Quarter Finals

The quarter finals are under way in the snooker world championship in Sheffield. All the players that are left are all good candidates for the trophy. Well, there's at least one match that seems decided, Murphy has a really long way to go if he wants to beat Matthew Stevens. But still, there's a lot of good players in very good shape.

I'm tempted to make some guesses as to how this is going to end. But given that the candidates that I flagged for earlier are both out I probably shouldn't. Although it gives me some comfort that I did a little better that the Swedish commentator on Eurosport: he guessed Marco Fu and Ding Junhui in one of the semifinals, both of which were eliminated in the first round. Sure, I hope for Ronnie O'Sullivan, but Higgins is looking mighty good right now and may just prove to be too difficult. I'm also very impressed by Selby and Stevens. In the end, this is going to be a very tough championship to win.

I've had a bit of an insight about snooker while watching it during the last week. I'm really impressed by the mental strength of the players on the tour. They just never give up. Even when they need several fouls to beat their opponent in a frame they keep going. Likewise many players keep playing very well and fight hard even when their chances to win a match is pretty much zero. You don't see this kind of morale in many other sports.