The first ranking event of the snooker season begins on Friday when those who qualified head to Latvia for the Riga Masters. This began as a European Tour event but is now a fully-fledged ranking event. In all 64 men will be competing for the title in a three day sprint of a competition.
Neil Robertson won the tournament 12 months ago and he is here looking to defend the title on what should be a good weekend of snooker to get everyone back into the swing of things.
Recent Winners
2016 – Neil Robertson
2015 – Barry Hawkins
2014 – Mark Selby
The Format
The early stages from the first round to the quarter finals are the best of seven frames before we go to the best of nine frames for the semi-finals and final. The first round is played on Friday with the second and third rounds on Saturday. The quarter finals, semi-finals and final all get played on a super Sunday.
Top Quarter
Mark Selby was in this quarter but he has withdrawn from the event which leaves this as a really open section. The highest ranked player in it is Anthony McGill with Alan McManus and Tom Ford not too far behind.
Those who might be able to take advantage of a soft draw include Stuart Carrington, Kurt Maflin, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Gary Wilson while the veterans Jimmy White and Ken Doherty have the chance to bank a few quid this weekend.
Second Quarter
It is a sign of how lopsided this draw is that there are a host of big names in this section of the draw. They are headed by Neil Robertson but he has to come through the likes of Stuart Bingham and Stephen Maguire just to make the semi-final.
Other players of note in this section include Mark Davis, Matthew Stevens, Andrew Higginson, Jamie Jones and Jack Lisowski so this will take some getting through.
Third Quarter
There are some decent names in this quarter with former winner Barry Hawkins and Kyren Wilson the leading players rankings wise. Mark King and Joe Perry aren’t far behind them and Dave Gilbert is on the fringes of the top 16 too.
Zhou Yuelong, Hossein Vafaei, Ryan Day, Robert Milkins and Ben Woollaston are all potential tournament winners so this part of the draw looks quite tricky as well.
Bottom Quarter
Mark Williams is the one real big name in this part of the draw although Michael White has won tournaments of this kind in the past and shouldn’t be ruled out of the equation.
In terms of others who are viewed as potential champions they are few and far between here. Peter Ebdon would be one and Xiao Guodong another and apart from Luca Brecel that would literally be it.
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Betting
Looking at this draw I think there is every chance we get a surprise finalist and possibly even a surprise winner. The big names are all grouped together so they can’t all come through so I think this is the time to chance a couple of outsiders.
In the top half I like Tom Ford now that Mark Selby is out of the way. Ford goes well in these quick events and was a runner up here two years ago. He was a runner up in a similar event last season in the Paul Hunter Classic and with a quarter which he has the potential to dominate I think he is decent value to go the distance again here.
Xiao Guodong didn’t have his best season last time around but he finished it well with a run to the final of the Shootout and the last 16 of the World Championship. He has made three centuries in the two matches he has played this season and looks to have sorted out whatever was wrong with his game. He’s in the very weak bottom quarter and should give us a decent run for our money at 33/1.
Tips
Back T.Ford to win Riga Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back X.Guodong to win Riga Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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