Following the latest Snooker Scene Podcast in which both David Hendon and Phil Yates go through the draw and give their predicted scorelines, for a bit of fun I have decided to track their predictions along with mine contained within my match previews in a neat little table…
| Match | My Prediction
|
Dave Hendon’s Prediction | Phil Yates’ Prediction
|
Actual Result |
| Ronnie O’Sullivan v Stuart Bingham | 10-6 | 10-6 | 10-5 | 10-5 |
| Mark Allen v Martin Gould | 10-7 | 10-5 | 8-10 | 10-6 |
| Peter Ebdon v Nigel Bond | 10-7 | 7-10 | 10-5/6 | 5-10 |
| Ryan Day v Stephen Lee | 8-10 | 10-8 | 10-8 | 10-4 |
| John Higgins v Michael Holt | 10-6 | 10-6 | 10-4 | 10-5 |
| Joe Perry v Jamie Cope | 10-7 | 7-10 | 8-10 | 6-10 |
| Graeme Dott v Barry Hawkins | 10-8 | 10-5 | 10-5 | 10-8 |
| Mark Selby v Ricky Walden | 10-8 | 10-9 | 10-7 | 10-6 |
| Shaun Murphy v Andrew Higginson | 10-6 | 7-10 | 10-5 | 10-8 |
| Marco Fu v Joe Swail | 9-10 | 7-10 | 10-6 | 10-4 |
| Ding Junhui v Liang Wenbo | 10-7 | 8-10 | 10-7 | 10-8 |
| Stephen Hendry v Mark Williams | 8-10 | 7-10 | 8-10 | 10-7 |
| Ali Carter v Gerard Greene | 10-5 | 10-4 | 10-4 | 10-5 |
| Neil Robertson v Steve Davis | 10-8 | 10-5 | 10-8 | 10-2 |
| Mark King v Rory McLeod | 10-6 | 6-10 | 7-10 | 10-6 |
| Stephen Maguire v Jamie Burnett | 10-4 | 10-4 | 10-5 | 10-5 |
As you can see, both David and Phil have been a little more ruthless than me and predicted a few more drubbings, probably rightly so as generally there are always a few in the first round.
As an aside, David predicted a semi-final line-up of O’Sullivan v Selby and Williams v Maguire, with Maguire defeating Selby in the final. Phil meanwhile has gone for O’Sullivan v Selby and Murphy v Carter, with O’Sullivan going on to lift the trophy.
For what it’s worth I can also see Ronnie making it to the semi without too much trouble, probably meeting Mark Selby who I expect to come through a high-quality quarter-final with John Higgins. In the bottom half, surely one of Maguire/Carter to come through the bottom quarter, I’ll say Maguire, facing…well, the third quarter is wide open. Strangely although I have backed Fu to lose in round one, if he can win that one, I’d fancy his chances of coming through that section. If not, probably Williams.
In the final I’ll go for Selby to win it, defeating Maguire in a close final. We shall see!
Feel free to leave your predicted scorelines by way of a comment.