Posts
Jimmy White is currently practising in preparation for qualifying for the world championship, next week he'll have to win 3 matches to get to Sheffield for the first time in 4 years.
Jimmy has freely admitted that he was not a model professional and liked to have a good time to much and relied on his natural talent. Speaking on Newstalk on 23rd February he said that "he was putting his heart and soul" into getting back to Sheffield and "giving it 100%". He said that his time in the jungle had given him time to think and Barry Hearn was reinvigorating the sport he loved.
Jimmy got a wild card to the Masters at Wembley in January 2010, but he was a bit "ring rusty" and lost badly in the first round - however last year he was in his best form for years. Jimmy won the Sangsom 6-red World Grand Prix in Bangkok Thailand in July 2009, his first title since 2004. Only O'Sullivan was not in Thailand, "Thank God" said Jimmy! In the Paul Hunter Classic (formerly the German Open) in August 2009 he lost to Shaun Murphy in the final. Two months later on 18 October White reached the final of the World Series of Snooker in Prague, his fourth final of the season. He won his 2nd title of the season defeating Graeme Dott 5-3.
Plenty of former world champions, such as Ken Doherty, Graeme Dott, John Parrot and Steve Davis are also trying to qualify for Sheffield - the qualifiers run from February 26 to March 9, they are all fighting for one of 16 coveted places in the Crucible line up. Jimmy plays his first match at the English Institute of Sport – Sheffield on Wednesday March 3 against Patrick Wallace or Mark Boyle, and would then have to beat Ken Doherty and Joe Swail to get to the televised stages in April. Print this post
3 comments:
Jimmy won his first match, 10-8 finishing late. This meant that he sealed his place in the top 64, meaning he will be able to start next season as a tour pro for the 31st year.
He then had to start against Ken Doherty early the next morning. Doherty went up 5-1, with White fighting back to trail 6-3 at the interval, with a number of close frames which could have gone either way. Ken finished off Jimmy Thursday night to win 10-3 and now plays Joe Swail next Tuesday for a place at the Crucible.
Ken Doherty hammered Joe Swail 10-1 to qualify for Sheffield. Also, Fergal O'Brien beat Alan McManus to qualify,
Steve Davis, 52 who qualified for the Crucible for the 30th time, said,
"There was a time in the 1980s when I thought I was unbeatable, I didn't think anyone would ever be able to raise the standard. Then a young man from Scotland (Stephen Hendry) rammed that down my throat. My objective is to play at the Crucible at a greater age than Stephen will ever do, and I've extended that by one extra year now." worldsnooker
See all 16 qualifiers who join the top 16 next month.
Ken Doherty has drawn Mark Selby at the crucible, with Fergal O'Brien playing Neil Robertson. The other stand out match pits two former world champions, Peter Ebdon and Grame Dott.
For me it's an unfortunate draw for Ken as I would like to see the Jester win in and I think if Ken is firing on all cylinders his absolute best will get him to the semis only. It would be an amazing first round scalp for Ken to beat Selby, let's hope he an defy the odds.
Post a Comment
You Can Add Images, Colored Text and more To Your Comment.Image: [im]Image URL Here[/im]
Colours: [co="red"]Comment Text Here[/co]
Marquee: [ma]Comment Text[/ma]
and more..