As one snooker tournament ends on the Sunday, another one begins on the Monday, with the tour moving across the border for the Scottish Open, the penultimate leg of the Home Nations series and the last chance for silverware to be won this decade.
Mark Allen walked off with the pot here last year and he is back looking to defend the title and take a boost into 2020 with him as a result, but the great and good are in the field this week ready to deny him a successful title defence.
Recent Winners
2018 – Mark Allen
2017 – Neil Robertson
2016 – Marco Fu
The Format
These Home Nation events have been around for a while now so the format should be familiar. Monday and Tuesday sees the first round of the tournament take place with the second round on Wednesday. Two rounds of action takes place on Thursday with the third round and last 16 on that day. All of those matches are over the best of seven frames.
The four quarter finals will all be played over the course of the two sessions on Friday. They are the best of 9 frames with the two semi-finals on Saturday being the best of 11. The champion is determined on the Sunday in a two-session final which is a race to nine. There is an open draw for the event so there are some tasty matches right from the start.
Top Quarter
As the defending champion it is Mark Allen who is the number one seed and who therefore heads this quarter this week. That puts him in a quarter which on paper at least is not the strongest although it does have three other members of the top 16 in the world in it in the form of Barry Hawkins, Kyren Wilson and Ali Carter, who will be buoyed by sneaking into The Masters next month when Ronnie O’Sullivan confirmed he wasn’t entering the tournament.
All of these sections are loaded with quality outsiders and in this one there is the Northern Ireland Open quarter finalist Anthony Hamilton, the World Championship semi-finalist Gary Wilson and the man who has made half of the maximums made this season in Tom Ford. Other notable names include Mark King, Scott Donaldson and the talented Iranian star Hossein Vafaei in what is an open quarter of the draw.
Second Quarter
The Champion of Champions winner Neil Robertson is the highest ranked player in the second quarter but as far as the crowds are concerned it is John Higgins who will be the headline attraction in it as he looks to finally land the Stephen Hendry Trophy. The other two members of the top 16 in this quarter of the draw are another home hero in Stephen Maguire and the extremely talented albeit slightly out of form Jack Lisowski.
There are a couple of veteran former world champions in this quarter in Peter Ebdon and Ken Doherty while the Chinese pair of Zhou Yuelong and Liang Wenbo are also in this section. The man of the moment, Nigel Bond will look to build on his fine run in the UK Championship from this part of the draw as well while the Shootout champion Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is in this quarter as well. Ryan Day, Michael Holt and Lu Haotian will be looking for big weeks here too.
Third Quarter
Ronnie O’Sullivan announced that he is not going to The Masters next month but he is in the Scottish Open and this is the quarter he will look to come through the draw from. English Open winner Mark Selby rates as his main danger but both Stuart Bingham and Joe Perry will be looking to go into The Masters next month with not only a good week here but a run to the final and maybe even a piece of crystal for their efforts.
This quarter is loaded with quality players. UK Championship semi-finalist Yan Bingtao is one such player in this quarter as is Luca Brecel. You would think Martin Gould would come good again at some point and he’ll look to do that from this section. European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson, Kurt Maflin and the UK Championship quarter finalist Matthew Stevens are all in this quarter as well. Throw in the Indian Open champion Matt Selt and this is a massive quarter.
Bottom Quarter
This is the section where the world champion Judd Trump will go in search of successive Home Nations titles after scooping the last one in Belfast last month. Shaun Murphy is seeded to be his biggest rival in terms of winning the quarter and making it into the semi-final. Dave Gilbert and the back to form Ding Junhui complete the players from the top 16 who are in this quarter, another one you would have to say is full of quality.
The classy Chinese youngsters Yuan Sijun and Zhao Xintong will be dangerous for everyone in the field over this format while Noppon Saengkham looked in good touch in the UK Championship, as did the veteran Alan McManus. Michael White was another one who showed a return to something nearer his better days in York and he’s in this quarter as well, as are Graeme Dott, Xiao Guodong and Ricky Walden, who can all do some damage.
Betting
As ever I’m going to take a man in each quarter this week in the hope of getting one or two through to the longer format where the event really kicks on. In the top quarter I’m going to back Barry Hawkins for a return to form. He has made the last 16 in the first two Home Nations events before running into Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy in rampant form but he made a 147 in York and you don’t make them if you are not hitting the cue ball well. He just needs a bit of a rub of the green and he’ll be contending in the business end of the tournaments once again. He usually gets better as the season goes on so I’ll take a chance on him as my main bet this week.
My other three bets are complete outsiders who not forlorn hopes given the form they showed in York. In fairness Marco Fu is no outsider when he is playing well and he certainly looked to be doing that in the UK Championship where Li Hang was just insanely good when dumping him out. Some players might be here for the craic but I don’t think Fu will be one of them. He’s won this tournament before so it will be an event which means something to him and he needs to push in every event because his ranking is nowhere near it should be after all his eye issues. I always maintain when Fu is scoring well you know he’s in good form and he’s doing that now. He could be a massive sleeper this week.
In the third quarter it was hard not to take Kurt Maflin away from the UK Championship as a man to follow for a little while. It could be this sort of event he comes to the party in as well. I say that because he made the semi-final of the Riga Masters over a similar format to this one earlier in the season. We saw last week that he is cueing well and he showed signs of confidence. Even in that deciding frame against Mark Allen which he lost, the brown he took on was that of a man who fancies the job right now. He has a bit of a bitch of a draw but the price is more than acceptable despite that and I’ll pay to see how he goes.
In the bottom quarter another man who caught my eye last week and who is an acceptable price this week is Noppon Saengkham. He is another who could mean business over this format as well. He has lost in the first round of both Home Nations events this season but lost them both in a deciding frame which can happen. He certainly showed signs in the UK Championship that he is coming back to form once again. He made the quarter final of the English Open last year and looks to have taken a lot of inspiration from the work of Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, his countryman, this season and at a monster price we’ll pay to see what we get.
Tips
Back B.Hawkins to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 21.00 with Betway (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back M.Fu to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back K.Maflin to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 301.00 with 888sport (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back N.Saengkham to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 276.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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