Although one snooker tournament only finished on the other side of the world on Sunday, another begins in Coventry on Monday when the Champion of Champions gets underway inside the Ricoh Arena, the first big event of the season on UK soil.
This tournament is a one table set up featuring 16 winners of events from the last year including the defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, who has a phenomenal record in these higher profile invitation events.
Recent Winners
2018 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2017 – Shaun Murphy
2016 – John Higgins
2015 – Neil Robertson
2014 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Format
16 players will head to the Ricoh Arena over the course of the week, with them being divided into groups of four. Each group has two semi-finals and a group final. The semi-finals are the best of seven frames and the group final is the best of 11 with a whole group being played across one day on each of the first four days of the tournament. The winners of each group go into the overall semi-finals which are the best of 11 frames and the champion will be determined on Sunday over the best of 19 frames.
Group 1
Group 1 is a stellar group and although it is the first one we actually have to wait until the last day of group action for it to be played. As the defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan is the top seed this week and he is in this group as a result. The World Championship finalist John Higgins is also in this part of the draw as is the Gibraltar Open champion Stuart Bingham. The group is completed by the World Seniors champion Jimmy White.
Group 2
Potentially the best of the groups is Group 2 which will make up the schedule of play on Wednesday and it sees the world champion Judd Trump headlining the action. He has been placed in a group with the German Masters winner and runner up here last year in Kyren Wilson while the Six Red World Championship winner Stephen Maguire is also in here. The final match into the section is the Shootout champion and World Open finalist Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in what should be a great group to watch.
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Group 3
The second to last man into the field was Mark Selby and he has been drawn in this group. The English Open winner will potentially face the Scottish Open champion Mark Allen in the group final if this one goes to the seedings. Indian Open winner Matt Selt will make his debut in the event in this section of the draw while the Riga Masters winner Yan Bingtao completes that feels like a pretty competitive quartet.
Group 4
It is this group which gets the tournament underway on Monday and it is headlined by the China Open and Welsh Open champion Neil Robertson while the China Championship winner Shaun Murphy is also in this group. The Championship League winner Martin Gould is the third player in this group and the section is completed by the first woman to compete in the tournament in the Women’s World Championship winner Reanne Evans.
Betting
With the form horses and class acts such as Ronnie O’Sullivan, Shaun Murphy, Neil Robertson and John Higgins all in the top half of the draw I’m going to focus on the bottom half for an outright bet. Judd Trump is the headline act in it but it won’t be easy for him to win successive tournaments on two different continents within a week of each other.
I like Kyren Wilson this week. He has a decent enough record here having made the final last year and while he won’t have been back from China for too long by the time he plays his group, neither will two of his rivals and the other, Stephen Maguire, looks in absolutely no form whatsoever. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is the interesting one in this group after making the final last week but he started nearly every match in the latter stages slowly which could count against him. Wilson should be fired up after losing in the semi-final in Yushan and I think he can make for up that this week.
Tips
Back K.Wilson to win Champion of Champions (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
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