Neil Robertson wins the China Open 2019
The China Open 2019 was played in Beijing from April 1 to April 7, 2019. Neil Robertson beat Jack Lisowski by 11-4 in the final. It was quite a successful event from the Grove as the semi finals featured three of their players. Neil Robertson emerged the winner – by 10-7 – of an all Grove battle against Luca Brecel. It was a very high quality match. Jack Lisowski outplayed his opponent, Scott Donaldson in the other semi final, which he won by 10-1.
Neil was appearing in his fourth consecutive final, of which he won two. His win in Beijing saw him climb to n°4 in the World rankings and n°1 in the one year list. Luca and Judd excellent performances secured their spots in the top 16, seeded at the Crucible. They both have every reason to feel positive ahead of the World Championship. Neil is now certainly a favourite going into the World Championship. However, he’s determined to try to relax and enjoy the tournament first and foremost, as he explained in his press conference:
It seems like such a long time since I won the World Championship in 2010. Going into it this year, it is the first time in a while I am just going to go and entertain the crowd and play some attacking snooker that they can enjoy. Hopefully the results will just take care of themselves. In the last few years I have tried to get into the last 16 and the quarters and work my way into the tournament. I have won three ranking events and a massive competition this week, I’m just going to relax and enjoy myself.
Here is the trophy ceremony
Jack will of course be disappointed not to have been able to perform better in the final. However he has a lot of positives to take from the tournament, as himself acknowleged during his post-match interview. This is what he said:
“I’ve got to learn from this week and think about what happened. Neil played great today and I wasn’t that good. I can still see there are a lot of places with room for improvement. I have to knuckle down, as I could see my game getting better throughout the week.
“My ranking is really going up and I am a seed in the World Championship. My game is finally there and I feel like I have proven myself to a point now. There is still a lot to do, but I’m not in a mess with my game like I was a few years ago.”
The way Jack won the decider against Stuart Bingham in the QF, certainly justifies his optimism:
Liang Wenbo reached the last 16, Ali Carter lost in the last 32, whilst Judd Trump and Oliver lines lost in the last 64 (round 1)
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