Players Championship 2023 - Final review

Shaun Murphy 10-Ali Carter

As close to perfection as can be expected from Murphy, making breaks of 145, 141, 112 & 103 and finishing off with a break of 130 to make his fifth century of the final on way to a convincing 10-4 win making up for his defeat in the final of the Welsh Open last week.

Even two failed attempts at maximums didn't stop Murphy making high breaks that he has become known for recently, proof that Murphy is close to returning to the form that helped him claim the masters title in 2015.

Carter will be disappointed with the manner of the defeat but will no doubt take positives from a week that included wins against Trump, Milkins & O'Connor, he'll definitely be aiming to go on a similar run in Sheffield in April.

Bodes well for both players with a few more tournaments coming up before the crucible.

Players Championship 2023 - Semi final review

Ali Carter and Joe O'Connor played what turned out to be one of the matches of the week as although the match wasn't littered with big breaks, majority of frames were tense, tactical and hard fought.

For a casual snooker fan it may not have been a game to remember but even though Carter claimed a 6-4 victory he was pushed to the max by a really likeable, up and coming star in O'Connor who will no doubt take a number of positives from his run this week that seen him claim wins against Mark Allen & Luca Brecel.

From going 4-2 down it really seemed to focus Carter and as he reeled off the last 4 frames to advance to tomorrow's showpiece.

In the second semi final, Shaun Murphys amazing form is showing no sign of slowing down as he reaches his second final in a row after relatively easily coming through 6-3 against Kyren Wilson.

Murphy showed again why he is known for making high breaks with a 135 in the first frame followed by a 137 in frame 4.

It sets up what will no doubt be an intriguing final and a very tough one to call.

Final Prediction
Carter 10-7 Murphy

Players Championship 2023 - Quarter Final review

First quarter final seen two good mates battling it out as Robert Milkins and Ali Carter put their friendship aside for the chance to make it to the semi final.

Unfortunately the match never really sparked into life and was a one sided contest throughout that seen Carter progress comfortably 6-1.

It was a different story between Joe O'Connor & Luca Brecel though, we could see from early on in the match that the contrast in styles was serving up an intriguing contest with it becoming impossible to separate both players, it eventually came to a decider, with both players having opportunities it was O'Connor that took his chance and progressed setting up a semi final clash with Carter.

Without doubt the most impressive performance of the week so far was from Shaun Murphy as he convincingly progressed 6-0 against Ryan Day making 4 centuries and the highest break of the tournament so far (133).

The final quarter final was a Wilson derby between Gary & Kyren. In truth this was a match that never really got going and became a scrappy encounter with both players getting & missing chances in the majority of frames, eventually Kyren progressed 6-1 with a century on the final frame to set up an interesting semi final with Murphy.

Ali Carter 6-1 Robert Milkins
Joe O'Connor 6-5 Luca Brecel
Shaun Murphy 6-0 Ryan Day
Kyren Wilson 6-1 Gary Wilson

Players Championship 2023 - Round 1 review

With no less than 9 centuries, the first round of the players championship may not have boasted the line up that casual snooker fans would expect but it did not disappoint quality-wise.

This tournament includes the top 16 players in the one year rankings so it's no surprise that all players on show are in form and more than capable of beating there opponent.

This was evident when number one seed Mark Allen was convincingly beaten 6-3 by Scottish Open runner up Joe O'Connor, on the same evening Ryan Day advanced with minimum fuss against shoot-out champion Chris Wakelin on a scoreline of 6-2.

Day two started off with a heavyweight clash of two players that know each other inside out in Mark Selby & Shaun Murphy, it was Murphy who continued his excellent form that brought him to the final of the Welsh open to prevail 6-3, at the same time Kyren Wilson looked in great form when making two centuries on his way to beating Zhou Yuelong 6-2.

At this stage, the lack of close matches may have caused fans to be disappointed but that was about to change, both Trump/Carter & Milkins/Ford went the distance and where very enjoyable from start to finish with big breaks & tactical battles on show, it was Carter & Milkins that eventually prevailed from their respective battles to set up a quarter final showdown.

On Day 3 and the final day of first round matches, it was time for Lisowski/Brecel & Ding/G.Wilson to hit the baize, with the first four frames of Lisowski/Brecel being shared and going by in a flash it was no surprise to see both players being tied at 4-4, with a decider looking ominous, it was Brecel that took the game by the scruff of the neck to impressively claim the final 2 frames and win 6-4.

On the other table it was Gary Wilson that dominated proceedings and ran into a 5-1 lead, Ding however made a mini comeback to 5-3 but eventually Wilson crossed the line for 6-3 win.

Round 1 results:

Joe O'Connor 6-3 Mark Allen

Ryan Day 6-2 Chris Wakelin

Shaun Murphy 6-3 Mark Selby

Kyren Wilson 6-2 Zhou Yuelong

Ali Carter 6-5 Judd Trump

Robert Milkins 6-5 Tom Ford

Luca Brecel 6-4 Jack Lisowski

Gary Wilson 6-3 Ding Junhui

LIVE Players Championship 2023

With so many of the so called "big players" missing out, the players championship is an opportunity for this years top 16 form players to establish themselves among the sports elite.

First round draw: 

Best of 11 frames

20/02/23

7pm: 

Mark Allen 3-6 Joe O'Connor

Ryan Day 6-2 Chris Wakelin

21/02/23

1pm: 

Kyren Wilson 6-2 Zhou Yuelong

Commanding victory for Wilson

Mark Selby 3-6 Shaun Murphy

Murphy dominates to reach another quarter final 

7pm:

Ali Carter 6-5 Judd Trump

Second decider of the night goes the way of Carter

Robert Milkins 6-5 Tom Ford

Milkins continues his great form from last week

22/02/23

1pm:

Luca Brecel 6-4 Jack Lisowski

Impressive win for Brecel

Ding Junhui 3-6 Gary Wilson

Convincing win for Wilson

Quarter Final

22/02/23

7pm

Ali Carter 6-1 Robert Milkins

Carter in control from start to finish claims a semi final spot

23/02/23

1pm

Joe O'Connor 6-5 Luca Brecel

Huge win for O'Connor via a decider

7pm

Shaun Murphy 6-0 Ryan Day

4 centuries in a top class performance from Murphy

24/02/23

1pm

Kyren Wilson 6-1 Gary Wilson

Scrappy game but good impressive at times from Kyren

Semi Final

24/02/23

7pm

Joe O'Connor 4-6 Ali Carter (Latest)

Carter prevails in a marathon

25/02/23

1pm

Kyren Wilson 3-6 Shaun Murphy

Murphy outclasses Wilson to make tomorrow's final

26/02/23

1pm & 7pm

Ali Carter 3-8 Shaun Murphy (Latest)

Welsh Open 2023

Review

13-19 February 2023

From Day one in Llandudno we got a feeling that this would be a tournament that the big guns would dominate as we seen O'Sullivan, Robertson, Higgins, Trump & Allen among others progress with minimum fuss.

This however was far from how the tournament played out and it wasn't long before top seeds began to exit the tournament, It was Day 2 of the event when Robertson, Williams & Ding Junhui were all sent home following 1st round losses.

It was the last 32 when the tournament really began to take shape, there were notable wins for Daniel Wells (V Trump), Robert Milkins (V Selby) & Tian Pengfei (V Carter), this meant sections of the draw began to open up and players such as Robbie Williams, Jak Jones & Yuan Sijun could sense there was an opportunity to progress further in a ranking event.

With world number 1 Ronnie O'Sullivan having tip problems all week, it was hard to predict if/when they would eventually halt is progression in the tournament but he progressed to the quarter final with ease as he defeated Belgian youngster Ben Mertens.

Quarter finals produced two whitewashes as Shaun Murphy (V Sijun) & Tian Pengfei (V O'Sullivan) progressed to the semi finals with ease, it was also a shock to see Robert Milkins convincingly defeat player of the season so far Mark Allen 5-1, In the last quarter final, Pang Junxu made his fist ranking event semi final winning a decider against Joe O'Connor while producing a magnificent 124 break in the final frame.

Although the standard of each quarter final may not have been the highest, we did get to see perfection in frame 3 of Murphy Sijun as the Englishman produced a maximum 147 break, the 7th of his career so far.

So it was down to the semi finals and an unlikely final four with two of the players (Pengfei & Junxu) reaching their first ranking event semi finals, big games for both.

First semi final between Milkins & Pengfei was a scrappy affair where Milkins took control from the outset and continued on to finish off 6-2 winner.

The second semi final was far closer than the score line suggests, Murphy eventually ran out a 6-3 winner but Junxu performed really well considering it was the first ranking event semi final the Chinese player has reached to date.

At times during the tournament the standard may have not lived up to expectation, but the final between Murphy and Milkins really made up for the lack of quality at times during the week, with 13 breaks over 50 in the 16 frames played.

In the end, it was by far Milkins biggest career win as he prevailed 9-7 to also claim the Bet Victor series and take winnings of €230,000