Burnett now up to 33rd in the rankings…
Hands up those of you who had Jamie Burnett in the final of the Shanghai Masters a week ago? Thought not. Full credit to the Scotsman however who having been spared the task of having to overcome Ronnie O’Sullivan in the first round has grasped the opportunity provided to him with both hands and progressed to his first ranking event final. Jamie Cope on the other hand…
Jamie Burnett 6-1 Jamie Cope
107-22, 65(54)-53, 64(58)-9, 100(52)-0, 81(52)-43, 48-63, 69-42
Having lost out to Jamie Burnett in the final qualifying round of the UK Championship back in 2008, I had expected Jamie Cope to gain his revenge today, particularly having already dispensed with Ding Junhui, Steve Davis and Graeme Dott on the way to the semi-finals.
How wrong could I have been however as by all accounts, Cope played extremely poorly this morning and offered little resistance to a player who was appearing in the first semi-final of his 18-year-career. Whatever the reasons were for his display, Cope will be hugely disappointed to have let the opportunity to reach his first final in over three years slip and potentially get that elusive first title under his belt.
Fair play to Burnett however as following the past couple of years during which his performances have been under the microscope following THAT incident with Stephen Maguire in Telford (which sadly remains unresolved as yet), he now stands one match away from a shock first title. How he will cope mentally being in a final for the first time will be interesting to see, particularly as whatever the outcome of this afternoon’s second semi-final is, he will go into that match as the clear underdog.
It does seem to have been the week of the underdog however…
Ali Carter 6-2 Mark Selby
Maintaining my week of terrible predictions, Ali Carter produced a fine exhibition of snooker from 2-0 down this afternoon to see off Mark Selby 6-1 to reach his first final since the Welsh Open earlier this year.
Trailing the tournament favourite early on it appeared as though Ali would have his work cut out but some fine snooker including a tremendous clearance of 69 to level the match at the interval saw him win six on the trot to book a final appearance with Burnett – and move him to within one win of moving ahead of John Higgins into second place in the rankings.
Far more important to Ali however will be the opportunity to win a second ranking event title tomorrow…