The second ranking event of the snooker season begins on Monday when the British Open returns to the circuit after a lengthy period away. The tournament takes place at the Morningside Arena in Leicester and will contain 128 entrants from the off.
The bigger events are already beginning to look large on the horizon so the big names in the field this week will be out to lay a marker down for what is to come, although everything about the format this week screams upsets and shock results.
The Format
This is a pretty quick fire tournament with the first four rounds being the best of five frames with the quarter finals and the semi-finals seeing the event go up to the best of seven. The champion will be decided on Sunday evening over the best of 11 frames. Usually we have a draw bracket drawn out in advance but that is not the case this week as there is a completely random draw right the way through the competition.
The Favourites
Judd Trump will begin the tournament as the 4/1 favourite to win the title. You would think it will need someone with an aggressive mindset who can get in from distance and take the game to the opponent to win this tournament so he is certainly a worthy market leader, although whether anyone is 4/1 in an event which is predominantly the best of five frames and with a random draw to boot I would seriously question. We saw at the Championship League last week that he isn’t bulletproof so I would probably be looking elsewhere this week.
Mark Selby will certainly have plenty of home support behind him this week as he looks to pick up his first win since he regained the World Championship. On the face of it you wouldn’t think that this sort of format would suit the ‘Jester’ but he has an incredible record in Hone Nations events recently and the early stages are only a frame less than that so there is no reason to believe he’ll be too inconvenienced by the format. A first round repeat of the world final with Shaun Murphy isn’t ideal to his chances though which would put me off at 8/1.
Kyren Wilson is primed to go well this week with a format that suits and a profile that should see him on the main table for the majority of his matches. He is a 12/1 shot to win the title and when you consider he has dominated the Championship League events over the last three stagings he is certainly not averse to playing in the shorter format. Wilson is waiting for that real huge breakthrough season where he takes down two of three titles and this could very well be the first one he picks up.
John Higgins and Mark Allen come next in the betting at 14/1. Allen was a beaten finalist in the Championship League last week so he’ll be popular in the hope that he continues his form. I’m not sure Higgins plays his best in the shorter formats though. He is a traditional type who prefers to build his way into a match and an event and he doesn’t get that luxury here so he isn’t for me but Allen would certainly interest me were we sure of the draw.
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Profile
There are 128 players in the field but we can’t back them all so we need to whittle them down in some fashion. I think the first thing to do is to take recent form into account so those who appeared in the Championship League last week might have an edge on those who didn’t. I wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t play a modern game either as these matches come thick and fast and the last thing you need is a 3 hour match and then have to play an hour later. I’ll take some form horses who get on with it and who can score.
Main Bets
I’ll go with a couple of main bets for this tournament in the hope that the draw remains kind to them as long as possible. Both of them went deep in the Championship League last week so their cue arm is nicely oiled. Ali Carter is the first of those. He might be right up for this actually having not won a title for a while. He is too good to continue to go winless so it was good to see him play well in the Championship League last week. He has said he is going to play more aggressively from here on in during his career and that certainly paid dividends last week. I think with a fair draw he is one who might take a bit of beating.
Cao Yupeng has arrived back on the tour with a bit to prove and he certainly went about that the right way in the Championship League where he made the final group stage and held his own in a tasty last group with the eventual champion Dave Gilbert, who he was the only man to beat him in the whole competition, Carter and Ryan Day. Yupeng scored very well throughout the competition and if he can build on that then he could go well here. He is a former ranking event finalist so if the draw can be kind he could be a dark horse for the title at a decent price.
Outsiders
You are almost obliged to throw a couple of darts out at the bigger prices in this tournament to see what sticks and I just can’t ignore the 125/1 on Thepchaiya Un-Nooh to win the event. You know you won’t get a whole lot of consistency from the Thai but at the same time you also know that if he is on it he could have one of these best of fives wrapped up in 25 minutes and be fresh as a daisy for the next one. There is a whole lot of lottery to this tournament but if the Thai can get rid of Matt Selt in the opening round and the draw stays kind and his long potting is in good order he could do some damage here.
Mark Davis had a decent run at the Championship League and in his final match of his existence in that event he smashed in a couple of tons against Noppon Saengkham so he looks to be scoring well which I really think is part of the deal this week. If you can put your opponent under pressure in the first frame with a big break he knows he or she is pretty much in no miss territory after that. Davis is another with an awkward first round game in Michael Holt but if he can come through that and continues to score like he was doing last week then there is no reason why he can’t push for the latter stages.
Tips
Back A.Carter to win British Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back C.Yupeng to win British Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back T.Un-Nooh to win British Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back M.Davis to win British Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 226.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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