The first Triple Crown event of the snooker season is upon us as 128 leading players in the game head up to York for the 2021 UK Championship, a tournament which offers up the feeling that the campaign is about to kick into full swing.
Neil Robertson landed the title behind closed doors in Milton Keynes last year and he is back to defend his crown, thankfully in front of crowds at the Yorkshire venue this time, in what should be a decent week of snooker.
Recent Winners
2020 – Neil Robertson
2019 – Ding Junhui
2018 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2017 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2016 – Mark Selby
2015 – Neil Robertson
2014 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2013 – Neil Robertson
2012 – Mark Selby
2011 – Judd Trump
The Format
Unlike the old days the entirety of this tournament from the first round right up until the final is the best of 11 frames. The first round of the event is actually on TV this year with Eurosport showing it. The main TV stages begin on the first Saturday with the day before seeing no action to allow the TV rig to be set up. The final is the second Sunday of the event with the champion being crowned over two sessions and the best of 19 frames. The draw seeds player ranked 1 facing 128 in the first round, 2 against 127 and so on, so the big names will be expected to make the latter stages.
Top Quarter
This is one of those tournaments where the defending champion takes the number one seeding so it is Neil Robertson and he will be expected to go deep from this part of the draw. The draw is done on rankings so it is the players ranked eight, nine and 16 in this top quarter of the bracket. They are the former winner Stephen Maguire, British Open champion Mark Williams and the man who has gone deep at the World Championship in the past in Anthony McGill.
With 32 players in every quarter there are naturally going to be a large amount of recognisable names in each section with Zhou Yuelong the highest ranked among those outside the top 16 here. Tom Ford is another player who will be looking to go well here and then there are the likes of Ricky Walden and Anthony Hamilton who had good runs in the Home Nations events. Speaking of Home Nations events, the current Welsh Open champion is also in this section in Jordan Brown while Scott Donaldson and Li Hang will be looking for good weeks.
Second Quarter
We are not used to seeing Ronnie O’Sullivan down in the second quarter. As number three in the world whenever Judd Trump or Mark Selby defends a title he finds himself in the third quarter but with Neil Robertson defending this week it is he who is number one which pushes O’Sullivan to this section. Joining him in this quarter from the top 16 are Kyren Wilson, The Masters champion Yan Bingtao and Stuart Bingham, who lost recently to O’Sullivan.
There are some big names looking to make a name for themselves this week with Kurt Maflin looking to get his campaign up and running while Mark King will be aiming to build on his run to the semis in Milton Keynes earlier in the month. Ali Carter and Jimmy White are two recognisable names in this quarter and then there are British Open finalist Gary Wilson, former winner Matthew Stevens and Lu Ning who was a semi-finalist here last season.
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Third Quarter
The recently crowned Champion of Champions, Judd Trump, heads up the players in the third quarter of the draw this week. He was a ball away from winning this title last year so will be eager to go well and win a second title in as many weeks. If he is going to do that then he will have to come out of a quarter which has Shaun Murphy as the next highest ranked player as well as Barry Hawkins and the Northern Ireland Open champion Mark Allen.
There are plenty more big names in this section who will be looking to show their best stuff in this tournament. Championship League winner Dave Gilbert is one of those players while the former finalist Liang Wenbo is another. Michael Holt was the second to last winner of the Shootout who could go well here and the likes of Cao Yupeng and Jamie Jones certainly don’t lack for talent. Martin Gould, Joe Perry and Matt Selt are just some of the other players who could have a deep run here.
Bottom Quarter
This is the section where Mark Selby will look to add the UK title to the world crown he won earlier in the year. Selby hasn’t made it to a final yet this season but you sense he isn’t playing too badly and it might be that this longer format brings his best stuff out. John Higgins has lost in the last three finals this season and he’ll be looking to go one better here. Ding Junhui needs a big week as he is defending the money he collected for winning this two years ago and if he falls early he’ll plummet down the rankings Jack Lisowski is the other member of the top 16 who is in this quarter.
There are a stack of household names in this quarter this week. Hossein Vafaei has a win over Ronnie O’Sullivan this season and he can be dangerous while Xiao Guodong and Robert Milkins have been deep in tournaments before. Graeme Dott is pushing hard for a place at The Masters and the deeper he goes here the better his chances of getting there will be. Jimmy Robertson, Elliot Slessor and Zhao Xintong have all had good runs in events this season. There is also the Shootout winner Ryan Day and a certain Stephen Hendry in this quarter.
Outright Betting
I’ll take a couple of bets from the top half of the draw this week as with John Higgins, Judd Trump and Mark Selby all in the bottom half I think that is the section to leave alone. In the top quarter I like the form of Mark Williams and while he always plays himself down he is playing some good stuff this season. He has already won the British Open and he was on course for the last eight in the Northern Ireland Open before he paid the price for missing a red at 3-0 against John Higgins. Even in the Champion of Champions he should have been 2-0 up on Robertson and won two of the next three frames so despite his recent health issues he is playing well. Were those two to meet again I don’t think Williams is without a chance so at 40/1 he looks a big price to me here.
The other bet I like in the top half is Yan Bingtao. He looks to be in a great section of the draw because Kyren Wilson and Ronnie O’Sullivan, the two leading seeds in his section, both come here with their confidence dented by heavy losses in the Champion of Champions last week. Bingtao doesn’t. He lost in a deciding frame against John Higgins in the semi-final, the second time this season he has lost to the Scot in a semi-final so The Masters champion will be pleased that he can’t face him until the final. Bingtao has beaten O’Sullivan this season and certainly wouldn’t be without a chance against Wilson. I think the 25/1 on Bingtao is a shade big.
Quarter Betting
I’ll play a couple of bets in the bottom half of the draw but I’ll target the quarter betting. In the third quarter the 9/1 on Dave Gilbert to come through looks big to me. Admittedly this section is all about Judd Trump but he hasn’t won a Triple Crown event for a while now and there was criticism of that last year so he might be too determined to win this if that is possible. I’ve said for a while that I don’t think Shaun Murphy is playing all that well and when you consider that Barry Hawkins has shown nothing this season and we don’t know what state Mark Allen will turn up in given recent developments with him, all eyes point to the Championship League winner Gilbert to me. I think there’s a major title in Gilbert but given the quality in this bottom half it might not be this week. There is no reason he can’t make the semi-final though.
In the bottom quarter it could be worth chancing that Jimmy Robertson continues his fine season by coming through this section. You would think that John Higgins will fail sometime soon because of the amount of snooker he has played under decent pressure over the last six weeks or so while Mark Selby doesn’t look on top form to me. I’m not that interested in Ding Junhui or Jack Lisowski this week because they haven’t shown anything this season. Robertson was a semi-finalist in the British Open towards the beginning of the season and has the quality to do a bit of damage at a monster price here.
Tips
Back M.Williams to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back Y.Bingtao to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back D.Gilbert to win 3rd Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 10.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back J.Robertson to win 4th Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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