The time has arrived to find out who the next Champion of Champions is as the major tournament winners from the last 12 months head to Coventry for the competition which should find out the ultimate champion of 2017.
As ever there are surprise winners of events but there aren’t many of them this year so the field looks very strong. It includes nearly all of the top players in the game with Ronnie O’Sullivan adding to the profile of the event. There is only one table in operation throughout the week which always makes for a better tournament.
Recent Winners
2016 – John Higgins
2015 – Neil Robertson
2014 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Format
16 qualifiers get split up into four groups of four. Rather than everyone playing each other the four men in each group are drawn into group semi-finals which are played over the best of seven frames and the two winners play in the group final later the same day over the best of 11 frames. One group is played out per day.
The four group final winners progress to the semi-finals which this week take place on Friday night and Saturday night over the best of 11 frames before the Champion of Champions is determined over two sessions and the best of 19 frames on Sunday.
Group 1
The World Open champion Ding Junhui is the headline act in Group 1. He will be joined by the German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton, the Riga Masters winner Ryan Day who will be making his debut in the competition and the World Grand Prix winner Barry Hawkins who will want a decent run to find some form.
Group 2
The winner of the Gibraltar Open is the main man in this second group. That is Shaun Murphy. He has been drawn alongside the Paul Hunter Classic champion Michael White, the Scottish Open winner Marco Fu and the man who appealed to many when he won the Northern Ireland Open in Mark King.
Group 3
This is a tasty looking group. Judd Trump is the second highest ranked player in it. He qualified as the European Masters winner while World Cup champion Liang Wenbo is in this group as well. The China Championship winner Luca Brecel can be dangerous from in this group but all eyes will be on the world champion Mark Selby who sets the standard here.
Group 4
This one is the best group of the lot. The Masters and English Open champion Ronnie O’Sullivan will be the big attraction in this group but he is going to have it tough just to make the semi-final. The man who beat him in the final last year is in this group in John Higgins while the last man in the field in Neil Robertson has found himself here too. Shootout winner Anthony McGill is the other man in this group.
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Betting
This is a bit of a quirky event to bet on and there are a number of things we have to think about. Firstly those who went deep in China last week could be at a disadvantage given that they will have had to fly home either over the weekend or even later so they need to adjust to the time zone. The other thing to remember is unlike other tournaments a player only plays three days in this so if someone catches fire they can go deep quite easily.
There are two groups which I can’t even pick the winner of let alone pick someone to make it through a semi-final too so I’m going to give myself half a chance and select someone who is in an easier group in the hope he makes it through and should he do that then he is one win away from a place at least.
The person in question is Michael White. White has a couple of advantages here. Not only is he in what I consider to be the weakest group of the four but he never went anywhere near China last week as he didn’t qualify. King got knocked out in China on Tuesday so he’s had a rush to get back while Murphy went out the day after so he has the same problem.
With Fu in no form at all there’s a chance for White to come through the group and at 50/1 he’s a decent price to pay to see if he can find one more win against a likely to be jaded opponent given how long Selby, Trump, Liang and Brecel were in China for last week.
Tips
Back M.White to win Champion of Champions (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Ladbrokes (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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