After a week off since the Shanghai Masters the snooker circuit continues in China with the China Championship for a week beginning on Monday. 64 of the leading players in the world are joined by those annoying wildcards to do battle for a major title and a significant first prize.
It was a memorable week for Luca Brecel 12 months ago when he landed the biggest title of his career to date when he stormed to victory and he’ll be looking to defend the title successfully in Guangzhou.
Recent Winners
2017 – Luca Brecel
2016 – John Higgins
The Format
The tournament is a straight knockout this week with the 64 men put into a pre-determined draw. The first round through to the quarter finals are all played over the best of nine frames with the semi-finals going up to the best of 11. The champion will then be crowned over the best of 19 frames next Sunday.
Top Quarter
As the defending champion Luca Brecel is the number one seed and is in this quarter where his chances may have increased with one of the top 16 players pulling out in the form of Kyren Wilson. That leaves two other seeds in this quarter in Shaun Murphy and Marco Fu so there is a bit of an open feel to this section.
There are some solid players outside the top 16 in this quarter of the draw too. Joe Perry and Xiao Guodong are more than capable of going deep in any tournament that they enter while Tom Ford and Mark Davis are no strangers to progressing a few rounds. The bigger danger of all to the seeds though could be Liang Wenbo who has to come through a held over qualifying match to take his place in the main draw.
Second Quarter
The former champion John Higgins is the main seed in this quarter of the draw and he could be on a collision course for a tasty quarter final against Judd Trump. Stuart Bingham might have a thing or two to say about that as might Stephen Maguire who are top 16 members in this section.
There are plenty of dangers in this quarter who are not seeded this week. Jack Lisowski is the main one of those although he hasn’t been in action for a while so his form might have deserted him by now. Michael White is another man who is more than a live danger and then there is Yan Bingtao who could be the next big thing. Anthony Hamilton and Peter Ebdon are veterans looking for a big week while Chris Wakelin has already delivered a couple of decent runs in recent times.
Third Quarter
The world number one Mark Selby is the headline attraction in the third part of the draw but all the local hopes will be on their main man Ding Junhui who will be looking to launch a title tilt from this section. Mark Allen and Ryan Day are the other players ranked inside the top 16 looking to launch their own charge from here.
Dave Gilbert has already made one final in China this season so he should be considered a danger from here while Mark King won a tournament a couple of years ago so we know he can do it. Robert Milkins, Sam Craigie and Hossein Vafaei will all be looking to show their credentials over what they hope will be seven days.
Bottom Quarter
It is the world champion Mark Williams who will be looking to progress from the bottom quarter of the draw this week. He could face a rematch with Mark Williams in the quarter final after the two men met in the Shanghai Masters recently. Neil Robertson and Anthony McGill complete the top 16 line up here.
Ali Carter sits just outside the top 16 and he will be looking for a big run this week while Gary Wilson is a former major finalist. Noppon Saengkham has been in good form this year while Graeme Dott and Fergal O’Brien are gritty customers who can be hard to beat when they are on top of their game. Zhao Xintong is entitled to be a danger in this field.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I’ll have a stab at a player in each half of the draw this week. In the top half Marco Fu looks to have a nice draw which is undoubtedly helped by the withdrawal of Kyren Wilson. That leaves Luca Brecel and Shaun Murphy as seeds and Brecel is in no form at all and Murphy has had other things on his mind recently. Fu has already shown some decent form this season and there is no reason why he can’t maintain that for another week. At 40/1 with the main man in his quarter disappearing already the Hong Kong man looks a tasty price.
Mark Allen is beginning to show me signs that he is going to come good again after his run to The Masters title earlier in the year. He played some good stuff in Shanghai recently but ran into a devastating five frame burst from Ding in the second round. That might only have further steeled him for a big challenge here and at 25/1 he is an acceptable enough price to go all the way in another Chinese event.
Tips
Back M.Fu to win China Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with 888sport (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back M.Allen to win China Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
