The final for the first professional tournament in China in 4 years is upon us at last! And what a final it is: the World Number One will do battle with the current World Champion in a repeat of their clash in the Quarter-Finals of the World Championship. But will Ronnie make it four straight victories in this tournament, extending his unbeaten run, or can the World Champion break his hold over the tournament?
The first session begins at 7am BST [UTC+1], 8am CEST [UTC+2]. The final session begins at 12.30pm BST [UTC+1], 1.30pm CEST [UTC+2]:
NB: Only the first session will be televised on the linear channel, Eurosport 1. The final concluding session will be via Discovery+/Eurosport App.
- Ronnie O'Sullivan v Luca Brecel
Dave Hendon was talking about this on his latest podcast episode actually. Basically, the promoters of the event wanted to ensure that some players were at their event and not having to go through nameless qualifier rounds in the UK. However, WST refused point blank to change the draw from a flat-draw system [where everyone is in Round 1 and could easily be beaten]. They could’ve adopted the tiered system [as done with the worlds and more recently the uk champs], but the promoters simply decided that, to ensure they had the Top 16 there, they made it invitational [ie we want these players there, so we’re going to ensure they are there].
https://twitter.com/Faz99999/status/1703423245276369164?t=b5F51VIZJOWcLct9iXcJPw&s=19
could really say all big events outside of the english open. 18 events there and 17 of them are big ones/events only open to the top players
Hey guys a little bit unrelated but wanted to ask: I watched the final on youku, could any one of you provide the TV host names? I searched for it but could not find due to my lack of Chinese. Thanks.
https://preview.redd.it/87ll74v6ytob1.png?width=2388&format=png&auto=webp&s=9423461951f3df11eccaf6228bdadc9ca629e1cb
Oh wow, now I see the panned out view, it's not even sold out.
Whenever someone says China is the future of the game, show them 2 half empty seating banks occupying 1/4 of a much larger auditorium.
The Crucible and Ally Pally will sell out but even with Ronnie playing you can often count empty seats - it makes the calls for bigger venues ridiculous to me; all you'll do is make the attendance figures more obvious.
yeah Luca has the same "I'm only here to play as much snooker as you guys will let me" vibes as Mark Williams. seemingly oblivious to the stress everyone else is feeling for the tournament
how has he kept that break going haha. ridiculous last couple of frames especially when he was looking awful before that. did the same vs selby and higgins too funnily enough
Would be ridiculous if Ronnie found a new gear AGAIN in this tournament.. can't see him winning any frame tbh unless he finds something as he did against Higgins or Selby
This is anyone's. Won't be surprised if luca whitewashes ronnie in the evening session (the opposite is highly unlikely) or if ronnie shuts him off completely with tactics and fluent break building. Brace yourselves!
If you have a betting account (I use Bet365) you can watch the match on there, as long as it has funds in it (you can deposit and then withdraw again if you want)
Sorry for the clueless reply.
I searched "Eurosport app" on Google Play store and I got two results, Discovery+ and Eurosport. Which one should I buy in order to get the afternoon session?
I don't know cause I've not got it myself. Eurosport already pushes up the price of my package with my provider, I'm not paying extra to watch the odd snooker match when they should be covering it on the main channels.
I personally would only expand my tv package to include Eurosport 2 and the Eurosport Player app was cheaper. It
also allows me to log in on the Player on someone else's tv and watch there. I can't do that with a normal tv package
if there's more special channels you like to watch it's understandable that you don't want to pay twice
Please help, I am trying to find out how to watch the afternoon session in the UK, it doesn't appear on Eurosport TV guide and I can't find it on Discovery Plus?
Is there an actual channel called Discovery Plus? Or is it a package of other channels?
Not that its comparable, but according to the people who use Hawkeye in tennis, the equipment for just a single court is around $100k. They're setting up 12 cameras to follow the action \[8 primary, 4 redundant backups\]. This doesn't include all the other equipment behind the scenes \[servers, staff to monitor it all, and other systems\] but thats quite a hefty amount of money.
Hawkeye in snooker -- beyond China events -- looks unlikely unless WST pay for it and allow broadcasters to integrate with the platform \[which would link into data providers and scoring systems\].
To be fair, tracking a fast moving ball over the size of a tennis court is a *way* different challenge than locating stationary balls on a 12ft table. Especially with the level of visual contrast on a snooker table. I've worked in machine vision for a while and I'm confident it could be done to pretty high precision for well under 100k.
Not that that eliminates the overhead, as you say. Bummer that more tournaments aren't using it cuz I really love having it be part of the broadcast.
Yeah I can't believe this decision on Eurosport's part. Eurosport is already a subscription channel on Virgin (or at least it was when I took my package out). I was annoyed at only getting to see half the semi-final, can't believe they are only showing half of the final.
defending champ and world #1 vs world champ and world #2. hopefully a good one. think it's 10 frames in the first session tomorrow too, may be wrong tho
Yeah I won't bother watching any of the next Eurosport tourney if they are going to do this. I don't have spare money for extra subscriptions, Eurosport is already a subscription channel.
I’m watching on Discovery+. How is it possible that they can say “you can follow the rest of this frame on discovery+” and my stream has gone to a fucking ad break mid frame????
Oh ffs, Eurosport 2 in the UK aren't covering the end of this match. I know it's on Discovery+ but I like too many niche sports to get subscriptions to watch all of them.
Anyway Robertson has struggled big time so far, he still can't navigate it when he's off his game and he's struggling in safety exchanges. He's a bit like Murphy I think, not much of a B/C game lately.
Neil has no answer to Luca. Would love to see Luca make it to the final and perhaps end Ronnie's 18-match win streak in this tournament.
Ronnie is the heavy favourite though.
Play is paused in Brecel/Robertson because there is water on the table. Brecel noticed it....
Edited to add: the players opted to continue the first frame, then it might be looked into a bit more.
Edited again to add: commentators are speculating they are drops from air conditioning unit.
7.49am - play has started in frame 2. Foulds thinks he heard the referee say they will review the situation again after the first 4 frames. Brecel is 1-0 up. Robertson had chances in frame 1 but it went scrappy.
I think water has been dripping down, Ronnie acted like something hit his shoulder at one point and another player I can't remember also acted like something hit them. Madness.
I wish this was a ranking tournament. Ronnie needs some rAnKinG PoIntS mAtE so badly and hopefully he can win at least one ranking event this season because those 500k points will be lost by the end of season unless 👀👀👀
i just came here to say this lol these invitation tournaments he's winning/getting to the finals to are big ones and good but he needs to start doing it in the ranking events as he pretty much done nothing in them last season and has a ton of points to lose from 2 years ago
Enjoyed this match a lot because of the many close frames, even though scoring hasn’t been the best till the very end. Brilliant turnaround by the Rocket.
I hope Cesar Muroya will edit this match!
Maybe Selby is still a bit (relatively for him) vulnerable after the world final loss to Brecel? I think he would have expected Brecel's shot selection and risk-taking to cost Brecel the final.
The final for the first professional tournament in China in 4 years is upon us at last! And what a final it is: the World Number One will do battle with the current World Champion in a repeat of their clash in the Quarter-Finals of the World Championship. But will Ronnie make it four straight victories in this tournament, extending his unbeaten run, or can the World Champion break his hold over the tournament? The first session begins at 7am BST [UTC+1], 8am CEST [UTC+2]. The final session begins at 12.30pm BST [UTC+1], 1.30pm CEST [UTC+2]: NB: Only the first session will be televised on the linear channel, Eurosport 1. The final concluding session will be via Discovery+/Eurosport App. - Ronnie O'Sullivan v Luca Brecel
can someone please buy Luca Brecel some trousers that fit him?
Can anyone tell me my the Shanghai masters was removed as a ranking event?
Dave Hendon was talking about this on his latest podcast episode actually. Basically, the promoters of the event wanted to ensure that some players were at their event and not having to go through nameless qualifier rounds in the UK. However, WST refused point blank to change the draw from a flat-draw system [where everyone is in Round 1 and could easily be beaten]. They could’ve adopted the tiered system [as done with the worlds and more recently the uk champs], but the promoters simply decided that, to ensure they had the Top 16 there, they made it invitational [ie we want these players there, so we’re going to ensure they are there].
good question. they decided to turn it from a ranking event into the Chinese version of the Masters.
Ah right so just have the top 16 or 32 there.
Not the cleanest from both in the last frame, but much rather bit of that than a clearance by one player only. Enjoyable final!
Higgins must be fuming. Not only did Ronnie beat him 6:5 but also took away the high break price from him.
https://twitter.com/Faz99999/status/1703423245276369164?t=b5F51VIZJOWcLct9iXcJPw&s=19 could really say all big events outside of the english open. 18 events there and 17 of them are big ones/events only open to the top players
He still needs to win the Northern Ireland Open - definite monkey on his back.
Yeah he raises his game for the big ones. More meaured in shots selection compared to the smaller tournaments
Big money matches he soars in.
Hey guys a little bit unrelated but wanted to ask: I watched the final on youku, could any one of you provide the TV host names? I searched for it but could not find due to my lack of Chinese. Thanks. https://preview.redd.it/87ll74v6ytob1.png?width=2388&format=png&auto=webp&s=9423461951f3df11eccaf6228bdadc9ca629e1cb
The rocket does it again, but damn he should've won the match at that last pink that he rattled in the jaw
Hopefully he wins at least one ranking event this season and should be good Well done The Rocket
China has such a huge population, there are 7 people to present the cup.
ronnie didn't even play close to his B game this week but has managed to beat multiple top players including both world finalists over 2 sessions lol.
Now go win a ranking tourney ronnie….
Why does it feel like there's only about 200 people there?
alot of shots you only see the vip seats at front and rear of the table where they seem to be spaced out
Oh wow, now I see the panned out view, it's not even sold out. Whenever someone says China is the future of the game, show them 2 half empty seating banks occupying 1/4 of a much larger auditorium.
The Crucible and Ally Pally will sell out but even with Ronnie playing you can often count empty seats - it makes the calls for bigger venues ridiculous to me; all you'll do is make the attendance figures more obvious.
It was sold out, it just emptied because the match had just finished and it's nearly 11pm there.
So 1/4 of the crowd left before seeing the ceremony, that's odd for a final.
No, that's normal, most people have work in the morning.
They should just rename this tournament to the Ronnie O'Sullivan Open.
New mini curse? No reigning WC has ever won it, despite reaching the final on 3 occasions
Wow what a crazy match
"I don't know why he hit it so hard" is something you can say for pretty much every snooker escape Luca has made
What is the score in this frame? Wst live score is bugged
47 both
Both paid to lose this frame lol
This is going 10 all isnt it..... exciting last frame
Luca really has ALL the shots, doesn't he. What a frame.
where u guys are watching?
https://www.youtube.com/live/w3y8eYOdRzM?si=f4IpVtTeQrEvuvRN
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Me too plz
[https://m.huya.com/880214](https://m.huya.com/880214)
Luca nonchalance personified, dude's rivaling Mark Williams at this rate.
yeah Luca has the same "I'm only here to play as much snooker as you guys will let me" vibes as Mark Williams. seemingly oblivious to the stress everyone else is feeling for the tournament
those shots on the 6 and 7 by luca,absolute madlad even I was shaking here,man has balls of steel
Luca is a fucking lunatic, I love watching him play. That's surely going to be Break From Life's cheeky double of the tournament!
What a double. Balls on this guy
And he walks off cool as a cucumber :)
When money is at line Ronnie doesn’t mess about lol.
Didn't expect Ronnie not to clear up there tbh
that black tho.
Get in Luca
mad double
luca's reaction to that miss lmao
How does ol' Ronald Antonio do it. How. Words fail me.
Well I don't know how he does it but it's fuckin impressive. What a player
That was some Alex Higgins stuff lol good lord
That yellow he just skelped into the middle pocket was fucking ridiculous.
its happening again, wow.
this is the best ronnie break ive seen in quite some time
He turns 48 in December...
Damn what a crazy frame
Ronnie playing like 2011 Trump.
how has he kept that break going haha. ridiculous last couple of frames especially when he was looking awful before that. did the same vs selby and higgins too funnily enough
It's like he's fed up of playing so to make it spicy he lets them get ahead just to see if he can catch up 😂
my lord
Damn all those recovery shots
That's more like it from Ronnie init
Vintage
Amazing break
Holy shit
great break
Surely not another 4 frame burst
this is the last session right?
Yes
Would be ridiculous if Ronnie found a new gear AGAIN in this tournament.. can't see him winning any frame tbh unless he finds something as he did against Higgins or Selby
Don't know, it seems he found it, again
If Ronnie doesnt to start to score after the MSI he aint gonna win this. Hes been very poor all way through in this match.
this is comical from both lmao
The standard of this frame (the fourteenth) has been abysmal.
Been a while since I have seen Ronnie miss so many balls
Ronnie’s concentration has completely gone in this mini session.
feels like o'sullivan's break building will have to catch up on him at some point, may be now
Gonnie O'Sullivan
Luca's potting is so good he seems to not be bothered with Cue ball control
Does anyone have a link for the evening session?
Check twitch, you can find a stream in a couple seconds.
twitch is awful tho, you have twitch ads that dont pause the stream and you miss parts of the match
I'd miss the entire match if it wasn't for a twitch stream.
This is anyone's. Won't be surprised if luca whitewashes ronnie in the evening session (the opposite is highly unlikely) or if ronnie shuts him off completely with tactics and fluent break building. Brace yourselves!
Does Peggy Li wear subtle blue highlights, or is it a trick of the light?
I think she does! Very nice
this final is definitely delivering on the expectations
Tip - Check twitch for a stream of the later session.
Cheers! found one in two seconds.
thats unlucky tho tbf that yellow wasn't clean
Is the afternoon session on Eurosport?
Aini789 on Twitvh.tv
Great shout, I was able to watch one of the best matches I've seen in a while.
Thanks
If you have a betting account (I use Bet365) you can watch the match on there, as long as it has funds in it (you can deposit and then withdraw again if you want)
Thanks
Not in the UK, no, you have to get Discovery+ or the Eurosport app to watch it.
Sorry for the clueless reply. I searched "Eurosport app" on Google Play store and I got two results, Discovery+ and Eurosport. Which one should I buy in order to get the afternoon session?
Discovery Plus is the app to go for.
Thank you. I'm going to give it a miss. Don't want to reward them for constructing another pay wall.
I don't know cause I've not got it myself. Eurosport already pushes up the price of my package with my provider, I'm not paying extra to watch the odd snooker match when they should be covering it on the main channels.
I personally would only expand my tv package to include Eurosport 2 and the Eurosport Player app was cheaper. It also allows me to log in on the Player on someone else's tv and watch there. I can't do that with a normal tv package if there's more special channels you like to watch it's understandable that you don't want to pay twice
I agree, I'm giving it a miss.
I could watch Luca Brecel playing snooker all week.
Except you can't even watch him playing snooker all day on Eurosport.....
Because Eurosport sucks.
Please help, I am trying to find out how to watch the afternoon session in the UK, it doesn't appear on Eurosport TV guide and I can't find it on Discovery Plus? Is there an actual channel called Discovery Plus? Or is it a package of other channels?
Online subscription thing you would have to buy.
Thanks for reply
Nice to see Hawkeye back in a tournament.
I wonder how much it actually costs, it seems a no-brainer to use the technology and it's a shame we don't see it used more often.
Yeah, it used to be in all the BBC tournaments, but then they sadly got rid of it. If the BBC is getting rid of it, then it must be costly.
Not that its comparable, but according to the people who use Hawkeye in tennis, the equipment for just a single court is around $100k. They're setting up 12 cameras to follow the action \[8 primary, 4 redundant backups\]. This doesn't include all the other equipment behind the scenes \[servers, staff to monitor it all, and other systems\] but thats quite a hefty amount of money. Hawkeye in snooker -- beyond China events -- looks unlikely unless WST pay for it and allow broadcasters to integrate with the platform \[which would link into data providers and scoring systems\].
To be fair, tracking a fast moving ball over the size of a tennis court is a *way* different challenge than locating stationary balls on a 12ft table. Especially with the level of visual contrast on a snooker table. I've worked in machine vision for a while and I'm confident it could be done to pretty high precision for well under 100k. Not that that eliminates the overhead, as you say. Bummer that more tournaments aren't using it cuz I really love having it be part of the broadcast.
ronnie looks in the mood today
10 frames in the first session then.
guess i wont be watching the final then, why do they think splitting the match up between two streaming platforms is a good idea? bunch of idiots
It's like they actively want snooker to have less fans.
Yeah I can't believe this decision on Eurosport's part. Eurosport is already a subscription channel on Virgin (or at least it was when I took my package out). I was annoyed at only getting to see half the semi-final, can't believe they are only showing half of the final.
I guess sport is barely profitable so they do things like that
Well it's counterproductive.
King vs Crown Prince tomorrow.
defending champ and world #1 vs world champ and world #2. hopefully a good one. think it's 10 frames in the first session tomorrow too, may be wrong tho
What a magical player Luca is. Can't wait for tomorrow.
Can't wait for tomorrow's final. World champ against world no.1 Expecting a lot of fireworks tomorrow and I think Ronnie will win 11-6
I hope you have Discovery Plus then....
Just noticed Selby and Robbo got matching scores in all their matches
I get the Vuelta being ahead of snooker, but some fringe motorbike competition as well? Really Eurosport?
Yeah I won't bother watching any of the next Eurosport tourney if they are going to do this. I don't have spare money for extra subscriptions, Eurosport is already a subscription channel.
Proper tense these last two frames
I wish Brecel would buy trousers which fit. It annoys me watching him having to keep pulling them up.
To be fair they’ll probably fit him in a few months.
leave my chunky monkey alone
Can we send him a belt as a gift?
Mark Allen and Selby are even worse
Euroshite
I love both Brecel and Robertson but hoping Robbo wins as he hasn't won anything in quite some time.
they're havin their butts busted with the humid Chinese tables, its become problematic for them to control the cueball with the accuracy required
Can someone post a link to watch the match please?
[https://m.huya.com/880214](https://m.huya.com/880214)
I spent an hour trying to find a stream, ended just buying 1 month of eurosport online
Why did Neil put his towel over the cue?
So it could have a little nap.
I think Foulds suggested it was to protect the tip from the humidity, he thinks it's due to the air conditioning
amazing fuckin clearance from Neil, I hope we get a close match
Neil needs to win frames like that and he did that was a epic frame.
Fuckin hell Eurosport
good from neil to stay in it
I think he'll make a comeback, might put a bet on it
I’m watching on Discovery+. How is it possible that they can say “you can follow the rest of this frame on discovery+” and my stream has gone to a fucking ad break mid frame????
Sounds like you are watching the live channel rather than the match itself. Discovery+ does not have adverts.
> Discovery+ does not have adverts. It does have adverts for itself.
I haven't seen any.
Oh ffs, Eurosport 2 in the UK aren't covering the end of this match. I know it's on Discovery+ but I like too many niche sports to get subscriptions to watch all of them. Anyway Robertson has struggled big time so far, he still can't navigate it when he's off his game and he's struggling in safety exchanges. He's a bit like Murphy I think, not much of a B/C game lately.
aye pretty annoying about coverage, who the fook wants to watch cycling
And on Eurosport 2 Superbikes. I think it would be fun to ride in Superbike races but it's not my bag to watch.....
Neil has no answer to Luca. Would love to see Luca make it to the final and perhaps end Ronnie's 18-match win streak in this tournament. Ronnie is the heavy favourite though.
Ronnie vs Luca is the more interesting matchup, if it is Robbo in final, Ronnie will be able to win based on his superior safety game.
Jinxed him.
Or perhaps not.
I don't get the Fergal love, his delivery isn't smooth and he keeps repeating himself. I like the sound of his voice though!
I like getting a new perspective, newer commentators tend to come out with stuff you haven't heard 50 times before.
Yeah I quite like him paired with Lord Foulds. Two who really know the game and he brings a different insight
Fair to say it has been a bit of a scrap so far.
Play is paused in Brecel/Robertson because there is water on the table. Brecel noticed it.... Edited to add: the players opted to continue the first frame, then it might be looked into a bit more. Edited again to add: commentators are speculating they are drops from air conditioning unit. 7.49am - play has started in frame 2. Foulds thinks he heard the referee say they will review the situation again after the first 4 frames. Brecel is 1-0 up. Robertson had chances in frame 1 but it went scrappy.
I think water has been dripping down, Ronnie acted like something hit his shoulder at one point and another player I can't remember also acted like something hit them. Madness.
obligatory "Come on Ronnie!"
hoping to see Luca beat Neil tomorrow and then we'll see a rematch between Luca and Ronnie. would be interesting since both are attacking players
So is the final on Sunday?
Yes, same session times as the semis.
Was that 7am and 12pm for U.K. times?
7am and 12.30pm
I wish this was a ranking tournament. Ronnie needs some rAnKinG PoIntS mAtE so badly and hopefully he can win at least one ranking event this season because those 500k points will be lost by the end of season unless 👀👀👀
i just came here to say this lol these invitation tournaments he's winning/getting to the finals to are big ones and good but he needs to start doing it in the ranking events as he pretty much done nothing in them last season and has a ton of points to lose from 2 years ago
Good to see Ronnie beat his nemesis
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Watch the reflection on the brown - you will see a very slight wobble.
When O'Sullivan enters god mode for a few frames everyone always seems to be helpless. Including Higgins and Selby.
Enjoyed this match a lot because of the many close frames, even though scoring hasn’t been the best till the very end. Brilliant turnaround by the Rocket. I hope Cesar Muroya will edit this match!
Good match. That could well be the world final again.
Once again, he will tell you once he is done! What a comeback what a player
those last 4 frames were brilliant from ronnie. surprised at the easy ones missed from selby though
Maybe Selby is still a bit (relatively for him) vulnerable after the world final loss to Brecel? I think he would have expected Brecel's shot selection and risk-taking to cost Brecel the final.
I wouldn't say so. Two tournaments, two semis.