European Masters Snooker: Semi-Final preview
A new winner will lift this year’s European Masters Snooker Trophy, as the final four take shape.
The competition so far has seen some of the game’s biggest players struggle to make the latter stages, showing snooker is growing more competitive.
Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy both lost 5-3 in the first round, with Judd Trump, John Higgins and Neil Robertson all failing to progress beyond the second round.
It has been a competition for the underdog, with only one player left who is ranked in the top 30.
Old Dog vs Young Gun
Having avoided Ronnie O’Sullivan, who now must be the overwhelming favourite to win the European Masters, both players will hope that they can make the final.
Graeme Dott, 44, and Fan Zhengyi, 21, have achieved the same number of ranking points this season, but that is where the similarities between the two players ends. Fan was five when Dott became World Champion in 2006.
Fan Zhengyi, age 5 pic.twitter.com/UKWYWCBsrC
— World Snooker Tour (@WeAreWST) February 25, 2022
Dott would relish the prospect of facing O’Sullivan in the final, in what would be a repeat of the 2004 World Championship final.
The two have faced each other 18 times in ranking matches, having first played each other back in 1995.
However, those days looked a long way away from the Scot, who is having an awful season.
Dott ended last season in the top 20 of the world rankings, which allowed him to enter this tournament as the 17th seed, but that was largely due to the rankings being determined on a two-year rolling basis.
A successful 2019-20 season was followed by a slump in form, with Dott going past the second round of a ranking tournament only twice in the last two seasons.
This was beginning to take its toll, with Dott sliding down the rankings to 47th before the tournament. This run to the semi-finals will do a lot to stop the slide, and potentially be a sign that the good days are returning for Graeme Dott.
On the other hand, Fan Zhengyi has generally been on the up since turning professional in 2018.
While last season was perhaps disappointing for the 2017 World U-21 Champion, he has bounced back to achieve his best result in reaching the quarter-final of the German Masters.
He has gone one better at the Marshall Arena, defeating David Gilbert, Yan Bingtao, and Kyren Wilson on his way to the final four.
Fan Zhengyi has undoubtedly had the harder run, but Graeme Dott has defeated two top 30 players in Jordan Brown and Ryan Day. Despite the recent form, Dott’s experience in such matches gives him the edge.
It’s time to see how true the old age saying ‘form is temporary, class is permanent’ really is.
Snooker Great vs Improving Competitor
O’Sullivan is appearing in his fourth semi-final of the season, but The Rocket nearly fell at the first hurdle, with Zhang Anda taking him all the way to a tense deciding frame.
He made easy work of Wu Yize and Ashley Hugill, and breezed past Tom Ford, who whitewashed John Higgins just a few days before.
O’Sullivan’s stats may never be broken, with a player unlikely to play at his level of snooker for the length of time he has.
He has won over 70 events, and has over 1,100 century breaks, nearly 300 more than fellow veteran John Higgins.
His opponent Liang Wenbo, fought from 4-3 down to beat Anthony McGill to reach his first European Masters semi-final.
Wenbo, 34, is playing his third semi-final of the season, after appearances in the Shoot-Out and Champions League and many would argue that he is having his most consistent season to date.
Currently at a career best ranking of 35th, Wenbo could push even higher up if he can overcome one of the greatest to ever play the game.
China has produced some great snooker players over the years, and the influence that the nation has recently had on the game has arguably kept the sport alive.
Wenbo fits in the middle ground, he is not in the new wave of players that have burst on to the scene, nor is he a successful veteran, with only one major ranking title under his belt.
He will, however, want to try and show that he can be in the discussion when tournaments roll around, and beating one of the games greats would go a long way in achieving that.
In their 10 meetings to date, O’Sullivan has won nine, with Wenbo winning at the 2013 International.
Their last meeting came at the Scottish Open in December 2021, with O’Sullivan winning 4-3.
Follow all the action from the semi-finals on the Sports Gazette twitter.
This piece was co-written by Roberto Petrucco and Yoseph Kiflie
