The UK Championship may conclude on Sunday but the snooker season stops for nobody at this time of year and another tournament begins on Monday when the Scottish Open kicks off in that incredible un-Scottish like venue of the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Usually we would be going to Glasgow where Mark Selby won the Stephen Hendry Trophy last year but the current state of the world means we remain in the behind closed doors setup in Milton Keynes where the Jester will look to make a successful defence of the third Home Nations crown of the campaign.
Recent Winners
2019 – Mark Selby
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.
Top Quarter
As the defending champion it is Mark Selby who is the number one seed this week and as a result of that he heads up the top quarter. There are four top 16 players heading into the draw in each quarter here and the other three players in this one are Jack Lisowski, who will be playing with the relief of having qualified for The Masters next month, Tour Championship winner Stephen Maguire and the former champion of this event in Mark Allen. That means the last two winners of this tournament are both in this quarter.
There are some pretty decent players outside the top 16 in this section as well. UK Championship semi-finalist Zhou Yuelong is one of those while former World Championship semi-finalist Gary Wilson is also in here. Tom Ford, Xiao Guodong and Ben Woollaston are some of the other names looking to do some damage from this quarter this week and then there are household names such as Alan McManus and Jimmy White also lurking in this part of the draw.
Second Quarter
The 2017 winner of this tournament Neil Robertson is the main seed in the second quarter of the draw. It remains to be seen how much he has left in the tank after going the course and distance in the UK Championship but he’ll doubtless be looking for another title to add to his collection this week. Dave Gilbert is one of the top 16 members in this section of the draw and he needs a huge week if he is going to be in the World Grand Prix next week. Yan Bingtao and Kyren Wilson make up what is always a competitive second quarter.
The supposed outsiders only further strengthen it with us having the Snooker Shootout champion Michael Holt in here. He is joined by the World Championship semi-finalist Anthony McGill and a Barry Hawkins who is fighting hard to regain his top 16 place back after missing out on The Masters for the first time in quite a while. Other players to look out for in this section include Jak Jones, Liam Highfield, Jamie Clarke, Sam Craigie, Matthew Stevens, Jamie Jones and Zhao Xintong, all of whom are capable of decent runs here.
Third Quarter
This is the part of the draw where Judd Trump will go for a third Home Nations title in succession from. If the £1 million bonus was around this year the spread on how many times we would hear about it would have been around a million on its own but it isn’t so Trump is just playing for history in that regard. Mark Williams, Stuart Bingham and John Higgins are the other members of the top 16 who are looking to deny him the chance of going that deep in the event.
There are some decent enough outsiders in this section of the draw as well. Noppon Saengkham showed in Sheffield that he can take down the big names while Jimmy Robertson has a ranking event title on his CV. Matt Selt is another who has won a ranking event while Li Hang should have one to his name given his quality. Graeme Dott, Joe Perry, Dominic Dale, Liang Wenbo and Luca Brecel are other players to keep an eye on this week.
Bottom Quarter
It is from this bottom quarter that the world champion and recent Northern Ireland Open runner up Ronnie O’Sullivan will look to get his hands on the Stephen Hendry Trophy for the first time when he competes in this section as the number two seed. He is on a collision course with Shaun Murphy in the quarter final if both players make it that far in the event. Ding Junhui and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh will be out to put a spanner in the works of those particular plans.
This bottom quarter is loaded with players who could have big weeks it has to be said. Chang Bingyu has been making quite an impression and lines up in this part of the draw as does the UK Championship semi-finalist Lu Ning and the European Masters finalist Martin Gould. Ali Carter and Ryan Day clash in a heavyweight first round tussle with the winner hoping for a big run while Martin O’Donnell, Scott Donaldson, Michael White, Hossein Vafaei, Kurt Maflin and David Grace can all put the cat among the pigeons.
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Betting
Regular readers will know that I like to take one bet in each quarter in these Home Nations events in the hope that we can get one or two through to the latter stages and come up with the goods. In the top quarter I’ll take on the defending champion Mark Selby with the man he beat in the final last year in Jack Lisowski, a player who should be freed up having qualified for The Masters next month. He mentioned during the UK Championship that he wants to win a tournament and shut people up so he isn’t going to lack for motivation this week. This format should suit Lisowski and after a confidence restoring run last week he looked overpriced in not the strongest quarter we’ve ever seen.
In the second quarter I’m going to take a chance on Dave Gilbert who is clearly a better player than he has been showing in recent times and I’m hoping that the knowledge that he is in The Masters will get him going. I don’t know if it is the lack of crowds that isn’t helping Gilbert or he is struggling for motivation to practice but if it is the latter when a date with the world number one at Alexandra Palace should rectify having nothing to practice for. Usually when a class act has a slump in form he only needs two or three wins to get going again. Gilbert doesn’t have the easiest draw in the first round in Matthew Stevens but that might be another positive in that he’ll know he needs to play well to come through. Gilbert should be reaching latter stages in all the tournaments with his cue action. He’ll come good again and I’ll pay to see if it is this week when he does so.
John Higgins looked excellent at the UK Championship until he ran into a pretty hot Zhou Yuelong but I like his position in the draw here and he will clearly need no invitation to win a Scottish Open should the chance present itself. On the face of it you would have to say that being in the same quarter as Judd Trump isn’t an ideal spot to be in but there’s only so many snooker matches Trump can play before fatigue sets in, if not physical then certain mental with all the restrictions that need to be adhered to. It might be that he just can’t get up for this after a lengthy UK Championship and with another big tournament next week. Higgins showed at the English Open that he’s playing good stuff and he’s a former finalist in this tournament. He’ll be eager to win his ‘home’ event and looks an acceptable price this week.
Given that Ronnie O’Sullivan is in the bottom quarter of the draw I’ll look for an outsider here because if the Rocket fancies the job he is likely to come through the section but there is always the off chance that he doesn’t fancy it or that in a best of seven he runs into someone like Martin Gould in the third round who pots everything and sends him packing. In the other part of this quarter Kurt Maflin is lurking and there are signs that he is coming into form again. He was a quarter finalist in the Northern Ireland Open and went well last week at the UK Championship until he ran into Kyren Wilson. He has the draw to win a few rounds here and if something happens to O’Sullivan who knows how deep the Norwegian can go. I’ll pay to find out.
Tips
Back J.Lisowski to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back D.Gilbert to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back K.Maflin to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
Back J.Higgins to win Scottish Open (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 19.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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