The snooker circuit heads back to the UK this week for another high quality invitational tournament. This time it is the turn of the Champion of Champions to be staged with the event coming from the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry once again.
The winners of all the major tournaments, as well as some minor ones, over the last 12 months, have been invited to the tournament which means we get to see many of the stars of the game over what should be a quality week of snooker.
Recent Winners
2015 – Neil Robertson
2014 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Format
The 16 players have been drawn into four groups of four players for the first round. Each group is played out on a different day with semi-finals over the best of seven frames in the afternoon and then a group final over the best of 11 in the evening. The four group winners then progress to the overall semi-finals on Friday which are also the best of 11 before the champion is crowned in a best of 19 frame final on Saturday.
Group 1
The defending champion Neil Robertson is in this part of the draw. He has got a tough looking section with the other three men in it being the China Championship runner up Stuart Bingham, the World Open champion Ali Carter and the Shanghai Masters winner Ding Junhui. Whoever comes through there will certainly have earned their spot in the semi-final.
Group 2
This is the really top quality group with Saturday’s China Championship winner John Higgins probably leading the way. The European Masters champion Judd Trump is also in here as is Shaun Murphy with the Indian Open winner Anthony McGill completing the quartet and as with the group above this group should deliver plenty of quality.
Group 3
The ever popular Ronnie O’Sullivan is the headline act in this group. This is the group which opens up the tournament and will be played on Monday. Martin Gould, Mark Davis and Robin Hull are the three men looking to deny O’Sullivan a place in the last four.
Group 4
World champion Mark Selby will be looking to make it through this group. He arrives here having won the International Championship last weekend so he’s in good form. Joe Perry accepted a late invite when Marco Fu pulled out while Mark Allen and the English Open champion Liang Wenbo could provide stiff opposition.
Betting
I’m going with two outrights this week. With all the playing and travelling the big boys have been doing recently I just have a feeling this draw could open right up much like it did last year when Judd Trump, Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby all lost their opening matches.
In the top half of the draw Ali Carter could well be overpriced. His group looks tough on paper but Neil Robertson looks in no form at all while Ding Junhui looked shell-shocked by the thrashing he took from Mark Selby in the final of the International Championship. Stuart Bingham posted an instagram picture in the early hours of Monday morning of him landing in Dubai so him playing on Tuesday isn’t going to be ideal so I can see Carter coming through that section. If he does the 33/1 on him in the outright market becomes immediate value.
In the bottom half Ronnie O’Sullivan looks to have a penalty kick to make it into the semi-final but he plays his group on Monday and then won’t play again until Friday and that isn’t always ideal for him so I would prefer to pick someone from the other group at a big price.
In fairness you could pick any one of the four men but I just wonder if having last week off will benefit Joe Perry. He has been playing well enough without getting the results he has deserved recently but if he is lining up against jaded opponents this could be the week that all changes. Perry came out of a group which included John Higgins and Ali Carter last year and if he can come through this one he could deliver the goods at 50/1.
Tips
Back A.Carter to win Champion of Champions (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with NetBet (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back J.Perry to win Champion of Champions (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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