After a lengthy break apart from a couple of qualifying events the new snooker season kicks into full swing this weekend when the 64 men who made it through to the final stages of the Riga Masters head out to Latvia to compete for the opening title of the campaign.
The field for this tournament is not as stacked as some events which we will see over the course of the season but the world champion Mark Williams is in the field as is the defending champion Ryan Day which should make for a good weekend.
Recent Winners
2017 – Ryan Day
2016 – Neil Robertson
2015 – Barry Hawkins
2014 – Mark Selby
The Format
The first round of the tournament is played out across a number of tables throughout a busy day on Friday before the second round and the last 16 take place on Saturday. The quarter finals are the focus for the morning session on Sunday with all those matches being over the best of seven frames. The semi-finals are on Sunday afternoon with the final on Sunday evening. They are the best of nine frames.
Top Half
There are some decent names in the top half of the draw with Barry Hawkins and Shaun Murphy among the best of them. Ali Carter, Mark Allen and Neil Robertson will all be eyeing up the title this weekend. Liang Wenbo and Mark King are the other players in the top 16 seeds who have made it through to this stage of the tournament.
There are also some good lower ranked players in this section. Chris Wakelin will be looking to kick on this term while Sam Craigie is a class act waiting to break through. Zhou Yuelong is another who will fancy his chances of landing a big title this season while Li Hang and the defending champion Ryan Day are also in this half.
Bottom Half
It is this part of the draw that holds the world champion Mark Williams. He is joined by the likes of Kyren Wilson, Anthony McGill, Joe Perry and Luca Brecel as top 16 seeds while Marco Fu is another leading light in this section of the draw. Stephen Maguire is another who will be looking to kick on over the course of the season.
Michael White was a tournament winner last season and has the chance to open up this term with a win while Dave Gilbert is looking for his big breakthrough. Michael Holt, Xiao Guodong and Ben Woollaston are all dangers in this half of the draw but Jack Lisowski could be the biggest danger of the lot of them.
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Betting
I’ll take a man in each half this weekend with the top half protagonist being Shaun Murphy. Murphy always gives every tournament he enters a good go and I’m expecting that to be the case this weekend. Murphy is clearly the standout player in the top quarter and it would be a surprise if we don’t see him in the semi-final even allowing for the fact it is short and sharp sprints and early in the campaign. Murphy didn’t qualify for the World Open so he could do with a big run this weekend to make up for it and given his draw I think he’s decent enough value at 16/1.
Marco Fu is playing catch up this season after his eye issue robbed him of the second half of last term and he has already shown up well. He has qualified for both this tournament and the World Open for the loss of just one frame with a barrage of big breaks. I always say that you know when Fu is playing well because he scores heavily when he is. Fu has joined up with the SightRight scene which Mark Williams gave a lot of credit to for his turnaround in form last season. The early signs are that it is working for Fu too and I’ll pay to see if it has instant tournament effect here.
Tips
Back S.Murphy to win Riga Masters (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 17.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back M.Fu to win Riga Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Ladbrokes (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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