Two players who experienced various ups and downs during the Welsh Open were Craig Steadman and Joe Perry, who have both given interviews during the past couple of days…
Following his impressive performance as he went down 5-3 to Graeme Dott earlier in the week, world number 12 Joe Perry told the Cambs Times:
“I’m more disappointed with this defeat than when I lost 6-0. It was the best I’ve played in a long time. I felt very good and only missed two balls but still lost.
“I was very unlucky with a couple of kicks and was punished. Both Graeme and I complained about the table afterwards.
“Snooker has a way of kicking you in the teeth when you’re down and it’s very frustrating.
“But I’ll be over the moon if I continue to play like that this season. I’ve sought help from a few people, put a lot of extra time in on the practice table and made a massive improvement in my game. I really couldn’t have asked to play any better.”
After a tough 2009 in which he won just two ranking event matches, Joe now finds himself down in 20th place provisionally and needing a good run before the end of the season if he is to get back inside the all-important top 16. With so many points available at the World Championship however, all is far from lost and if he can get his confidence back with a few more good performances out in China, perhaps he could remind everyone how he managed to make it to the semi-finals in Sheffield just a couple of years ago…
Tour newcomer Craig Steadman meanwhile has been reflecting on his Welsh Open run which included a new career best break, as well as looking ahead to a potential World Championship clash with 1991 champion John Parrott:
On his 143 break:
“It was nice to get that extra prize money,”
“I played well during the week and just ran into a good player.
“McLeod won the qualifying event for the Masters and also went through in the UK Championships so he is playing well at the moment and, when you play the better players, little mistakes become magnified.
“But I was pleased with how things went generally. It was strange playing Sam because he is one of my good friends on the tour.
“I have got him in the first round of qualifying for the China Open next month as well.”
On Parrott:
“I would play him in the second round if I win my first match,” he said. “I have never played him before and you never know with these people how they are going to play.
“They have lots of other commitments with stuff like TV work, and some may not have played much snooker recently.
“But players like that never forget how to play the game.
“It would be a big scalp for me, but I have a few more games to contend with first.”
After a slow start to the new season, Craig’s results have begun to improve recently and he has given himself a real chance of staying on the tour heading into the two remaining tournaments. If he can make it through to John Parrott in the second round it will be very interesting to see how he handles the occasion as while Parrott has on occasion shown his class this season, he did perform very poorly during his World Championship qualifier last season as he was annihilated by Matt Couch at the English Institute for Sport in Sheffield and could be vulnerable again…