The leading snooker players head to Romania this week to take part in the inaugural Romanian Masters tournament. This event is an invitational competition with the leading 16 players in the world invited. The likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan turned the invite down while Shaun Murphy and Marco Fu are out with injury but there is still a decent field assembled for the tournament.
The Format
The competition begins with the last 16 and the quarter finals over the best of seven frames on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before the semi-finals on Saturday take place over the best of nine. The tournament then concludes with two sessions on Sunday in a final over the best of 19 frames for a decent enough first prize.
Top Half
Mark Selby is the number one seed this week given that he occupied that position in the world rankings. He is in the top quarter along with Liang Wenbo, Neil Robertson and a Stuart Bingham who might feel he has a point to prove after his sabbatical earlier in the season.
Mark Williams is the leading name in the second quarter of the tournament. He will face Ali Carter in the first round while he has also benefitted by the withdrawal of Shaun Murphy who was meant to be in this section. Mark King takes his place with Stephen Maguire the other player on show.
Bottom Half
Judd Trump is the second seed for the tournament which puts him in the bottom quarter. This section looks the toughest of all though with Luca Brecel, Masters champion Mark Allen and the man he beat in the final at Alexandra Palace, Kyren Wilson, also lining up in this quarter.
John Higgins is the headline act in the third quarter of the draw. Not for the first time this season he will go up against Anthony McGill in the first round with the other opening round match in this section of proceedings seeing Barry Hawkins taking on the champion in Gibraltar last week in Ryan Day.
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Betting
I’m only going to go with one outright this week. In truth you can make a case for the majority of players in this tournament so the one who plays the best snooker is likely to come out on top which is exactly what we are looking for.
If there is a weaker section of the draw then Stuart Bingham might have found it. He played well in Gibraltar over the weekend to show that his form is coming back with the more matches he plays and he might want to prove a point in this company, especially as he isn’t in the Players Championship next week. If he can see off Neil Robertson, who he has a decent record against in the first round, then neither Selby nor Liang are in great form and nobody is a massive danger in the semis. This draw could open up nicely for Bingham at an acceptable price.
Tips
PLACED – Back S.Bingham to win Romanian Masters for a 1/10 stake at 19.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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