{"id":9622,"title":"6 - The Masters 2021 Cue&A (24\/01\/21)","description":"'Cue & A'","content":"

24th January 2021<\/u><\/strong>
Welcome to another 'Cue & A' and this time reflecting on another brilliant Masters event, this time in Milton Keynes.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a>
Thanks, as always for your questions and getting involved. We had thousands to work through, so I\u2019ve picked my top 10 that seemed to come up more often than others and I\u2019ve tagged the names of those whose questions we picked.

Q1 - Where would you rank Ronnie & Johns quarter final match \u2013 (@daniel.kidd.965)
<\/strong>I think it will definitely go down as a classic in terms of Masters matches. Its definitely one of the best if not the best, best of 11 matches I have ever watched in terms of quality of play. It doesn\u2019t get much better than that. Two great players playing at the top of their form and it\u2019s been a long time since I have seen John play as well as that.\u00a0<\/p>

Q2 - Can Yan win the world title before Ding \u2013 (@cazelty)\u00a0
<\/strong>I definitely think if you gave me the choice of who is likely to win the World Championship now its definitely Yan Bingtao. I think he has an incredible all-round game and is very well suited to winning the World Championships. With long frame matches you need to have a brilliant temperament which he has and you need to have a good all-round game which he definitely has. He has got a better tactical game than I had at the age of 20, possibly better than I had at the end of my career!\u00a0<\/p>

Q3 - What will the pressure be on Yan now (@pmt007)
<\/strong>I think now there may be a changing of the guard in terms of the best Chinese players. I still think Ding is the most talented player and breakbuilder, but I think Yan now has the all-round game and attitude and whilst currently a top 16 player, will be a top 8 player for many years to come. This does create added pressure, but I think Yan will handle both the pressure and expectation from China because his temperament is one of the best I have ever seen and nothing seems to faze him, so he could very well be the first Chinese world champion.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a>
Pictured - The #CueTips 'Original' T-Shirt<\/a><\/p>

Q4 - Can John Higgins come back and win another major tournament \u2013 (@ashleycummins147)
<\/strong>It\u2019s very difficult to answer. I think if I were to be completely honest, I would say I doubt it, because for me John still makes more unforced errors than he used to and misses more pressure balls than he used to. Obviously, the performance against Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan was incredible and if he could carry that on for a whole tournament, he could definitely win one, but when he got to the semi-final and final, he was back to missing pressure shots and making unforced errors. I think he will win more tournaments, but whether he will win triple crown events? I doubt it.<\/p>

Q5 -<\/strong> In your opinion, who had the best shot of the tournament? \u2013 (@haydenquinney)
<\/strong>Without a doubt it was Shaun Murphy\u2019s black against Mark Williams. He fluked the pink and left himself tight on the baulk cushion with the black halfway up the left side cushion. John Parrot and I were in commentary and I suppose the pot was as difficult as any safety shot, but still it was one of the best pots I have ever seen in my time in Snooker let alone this tournament.<\/p>

Q6 - Is the mentality in the type of play changing with good younger players coming through younger? \u2013 (@ishy999)
<\/strong>I definitely think the younger players are moving from all-out attack to having a more measured game. Yan is a prime example of that. He is only 20 but plays with a maturity of someone 10\/15 years older. I didn\u2019t have his tactical mind when I was 20 as I was all out attack. There are one or two players who play a more aggressive game but generally the trend is now is to be more of a solid match player rather than the all-out attack.<\/p>

Q7 - Who do you think was the stand out player of the tournament, excluding Bingtao\u00a0\u00a0\u2013 (@mukundchohan)
<\/strong>It\u2019s hard to say really as Yan came through three 6-5 matches and a 10-8 against John Higgins. You take away Yan and it\u2019s hard to pick someone. I think the standout performance was definitely John Higgins against Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan. That was just a stunning performance from John. If he played like that more often, he would win more events, so apart from Yan the standout player was John Higgins.<\/p>

\"\"<\/a>
Pictured - 'Clear Up & Win The Frame' Quote Mark Sweatshirt<\/a><\/p>

Q8 - Would you be in favour of having best of 25 frame matches from the QF\u2019s onwards? \u2013 (@tom1000jane)
<\/strong>No, I think the Masters should remain the Masters and have best of 11\u2019s all the way. It\u2019s always been that way and I wouldn\u2019t change it. If it\u2019s not broken don\u2019t fix it. You only have a week to play the Maters so if you started making them best of 25\u2019s you would never get the tournament finished so I would keep it as it is.<\/p>

Q9 - Can Yang replace Ding as China\u2019s golden boy \u2013 (@tp_tp88
<\/strong>Yan is destined to be the Chinese number1. Yan is in the ascendancy. It remains to be seen how he copes with the pressure of expectation when people expect him to win. He was pretty much the underdog in every match in the Masters. When you are expected to win, that creates a very different pressure, but he has the potential to be a new hero in China. What will be interesting to see is how Ding reacts. Will this put a little bit of pressure on Ding to win more events? When I was the number one player from Scotland, when someone else started coming along it made me want to try harder to stay as number one from that country. So it will be interesting to see how Ding performs now he has someone pushing him to be China\u2019s number one.<\/p>

Q10 - Do you think the results would have been different if there was a crowd? \u2013 (@jamiedavis1284)
<\/strong>I\u2019m not sure as the Masters is the top players in the world. Obviously, it was Yans debut at the Masters so would he of reacted any differently if there was 2000 people in the arena? Possibly but obviously, we will never know. But he has such a good temperate he probably would have handled that as well. There is always going to be an Asterix against it as its totally different, but at the end of the day he came through the tournament of the top 16 players in the world and you can\u2019t take that away from him. It\u2019s such a difficult question to answer properly, but as in every tournament that has been at Milton Keynes, it\u2019s a totally different atmosphere however generally the top players have always come out on top, even with no crowds. You cannot take away what was achieved last week as it was the top players in the world playing, apart from of course the number 1 player in the world in Judd Trump missing, which could of course could have had an impact on the outcome.<\/p>

Q11 - Why is the Masters not a ranking tournament? \u2013 (@julesanne53)
<\/strong>Ranking tournaments must be open to all 128 players on tour, whereas the Masters is strictly for the top 16 ranked players in the world. It obviously it wouldn\u2019t be fair as there would only be points available to those 16 players competing, so that\u2019s the reason.<\/p>

Thanks for all your questions as always and please feel free to share this blog via the links below<\/strong><\/h3>","urlTitle":"24-01-21-cue-a-the-masters","url":"\/blog\/24-01-21-cue-a-the-masters\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/24-01-21-cue-a-the-masters\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/cuetipsofficial.com\/blog\/24-01-21-cue-a-the-masters\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1611504462,"updatedAt":1616942558,"publishedAt":1616942558,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":80504,"name":"Stephen Hendrys CueTips"},"tags":[],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/u8qyayasrtphjd33p4p3fkub4w3bnwrt3y0x0sfpk6oyoinr.jpeg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/u8qyayasrtphjd33p4p3fkub4w3bnwrt3y0x0sfpk6oyoinr.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/u8qyayasrtphjd33p4p3fkub4w3bnwrt3y0x0sfpk6oyoinr.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":"","metaDescription":"","keyPhraseCampaignId":null,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":10763,"title":"9 - Tour Championship Quiz (28\/03\/21)","url":"\/blog\/9-tour-championship-quiz-28-03-21\/","urlTitle":"9-tour-championship-quiz-28-03-21","division":80504,"description":"Tour Championship Quiz","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/osoynlkkttud1ztbe3pzmkur7mgtnudeymrj2kczp5faqvoe.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/osoynlkkttud1ztbe3pzmkur7mgtnudeymrj2kczp5faqvoe.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":6762,"title":"1 - World Snooker Championships Cue&A (18\/08\/20)","url":"\/blog\/coming-soon\/","urlTitle":"coming-soon","division":80504,"description":"Stephen answers your top 10 questions on the 2020 World Snooker Championships","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/k2sdp0xd3tom2dldarodyv4tnekaccosoghinzfync845lwk.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/k2sdp0xd3tom2dldarodyv4tnekaccosoghinzfync845lwk.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":10761,"title":"7 - The Masters Quiz (17\/01\/21)","url":"\/blog\/7-the-masters-quiz\/","urlTitle":"7-the-masters-quiz","division":80504,"description":"Masters Clear Up & Win The Quiz","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/rewuryncfpitlv9ks9gdfzpytduppumjhiarmnygwq7azmsr.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/rewuryncfpitlv9ks9gdfzpytduppumjhiarmnygwq7azmsr.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}