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This morning saw the start of the Haikou World Open from Hainan Island with the always contentious wildcard round and it was not to be plain sailing for all of the main tour players as two were sent crashing out of the tournament on day one…
Sam Baird became the first current main tour professional to exit the competition today as he lost out 5-3 to China’s Jin Long in the wildcard round. An experienced player who rose as high as 60 in the world rankings as recently as 2010, Jin made the faster start to today’s match with breaks of 60 and 50 helping him into a 3-0 lead, before Sam was able to take the last before the interval to keep himself in the match.
After the break it was Jin who restored his three frame advantage, before a spirited comeback from Sam saw him take the next two before Jin eventually wrapped it up in the eighth on the black.
As is often the case during the ranking events to be staged in China, the validity of these wildcard rounds has taken something of a battering on Twitter and on the face of it I can certainly see why.
Indeed this match-up offered the perfect illustration of the unfairness posed as Jin is not a young rookie looking to gain experience, but instead a 30-year-old who has completed many seasons on the professional circuit, certainly more than his opponent today. When taking into account the fact that Baird qualified for this event with four impressive wins, it does not seem right that he now misses out on a televised match with Ding Junhui at the venue to a player not on the main tour.
While there will no doubt be more to the inclusion of the wildcards than meets the eye, it would be interesting to hear the arguments for them in competitions such as this, where there is to those of us looking in, a case to say that the events have now outgrown the need to generate additional interest with the inclusion of local wildcards.
The other professional to lose out was Nigel Bond, who slipped to a 5-4 defeat against 18-year-old Lu Ning, while Tom Ford and Michael Holt both avoided a similar fate by coming through in deciders against Lu Haotian and Zhu Yinghui respectively.
More comfortable winners were Jimmy Robertson, Joe Perry and Mark King, while Robert Milkins survived a brave comeback from Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon, which included this spectacular fluke on the final black in frame six.
The last 32 starts tomorrow from 6:30am and you can view the schedule here.
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5 comments
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Chasmmi
February 28, 2012 at 6:34 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I have no issue with wildcard rounds except with the fact that with there now being 5 events in China, if every one has a wildcard round with presumably the same 8-12 faces taking the spots then Chinese wildcards will actually end up having more exposure and chances to perform at venues than the better Chinese players on the tour such as Penfei, Han and Yupeng.
Wouldn’t it be better install a couple of provisos to the wild card system:
A) Age cap for wild card entrants (Otherwise Ding will be entering the events till the day he dies when he falls off the tour at the end of his career.)
B) If a Chinese Qualifier makes it to the last 48 stage, move their qualifier to the venue in China at the expense of a wildcard match to give the actual chinese pro players some exposure.
C) If we are going to continue with overseas Wildcard rounds, then maybe add a legends wildcard round to the UK events:
Mountjoy, Reardon, Morgan and Griffiths at the Welsh Open
Parrott, Johnson, Taylor and Thorne at the UK
Matt Johnson
February 28, 2012 at 9:54 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I completely agree about wildcards, I don’t see the benefit of them. Surely if you have got through qualifying that should be enough rather than having to play an extra match
John F
February 28, 2012 at 5:39 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I bet they will take a much closer look now that their golden boy Ding has been knocked out!
Realistically, the way to end this farce is to have a Chinese tour similar to the Thai national circuit, with a Main Tour place (or maybe a fully paid Q-School spot) for the winner.
Also, why does Jin Long keep cropping up in these events? Hasn’t he had something like four failed spells on the pro circuit already?
RM
February 28, 2012 at 6:22 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Why not just have an exhibition round before the tournament with the top seeds instead? Spectators get to see the local boys play, top players get a warm up match and the wildcards get some experience playing a Judd Trump instead of a Sam Baird (no offense Sam).
Matt Johnson
February 28, 2012 at 10:48 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
On principle I think an exhibition round is a good idea, although I don’t think it would work with the way the calendar is now. There are a lot of events and I don’t think there would be enough room in the calendar