The snooker season is right in the middle of a busy period and that continues for another week from Monday when the Northern Ireland Open takes place. With the world the way it is right now the tournament carries its usual name but will be played out behind closed doors inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Judd Trump beat Ronnie O’Sullivan to win the title last year and the world number one will be looking to make a successful defence of his crown and add it to the English Open title that he won earlier in the season.
Recent Winners
2019 – Judd Trump
2018 – Judd Trump
2017 – Mark Williams
2016 – Mark King
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
The defending champion and world number one Judd Trump is the number one seed this week and as a result of that he is the big dog in the top quarter. He will be expected to make the semi-final of the tournament from this section but if he is to get there he could have to go through the likes of his mate Jack Lisowski, the Tour Championship holder Stephen Maguire and the Champion of Champions winner Mark Allen in what looks like a pretty decent quarter in terms of the top 16 players in it.
There are some appealing names from outside the top 16 in this quarter as well including the former semi-finalist Anthony Hamilton, Scott Donaldson, Jimmy White, the last two European Masters runners up Zhou Yuelong and Martin Gould as well as Noppon Saengkham, World Championship star Jamie Clarke, Luca Brecel and technically the home player Gerard Greene in what is a pretty loaded top quarter for the week.
Second Quarter
The European Masters winner Mark Selby heads up the seeds in the second quarter where once again three other members of the top 16 will be out to deny him a spot in the semi-finals from this section. The first of those is a Kyren Wilson who won the Championship League not too long ago. The other two players in that elite band are Yan Bingtao and Dave Gilbert, both of whom will be looking to find some form for the UK Championship in this event.
There are no shortage of decent players outside the top 16 in this quarter as well. They include the former Welsh Open finalist Andrew Higginson, the Chinese star Zhao Xintong, former champion in this tournament in Mark King, World Championship semi-finalist Anthony McGill, Michael White, Barry Hawkins Sam Craigie, the Shootout champion Michael Holt and the former world champion Ken Doherty. This is another competitive looking section.
Third Quarter
Champion of Champions finalist Neil Robertson is the top seed in the third quarter. He might be glad this tournament has moved because he has never gone past the third round of it when it has been held in Belfast. If he is going to make it into his first Northern Ireland semi-final he is going to have to go through the likes of the maximum man from last week in Shaun Murphy, former winner Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham out of the top 16 players in this part of the draw.
This quarter is loaded with young talent and potential tournament winners though. Ryan Day is very much one of those although he has drawn Shaun Murphy in a blockbuster first round match. Lyu Haotian is in this quarter as is Kurt Maflin while Graeme Dott, Xiao Guodong, Ali Carter and Liang Wenbo aren’t a million miles away from the top 16 with The Masters cut off rapidly approaching so they will all be after big weeks. Ben Woollaston, Ricky Walden and Jamie Jones are other capable campaigners in this section.
Bottom Quarter
The world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has lost in the last two finals of this competition so he’ll be hoping it is third time lucky for him as he bids to reach the title showdown from this bottom quarter. The thing that jumps out when you look at this section is the potential quarter final between O’Sullivan and John Higgins although before that happens Ding Junhui and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh will be out to stop that from happening.
This might be the best quarter of the lot because some of the names outside the top 16 are of an excellent standard. They are headed by Joe Perry but also include Matthew Stevens, Jimmy Robertson, Mark Davis, Hossein Vafaei, Yuan Sijun, Tom Ford, Martin O’Donnell and Matt Selt while the likes of Daniel Wells, Joe O’Connor, Luo Honghao and Fergal O’Brien will be looking to deliver big performances throughout the week.
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Betting
As ever I’m going to take a player in each quarter this week in the hope that we get a couple to go deep and threaten a payout and the title. In the top quarter I’ve been quite keen on Zhou Yuelong for a while. I took him to win the Championship League and he made the final groups but couldn’t get through to the final. He also made the quarter finals of the English Open and qualified for the German Masters last week without losing a frame. The Chinese ace certainly looks to have kicked on this season and when you consider he made the European Masters final last season the next step is for him to win a tournament. If something happens to Judd Trump in the top quarter Yuelong could go very well here.
In the second quarter I’ll take a chance on Barry Hawkins who will know that he needs a big week if he is going to push his way into The Masters. He has dropped out of the top 16 for the first time in yonks which is an indication of where his form has been over the last year or two but often things like that can focus the mind and there have been shoots of life which suggest he might be coming back into form. He qualified for the German Masters last week which will give him some confidence and belief again and although his mini-section is competitive if he keeps on improving back to near his best then there is no reason why he can’t have a great week here.
It is hard to ignore the qualities of Shaun Murphy this week and with Neil Robertson not always convincing in these Home Nations events the Magician should fancy a deep run. I know a maximum break is only one frame but you don’t make one like Shaun did last week if you are not hitting the ball well. The fact he almost had a second maximum and came through his two matches losing only one frame will have done a lot for his confidence. Murphy has already made the semi-finals of the European Masters this season and while he has a horrible first round draw, if he does overcome Ryan Day I expect him to go very well indeed here.
In the bottom quarter I’m going to take a chance on Matthew Stevens. Whoever comes out of this quarter will have to play well with Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins in it but Stevens beat O’Sullivan in the English Open and quite often in the early stages of these Home Nations events we see Ronnie taking liberties which he might not get away with here. Stevens said at the English Open that he was playing well because he has been practicing a lot more and he is still good enough to be able to make his way through a draw should it open up. At the price I’ll see how far he does out of this quarter.
Tips
Back S.Murphy to win Northern Ireland Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back B.Hawkins to win Northern Ireland Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back Z.Yuelong to win Northern Ireland Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back M.Stevens to win Northern Ireland Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 176.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
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