Just over 12 hours after one snooker tournament finished another one begins when the tour heads north of the border for the Scottish Open, the third leg of the Home Nations series and a last chance for players to earn a pre-Christmas bonus.
Marco Fu won the title 12 months ago and he is here to defend his title against a decent field even though it is missing a few of the big names for one reason or another.
Recent Winners
2016 – Marco Fu
The Format
We all know the format of these Home Nations events by now. The first four rounds are the best of seven frames with two rounds being played on a busy Thursday. The quarter finals are the best of nine before the semis over the best of 11 frames. The title will be decided on Sunday with a best of 17 frame match over two sessions. The draw bracket is pre-drawn and is a straight knockout.
Top Quarter
Marco Fu is the number one seed as the defending champion and he is in the top quarter. Neil Robertson and Mark Allen are top names in this part of the draw while Martin Gould arrives in Glasgow in good spirits after a good UK Championship. The same goes for Mark King.
There are some tasty outsiders in this part of the draw too. Alan McManus will be looking to go well in his home open while Lu Haotian, Zhou Yuelong and Xiao Guodong are three of the Chinese contingent capable of having big weeks. Dave Gilbert is another who will be eyeing up success in this tournament.
[the_ad id=”16639″]
Second Quarter
This is the juicy quarter of the draw. John Higgins and the newly crowned UK Championship winner Ronnie O’Sullivan stand out from the rest in it but Ali Carter and Kyren Wilson won’t be heading to Glasgow just to make up the numbers so we should see a lot of quality from this section of the draw.
Further quality could come from the likes of Jack Lisowski, Anthony Hamilton, Robert Milkins, Li Hang and Michael White who are all in the draw and who have all had big runs in big tournaments in recent times.
Third Quarter
Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy are the main men in this third quarter this week. All eyes if you pardon the pun will be on Ding to see if the eye issues he has been struggling with in recent weeks has cleared up. They will also be on Murphy to see how he goes after his near miss in the UK Championship. Liang Wenbo is another top 16 player in this section.
There will be plenty of interest in some of the other players too. Akani Songsermsawad shot to prominence last week and he’s in this section as is Joe Perry who made the quarter finals in York. Ricky Walden also made the last eight in the UK Championship while Graeme Dott and Tom Ford can be dangerous.
Bottom Quarter
It is Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins who are the bigger names in this quarter. This section has lost a big name with the withdrawal of Mark Williams who has pulled out to be with his wife who is having health problems. Anthony McGill is a top 16 member in this part of the draw and he is looking to win on home soil. Ryan Day is also in the top 16 and the open nature of this draw means that he has got McGill in the opening round.
Stephen Maguire is fresh from the semi-finals last week and he’ll be looking to go a couple of steps further in his homeland. Yan Bingtao, Jimmy Robertson, Northern Ireland semi-finalist Elliot Slessor Mark Davis and Michael Holt all make this a competitive looking section.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
As ever I like to take a player from each quarter to see how many we can get that go deep. In the top quarter I am going to persevere with Neil Robertson. He played well in the UK Championship and has clearly got his mojo back and he is too good a player to keep going without silverware. Marco Fu is the leading seed in his quarter and he has no form at all. Mark Allen looks more of a danger but at 16/1 I’ll go with the Aussie this week.
In the second quarter all eyes will be on Higgins and O’Sullivan. Higgins has a beast of a first round draw against Jack Lisowski though while O’Sullivan might struggle to get up for this having just won the UK crown. I sense this could be a quarter to have a go at a monster price and with that in mind Scott Donaldson might be worth playing. He’ll be motivated to do well in his home tournament and also because his season hasn’t gone to plan thus far. We saw a marked improvement in him last week though and his run in the Welsh Open last year tells us he can go deep here. At a monster price he’s worth a small go.
Another Scot who is worth chancing comes in the third quarter where Graeme Dott was clearly back in form in the UK Championship last week and he is another who should not lack for motivation here. Ding is nothing like the player he can be at the minute and Murphy has had a heavy schedule so this looks like a quarter which could open up and it can do so to the benefit of the former world champion at a massive price.
In the bottom quarter there is a third Scot that I like and that is Stephen Maguire. His return to form at the UK was very welcome and I always think his aggressive style makes him a real threat in this format and he has the trophies to prove it. Maguire scored well last week and he can mix it in the tactical department when he needs to. I think he will have a big week here.
Tips
WON – Back N.Robertson to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back S.Maguire to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
Back G.Dott to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
Back S.Donaldson to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 301.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
