Like the year 2017, the 2017/2018 season is getting more and more weird and unpredictable. Liang Wenbo making a 147, Ronnie O’Sullivan winning the English Open in wonderful break-building fashion and (because it is the topic of this article), the young generation are finally and slowly breaking through, not just in the most recent tournament, but many others previously. Unfortunately, talent and skill don’t make worthwhile news, so let’s talk about O’Sullivan’s blue trainers for a bit, shall we?
6 of the 8 players left in the English Open are aged 26 or under.
— Michael Day ⚪🔴🎱🎯 (@ViewCue) October 19, 2017
Of course, I am joking. Just in this season alone, we have seen some signs of the youngsters finally breaking through, considering last season was dominated by the over-40s in O’Sullivan, Stuart Bingham, Nigel Bond and John Higgins and new ranking winners Anthony Hamilton and Mark King. I still remember a tweet, which I am unable to find, from a guy who was getting impatient of when Luca Brecel will win something. After his 2012 World Championship appearance as a 17 year-old, his progress was slower than anticipated, losing in the early rounds to Craig Steadman and Lee Page. Mark Williams just responded to this fellow “Give him time,” and so we waited.
In this season alone, we had 25 year-old Kyren Wilson claiming the World Games medal and reached the final of the World Open and now the English Open. Then Luca Brecel made headlines by becoming not only the first Belgian to win a ranking title but the first from Continental Europe at just 22 years-old at the China Championship. This was just over a year after he reached the 2016 German Masters final before losing to Martin Gould. Moving onto the Paul Hunter Classic, Michael White finally recovered from a year’s blip in form to win the trophy, beating Shaun Murphy 4-2. Though he couldn’t defend his Indian Open title, 26 year-old Shoot-Out champion Anthony McGill managed to reach the final while the likes of youngsters Zhang Anda, Liam Highfield, Elliot Slessor and Xu Si reached the quarter-finals, with the latter reaching the semis (19 year-old Xu only won the IBSF World Under-21 Championship last year by the way).
Now we can have a look at someone who did. Judd Trump defended his European Masters title in lovely break-building style with slices of luck, to claim his 8th ranking title in his career. Bear in mind Judd is still only 28 years of age. He managed to beat 26 year-old Cao Yupeng, who is making a resurgence in his career since his appearance in the 2012 World Championships, to finish off Stuart Bingham 9-7 in the final, who managed to beat hot prospect and World Cup winner Zhou Yuelong in his semi-final!
Now we finally got to the English Open. Six out of the quarter-finalists are aged 26 and under. Jack Lisowski, who thanks to his recent run has moved 8 places further away from relegation to No. 47, received praise from Ronnie who said “Jack is a talented player and plays like he is practising and scores quickly. He is a lovely guy, I want him to do well.” Iran Hossein Vafaei was among them and this fellow has improved dramatically, his best result being reaching the semi-final of the China Open last year. Anthony McGill was also one of the final eight by beating No. 56, World Cup Winner, German Masters quarter-finalist Yan Bingtao, which is amazing at 17 years of age.
Forget about the talented Chinese players, lisowski has more talent than them all, looks the absolute bxxxocks when playing. #hesreadytowin👍
— MARK WILLIAMS M.B.E (@markwil147) October 19, 2017
Michael White is also among them, but was whitewashed by Swiss Alexander Ursenbacher. In his first two-year stint as a 17 year-old whippersnapper, he won just two matches. After winning the EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championship last season and reaching the final qualifying round of the World Championship, Alex never looked back. Already winning 12 out of 19 matches this season by beating the likes of Matt Selt, Shaun Murphy and another brilliant young player Li Hang, Ursenbacher has already received plaudits from a number of professionals and we can expect to see a champion in him! After the English Open, he rose 16 places to ranking No. 75.
This can only be a good thing for snooker and especially in this case, for the young generation of players. I wrote this article many months ago and deliberated when they would make the breakthrough. Trump and Ding Junhui were the pioneers of the young generation of snooker professionals. Even in the 2011 World Championships clash between them in the semi-final Stephen Hendry and John Virgo claimed that match showcased a new brand of snooker and was an indictment of how the game was then played. The past few seasons was hard because, despite their successes, in a 10-season period the Top 16 and the Top 32 are getting older, indicating that the over-40s were more dominating. I wrote an article about this last season here to emphasise that: FEATURED: Will the young players break through the ranks sooner rather than later? Below is the average age of the Top16 and Top 32 over the past ten seasons. We can see that this is because of players getting older at the top and keeping their place.
What’s quite nice is that it is almost guaranteed that the average age of the Top 16 will drop. Title wins from Brecel and McGill make them very likely contenders to not only cement their places in the Top 16, but also make their debuts in next year’s Masters, finally putting a stamp that the kids have arrived to join Wilson. This would mean pushing the likes of Williams, Ryan Day and even Neil Robertson out of the running.
There is a pattern with a number of these youngsters. They all had early signs of promise. They currently are or have taken a while to develop to winning titles and then, like Trump, winning them on a more consistent basis. In the current circuit, it is much harder to break through but of the number of tournaments, players and quality. Eventually, they will come through. Maybe these youngsters were motivated by Brecel’s big win in China into thinking that they can do it too. Who knows. Ronnie conceded that the youngsters are closing the gap against the legends before the English Open:
“There are six or seven good young players who are hungry. Guys like John Higgins and I now need to put the work in. We probably need to do it in spurts. If I am going to win tomorrow, I’ll need two or three of them.”
Releasing this article will sound as if I am jumping the gun or getting carried away with the hype. That may be true in some sense. However, they haven’t made it – far from it. O’Sullivan, Selby, Robertson and Murphy have made it; Trump and Ding are making it; while the rest are just getting started. The next few years are really important for them to take advantage of the loss of form of Stephen Maguire and Joe Perry who are currently not at their best and win titles. Kyren has now lost his last three rankings finals and needs a second ranking title to his name. They must not only reach the later stages more often but win tournaments as well in order to keep the competition fierce.
hope not if these youngsters want to be considered greats it starts here and now.
— E JONES (@wildey_1) October 21, 2017
I would be amazed if we do not get another under-30s winner this season. Zhou Yuelong and Hossein Vafaei in particular are getting closer and in the few years, this snooker circuit could have a dramatic shift of power from the old to the new. What do you think?
