The snooker season continues on Monday when the first Home Nations event of the season takes place inside the bio-secure and behind closed doors setup at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes when the English Open is played out.
There has had to be a serious restructure to the calendar this season with the Covid-19 restrictions in place around the world but it is to the credit of the governing body that Mark Selby will have a title defend albeit at a venue which is becoming all too familiar to those on tour, although with the winner 25% of the way to the £1 million bonus I’m sure whoever it is will cope!
Recent Winners
2019 – Mark Selby
2018 – Stuart Bingham
2017 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2016 – Liang Wenbo
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 first event of the season so there are some tasty matches right from the start.
Top Quarter
He might not be the number one ranked player in the world but as the defending champion Mark Selby gets the number one seed this week and as a result he is the star name in the top quarter. There are four top 16 ranked players in each quarter and the other ones in this section are Shaun Murphy, Joe Perry and the man who ended his title drought straight after lockdown and will be looking for another this week in Stephen Maguire.
Of the other players in this quarter there is the former champion Liang Wenbo, Zhou Yuelong, Scott Donaldson, Ali Carter, Jamie Clarke and Martin O’Donnell. There are also a few players for the future to watch in this quarter not least the man who dumped Ronnie O’Sullivan out of the European Masters last month in Aaron Hill. Jackson Page is another good youngster who will be looking to make his mark on this section over the course of the week.
Second Quarter
Neil Robertson is the highest ranked player in what is a very tough looking second quarter. It I tough because Mark Allen is the other main seed in the section and he is playing a whole lot better than his results recently have suggested that he is. Yan Bingtao and Dave Gilbert are the other two players from the top 16 in this section and they have both been to finals of Home Nations events over the last year or so.
The reason why this quarter is going to be so tough to come out of is the quality of the other players in it. European Masters finalist Martin Gould is in here as is the World Championship semi-finalist Anthony McGill. One of the best players outside the top 16 has to be Barry Hawkins and he is also in this quarter not to mention Lyu Haotian, Zhao Xintong, Mark Davis, Noppon Saengkham, Sam Craigie, Kurt Maflin and Mark King. This second quarter is a tournament in itself.
Third Quarter
This is the section where the world number one Judd Trump will look to win his first tournament since lockdown from. His form hasn’t been enormously great in recent times so he’ll be looking to get a trophy in the cabinet for the season and keep himself on track for the bonus. His regular foe Kyren Wilson, former champion Stuart Bingham and the dangerous Mark Williams are the other top 16 members looking to have a good week here.
Most of the really dangerous other players are in that second quarter but there are still a few that standout here. The Shootout champion Michael Holt is one of them while the popular Jimmy White is also in this quarter. Anthony Hamilton has often gone well in these Home Nations events while Gary Wilson will be looking for a big week. Ricky Walden, Graeme Dott, Ben Woollaston, Fergal O’Brien and Ken Doherty are some of the other seasoned campaigners on show in this section.
Bottom Quarter
The world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan is set to embark on a tilt at a second English Open title from the bottom quarter. If the second quarter looks tasty and tight this one could be even better it must be said. I say that because John Higgins is the other main seed in this section but Ding Junhui and Jack Lisowski are the other members of the top 16 who are in this quarter of the draw and if they all continue to progress the latter stages of the quarter will be very tasty.
It isn’t just about that quartet of players though. The classy Thepchaiya Un-Nooh can cause trouble from this section as can Ryan Day while the likes of Matthew Stevens, Tom Ford, Xiao Guodong, Luca Brecel, Jimmy Robertson and James Cahill are just some of the players who will be looking to begin their Home Nations series with a positive week and a few wins as we head towards the cut off for the UK Championship.
Betting
As I did with the European Masters last month and previous Home Nations events I’ll take a player from each quarter in the hope we get a couple going deep in the event and giving us some interest later in the week. In the top quarter I’ll have a go with Stephen Maguire, a man who hasn’t lit it up since he won the Tour Championship but with plenty of snooker on the horizon I would expect him to be much more up for this tournament and with the ability to ease his way through the first two rounds before the tougher stuff come along he should be able to get into top gear at the right time. Maguire is in the nicer quarter of the draw and one where he can run deep from at 50/1.
The second quarter is that absolute minefield but you can make life a little easier by picking someone in the bottom half of it. I say that because the top half of the quarter has Mark Allen. Kurt Maflin, Yan Bingtao, Martin Gould and Anthony McGill in, all men who have gone deep in tournaments since lockdown. The bottom part of the quarter has Neil Robertson who has done nothing since lockdown, Barry Hawkins whose form has gone completely, Dave Gilbert who keeps on flattering to deceive and then there is my selection Zhao Xintong, a player who can be hot to handle when he gets going. He didn’t get going in the European Masters but he played well in his Championship League group and having seen his friend Zhou Yuelong reach a final last season he’ll be determined to do similar this term. Xintong made the fourth round of this last year and has made a quarter final of a Home Nations event so he doesn’t need much more to be right in the mix. At a huge price he’s my pick in this quarter.
Although Ronnie O’Sullivan isn’t in the third quarter the winner of it could face him in the semi-final so I’m looking for a player who we know can beat him if needed as well as coming through the draw and in Stuart Bingham I think we’ve found that. He is in the same quarter as Judd Trump but wouldn’t meet him until the quarter final and Trump might have been beaten by that point because his form since the sport restarted has not been good by his high standards. Bingham has gone fairly well in recent times and having won this title before, and having had a few other decent runs at these Home Nations events I think he is the one to be on in this quarter.
Clearly the bottom quarter is all about Ronnie O’Sullivan but he lost surprisingly in the European Masters and in Ryan Day and Matthew Stevens there are a couple of players who would prove significant dangers early doors. That said we don’t want to be facing O’Sullivan too soon so I’m taking someone in the opposite half of the quarter to him so that four people will have a go at beating the Rocket before our man faces him. Our man is Tom Ford who should be backed to get at least to the quarter final even with John Higgins and Ding Junhui in his part of the draw. Higgins has barely won a match since lockdown and Ding hasn’t been interested for a long while. Ford was a semi-finalist in this tournament last year and is improving all the time. He made the last 16 of the European Masters last month before he was edged out in a deciding frame by Shaun Murphy. He’s a big price albeit in a tricky quarter.
Tips
Back S.Maguire to win English Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back S.Bingham to win English Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34/00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
Back Z.Xintong to win English Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back T.Ford to win English Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
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