surprising us by sending more big names home. So, @WorldSnooker1 please FIX IT, don't let the KICKs ruins our snooker feast~!!!