The snooker season is in full swing now and just two days after one Asian event finishes another one begins as the World Open kicks off on Monday. As with many overseas tournaments these days we have had a qualifying round for the event which has whittled the field down to 64 plus those who had their match held over.
This tournament replaces the Shanghai Masters in the calendar which is a shame as that was always a popular event which was building up a nice history but this event now has the chance to take over the mantle.
Recent Winners
2016 – Ali Carter
2014 – Shaun Murphy
2013 – Mark Allen
2012 – Mark Allen
2010 – Neil Robertson
The Format
While this tournament replacing the Shanghai Masters is not ideal the good thing is that the matches begin over the best of nine frames rather than the diet of best of sevens we’ve lived through recently. First round to the quarter final is that distance before the semis get played over the best of 11. The final is then two sessions over the best of 19 frames.
Top Quarter
World number one Mark Selby is the main act here but he faces some stiff challenges as he goes along this week. Indian Open finalist Anthony McGill is in this part of the draw as are Stuart Bingham and Shaun Murphy in terms of top 16 players.
There are some tasty qualifiers in here too with Stephen Maguire and the recent China Championship winner Luca Brecel two that most wanted to avoid. Michael White, Jamie Jones and Robert Milkins are all potential dangers to the big names too.
Second Quarter
The home crowds will be hoping that Ding Junhui can launch a decent run from this part of the draw. If he doesn’t they have a couple of other genuine chances of an Asian winner with Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo also in this quarter. The other top 16 member is Ryan Day.
Xiao Guodong was rated as a potential tournament winner in the past and he has the opportunity to do that from this quarter. Dominic Dale, Joe Perry, Ricky Walden and Graeme Dott will all fancy the chance of a big run this week.
Third Quarter
Judd Trump was meant to be in this part of the draw but he lost in qualifying which will be to the benefit of Barry Hawkins, who is the highest seed left in it. Mark Williams and Kyren Wilson are the other two seeds in this section.
Alan McManus, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Michael Holt and Hossein Vafaei will be eyeing up big weeks to take into the European swing with them. Tom Ford and the Northern Ireland champion Mark King are two more who shouldn’t be underestimated.
Bottom Quarter
The new Indian Open winner John Higgins will go in search of back-to-back ranking titles from this quarter but in Neil Robertson he faces a stiff challenge potentially in the quarter final. Mark Allen and Martin Gould are the other men in this section who were in the top 16 seeds.
David Gilbert and Ben Woollaston are dangerous players in this part of the draw but you would have to say that as quarters go with the exception of the big two this is probably the most open of the lot this week.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
Usually I like to look for open parts of the draw and take a couple of outrights accordingly but this is a weird bracket and as such I’m not convinced it will open up too much in the early stages so I am going to head towards one of the market leaders.
Mark Williams won the Six Red World Championship a couple of weeks ago and he may have an advantage on many this week in that he was nowhere near India last week. That tournament became a mental and physical grind the longer it went on so skipping it might just have been the ideal preparation for this one.
The draw is not the hardest it could be for the Welshman given that Trump is already out of his quarter. I still think Williams has a proper tournament win left in him and with the confidence and belief he should have taken from the six red success he looks worthy of being backed here.
Tips
Back M.Williams to win World Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
