Originally Posted by Terrence Chant:
“Wow. If you'd said when Ding got dumped into the qualifying quagmire he'd be the first man into the semis you'd have got laughed at. Every credit, very pleased for him 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻”
Spot on TC. In fact I've backed Ding in all three rounds of the predictions, as I suspected that him having to qualify has sharpened him up and possibly done him good - not having the comfort blanket of automatic top 16 qualification.
You could also argue that the pressure is off him somewhat as no one was necessarily expecting him to come back to such good form, but I can see the semi final against Higgins or McManus to be a close battle and of high quality. He also gets a day off does Ding, and that may also prove very decisive!