The second biggest snooker tournament of the season begins on Tuesday as the UK Championship gets underway at the Barbican Centre in York. 128 men will begin the event dreaming of winning the prestigious title and the huge first prize that goes with it. This is also the final tournament before the cut off for The Masters so those in or on the edge of the top 16 in the world rankings will have their eyes on that.
Recent Winners
2015 – Neil Robertson
2014 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2013 – Neil Robertson
2012 – Mark Selby
2011 – Judd Trump
2010 – John Higgins
2009 – Ding Junhui
2008 – Shaun Murphy
2007 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2006 – Peter Ebdon
The Format
This is a straight knockout tournament where the first round sees world ranked number 1 play number 128, 2 plays 127, 3 plays 126 and so on so it will be interesting to see how many of the top 64 make it through. The tournament is a best of 11 event from start to finish apart from the final which is the best of 19 frames.
Top Quarter
Neil Robertson is the number one seed this week as the defending champion and this is his quarter. He is joined by the eighth ranked Ronnie O’Sullivan so this is already a tasty quarter without the need for Joe Perry and Mark Williams to be in it.
The other top 32 players in the section are Ricky Walden, Matthew Selt, Michael White and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Peter Ebdon, Li Hang, Alfie Burden and Dechawat Poomjaeng are among the other seeds in the quarter.
Second Quarter
Former winners Judd Trump and Ding Junhui head the seedings in this quarter of the draw and if they make it through to the quarter final what a match we would be treated to. The other top 16 players in the quarter are Ali Carter and Marco Fu so this should be quite competitive.
The quarter is made up in terms of the top 32 players by Dave Gilbert, Martin Gould, Mark Davis and the World Championship semi-finalist Alan McManus so whoever comes through this section will have had to play well.
Third Quarter
Stuart Bingham is the leading seed in this part of the draw. Shaun Murphy is the other main seed here while last year’s beaten finalist Liang Wenbo and the Northern Ireland Open runner up Barry Hawkins complete the top 16 players in this quarter.
Those just outside the top 16 in this section are Luca Brecel, Stephen Maguire, Michael Holt and Graeme Dott so this is another quarter that could get very competitive in the latter stages.
Bottom Quarter
The man of the moment John Higgins is in this quarter but it is Mark Selby who is the leading seed here. Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson make up those from the top 16 and they are capable of winning any tournament so this is tough too.
Robert Milkins, Anthony McGill, Ryan Day and Ben Woollaston make up the rest of the top 32 players in this quarter so this could be the least competitive of the sections overall.
Betting
I’m taking the two form men in this tournament. I think you only have to look through the roll of honour to see that this tournament is often won by one of the game’s top players and I expect the class to shine through here.
My main pick is John Higgins and as he is the best price with Paddy Power I will take him to the four places and increase my stake. I think he is in the weaker of the four quarters but in truth that doesn’t matter because the form he is in he can and quite possibly will beat anyone. He has won the last two tournaments over this format and a hat trick certainly isn’t beyond him. Although he didn’t win in Belfast he made a 147 so he’s the man to beat for me.
The other man I’m going with is Stuart Bingham. He made the final in the China Championship having made a couple of semi-finals prior to that and there is no doubt he is back in the form which saw him win the World Championship a couple of seasons ago. This bottom half of the draw, Higgins aside, offers up little in the way of genuine dangers so if Bingham has maintained his form he’ll be hard to stop.
I’m also going to take a quarter bet which comes in the form of Mark Williams in the top quarter. I thought Williams looked pretty good in the Northern Ireland Open and he didn’t do a lot wrong in defeat to Kyren Wilson. He did beat John Higgins which shows how well he is playing. I don’t think Robertson or O’Sullivan are at their best at the minute so there could be an opportunity for Williams to come through there and make the semi-final.
Tips
Back J.Higgins to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 13.00 with Paddy Power (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back S.Bingham to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back M.Williams to win 1st Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with Bet365
Back him here:
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