The penultimate snooker tournament of the season begins on Monday when the China Open gets underway and while there is a solid £85,000 first prize to the winner plenty of players are playing for a lot more than just that.
The cut off for the World Championship seedings comes at the end of this week with one automatic spot at the Crucible Theatre still up for grabs here while coveted spots in the top 32 and top 80 which potentially ease the difficulty of qualifying for the big one will also be sought after so this is a big week within a big week!
Recent Winners
2016 – Judd Trump
2015 – Mark Selby
2014 – Ding Junhui
2013 – Neil Robertson
2012 – Peter Ebdon
2011 – Judd Trump
2010 – Mark Williams
2009 – Peter Ebdon
2008 – Stephen Maguire
2007 – Graeme Dott
The Format
71 men make the trip to Beijing for the final stages of the tournament and the early stages of the event right through to the quarter finals will be played over the best of nine frames. The two semi-finals will be the best of 11 frames and then the champion will be determined from a best of 19 frame final on the Sunday.
Top Quarter
Number one seed and defending champion Judd Trump is the headline attraction in the top quarter this week. The Players Championship winner is joined in this quarter by fellow seeds Joe Perry, Liang Wenbo and Anthony McGill.
There are outsiders everywhere you look in these quarters and the strongest of those in this one would look to be Martin Gould. That said Ben Woollaston and Kurt Maflin will be no walk in the park for anyone running into them.
Second Quarter
John Higgins is the highest ranked player in the second quarter although Shaun Murphy isn’t too far behind him in all fairness. Ali Carter and Mark Williams are the other men in the 16 seeds in this part of the draw.
As with the first quarter the outsiders are of a decent level here too. Mark Davis hit form recently and will be dangerous while Graeme Dott, Michael White, 2015 finalist Gary Wilson and Michael Holt can all beat anyone on their day.
Third Quarter
Stuart Bingham is the biggest seed in this part of the draw as he gets ready to defend a significant amount of money at the World Championship next month. He is alongside fellow seeds Kyren Wilson, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ding Junhui making this a strong quarter.
The outsiders do nothing to detract from the quality of it either. Matt Selt is very competent as is the Northern Ireland Open champion Mark King. Welsh Open semi-finalists Scott Donaldson and Robert Milkins have shown good form recently too.
Bottom Quarter
This is where the world, UK and 2015 China Open champion Mark Selby is housed and the top players aiming to dethrone him include just one other seed which is Ricky Walden.
Of the rest in this portion of the draw Stephen Maguire is a former winner of this tournament and he has a very good record here while Dave Gilbert can still make it to the Crucible as a seed with a big week. Speaking of the Crucible, 2016 World Championship semi-finalist Alan McManus is in this quarter too.
Betting
I’m going with one man in each half this week. If you look at the list of previous winners here you will see a pretty strong roll of honour. That doesn’t surprise me because Sheffield is on the minds of everyone now and they will all be practicing like mad so I’m going with two established top drawer players.
In the top half I’m going to side with the Masters finalist Joe Perry. Judd Trump is the main seed in the top quarter but there are pictures on Twitter of him doing all sorts of publicity arrangements so how much he has been able to concentrate on preparing for his title defence remains to be seen. Having won in Llandudno earlier in the month he can afford a quiet week here.
With that in mind Perry looks to have every chance of coming through the top quarter and in a worst case scenario he would meet Murphy or Higgins in the semi-final. Perry opened up the Chinese snooker season with a run to the final of the World Open and I fancy he can conclude it with another big run.
In the bottom half the bottom quarter has opened right up with seeds being beaten in qualifying and if Mark Selby gets beat there will be a chance for a big run for somebody. That someone could well be Stephen Maguire. Having won the tournament, lost in another final and a losing semi-finalist here last year it is fair to say Maguire has a good record in Beijing.
His season may not have gone to plan in recent times but things are getting real now and class generally rises to the top at this time of year. Maguire still has it even though it hasn’t come out as often as he would like and at 50/1 I think he’s worth backing for a much needed big week, one which could yet seal his spot at the World Championship.
Tips
Back J.Perry to win China Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with NetBet (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back S.Maguire to win China Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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