One of the biggest invitational tournaments on the snooker calendar takes place this week as the Cazoo Champion of Champions is played out in Bolton, with the tournament winners from the last 12 months all making it into the draw alongside the highest non-qualified players in the rankings to make up the numbers.
Mark Allen won the title behind closed doors last year and although that got him into the field this year, he has pulled out due to personal reasons so we are guaranteed a different winner in the event which sees just one table in operation all week.
Recent Winners
2020 – Mark Allen
2019 – Neil Robertson
2018 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2017 – Shaun Murphy
2016 – John Higgins
2015 – Neil Robertson
2014 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Format
16 players have qualified for the tournament and they will all be placed into one of the four groups of four players. One group is played out on each of the first four days of the tournament with the semi-finals in the afternoon over the best of seven frames before the final of each group takes place in the evening session on the same day. That is over the best of 11 frames. The winners of each group go through to the overall semi-finals which take place over 11 frames on Friday evening and Saturday night before the winner is determined in a best of 19 frame final on Sunday.
Group 1
There is no defending champion this week so Judd Trump assumes the top seeding as the world number one at the time the draw was confirmed. Trump is yet to win a title this season but he won a bunch of them last term to get his way into the draw. He is joined by the World Seniors winner David Lilley who ironically gets in here because of the number of titles Trump won. Ryan Day won the Shootout last season so he has known for 10 months that he will be in the field this week and making up the numbers in this group is Stephen Maguire, who gets in on his world ranking.
Group 2
The world champion Mark Selby was the number two in the world when the draw was done and he gets to go in Group 2 this week. He is another who won more than one event to get into the field this week and he’ll face one of the more recent tournament winners in his first round match in Dave Gilbert. This is a great group because it has The Masters champion Yan Bingtao who is only seven weeks or so from beginning his defence of that title. The other man in the group is Shaun Murphy so we could have a repeat of the world final in the group final.
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Group 3
When you consider the winner of this group meets the winner of Group 2 in the semi-final we have some half of the draw. That is because it is Ronnie O’Sullivan who is the leading player in this group. He only gets in on his world ranking but he has made five finals in the last season and a bit so he deserves his place here. He’ll face another man in through the rankings in the first round in Stuart Bingham while the other first round match in this group sees the Players Championship winner John Higgins taking on the Chinese ace Ding Junhui, who completes the quartet in the field from the world rankings.
Group 4
The most recent tournament winner is the top dog in Group 4 as the English Open champion Neil Robertson will warm up for his UK Championship title defence in this group. The winner of this group faces the winner of Group 1 so there is an opportunity for someone here. Robertson will face the British Open and Pro Series winner Mark Williams in the first round. The other first round match sees one of the Championship League champions in the field in Kyren Wilson going up against the surprise winner of the Welsh Open in Jordan Brown.
Betting
I left the English Open last week thinking that Kyren Wilson was the one to take out of the week as a potential winner and I’ll put my money where my mouth is in that regard. It helps that Wilson is in one of the weaker two groups, not that any group is particularly weak here it has to be said. Jordan Brown has done nothing since he won the Welsh Open and isn’t familiar with the one table setups so Wilson has landed a nice first round draw and although he lost to Robertson in an epic English Open quarter final just over a week ago, he knows the formula for beating the Australian.
It might be that he runs into Judd Trump in the semi-final but we know from experience that he has the beating of the world number one in big matches. This isn’t a Trump that is firing on all cylinders though so it wouldn’t be the biggest shock in the world if he bites the dust early in this strong company. In an ideal world Wilson would be bigger than 11/1 but I think the skinny price is a reflection of his chance and the fact he’s in the nicer part of the draw. I’ll pay to see how well he goes here.
Tips
Back K.Wilson to win Champion of Champions (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 12.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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