The snooker tournaments keep on coming at the minute and on Monday the final Home Nations event of the season begins when the Welsh Open is played out over a week of action inside the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff.
John Higgins outlasted the field to win the tournament last year and he could do with a return to form his week. A pretty strong field heads to the Welsh capital looking to take the title from him over the course of the seven days.
Recent Winners
2018 – John Higgins
2017 – Stuart Bingham
2016 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2015 – John Higgins
2014 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2013 – Stephen Maguire
2012 – Ding Junhui
2011 – John Higgins
2010 – John Higgins
2009 – Stephen Maguire
The Format
I would imagine most know the format of these Home Nations events by now but for those who don’t the first four rounds of the tournament are played over the best of seven frames, with the third and fourth rounds taking place on Thursday. The quarter finals are over the best of nine frames with the semi-finals up to the best of 11. The champion will be determined over two sessions on Sunday in a race to nine. The draw has been already drawn and the event is a straight knockout.
Top Quarter
John Higgins is the defending champion and becomes the number one seed this week. That means he is the top seed in the top quarter of the draw. There are three other members of the top 16 in this part of the draw. They are the German Masters winner Kyren Wilson along with Ding Junhui and Jack Lisowski.
There are some decent outsiders in this part of the draw. Mark Davis has already made the final of one of the Home Nations events this season while Joe Perry was runner-up in the European Masters earlier in the campaign. Marco Fu is a danger when he’s on form and he is in this quarter too and there are a host of very low ranked players looking for a big week mixed in.
Second Quarter
This is an absolute pearler of a quarter and much of the focus in the tournament will be on his section. Ronnie O’Sullivan is the headline act in it but he has once against been drawn to clash with Judd Trump. Having lost to him in the final of The Masters and the Northern Ireland Open, they could meet in the quarter final here. English Open champion Stuart Bingham and Stephen Maguire are the other unfortunate top 16 members in this section.
As ever in this sort of event there are some live outsiders in this part of the draw. Dave Gilbert, the German Masters finalist, leads the way in that regard while World Grand Prix semi-finalist Xiao Guodong, former Northern Ireland Open runner up Yan Bingtao, World Grand Prix finalist Ali Carter and the extremely talented Yuan Sijun can all cause a stir or two over the course of the week.
Third Quarter
World number one Mark Selby heads the field in the third quarter of the draw. His form is bang ordinary at the minute though so Mark Allen might well be seen as the biggest threat in it. He has been the best player of the season to date and will fancy his chances this week. Shaun Murphy and Ryan Day are other members of the top 16 who might have other ideas about that.
In terms of lower ranked outsiders there isn’t a huge amount in this quarter it has to be said. Liang Wenbo is a name but he’s in rubbish form so it might be that Thepchaiya Un-Nooh leads the way for the unseeded players. Noppon Saengkham and Peter Ebdon will both fancy their chances of going deep in another event while Anthony McGill will look to come back to form but he has it tough against Selby in the first round.
Bottom Quarter
All the attention will be on the second quarter this week but it might pay to keep an eye on the bottom quarter where the winner could easily come from on Sunday. World champion and home favourite Mark Williams heads the way in it but in Barry Hawkins, Neil Robertson and Luca Brecel there is no shortage of danger to the Welsh star over the course of the week.
Tom Ford and Martin Gould are likely to lead the charge from those outside the top 16 in the world this week while a mention should also go to Jimmy White as well as he is in this section. Kurt Maflin is another who could be dangerous over the course of the week but in truth the outsiders beyond them are not up to a lot.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
As ever I’ll go with a man from each quarter and see where we get to by the end of the week. I remain convinced that there is some good form coming out of Ding Junhui and I’ll continue to put my money where my mouth is in that regard. He looked excellent in the first round of the Word Grand Prix last week then ran into a machine in the form of Dave Gilbert. Kyren Wilson rates as a big danger in his quarter but he could be the only one with the drop off in form of Jack Lisowski and Higgins having been missing for a while. At 20/1 Ding’s worth a go again.
I don’t know who will win the second quarter but the one thing that I do know is whoever it is will have played some decent snooker because it is absolutely loaded with big names and dangerous outsiders. I think if you bet in it you need to find some value really as anything could happen here. Martin O’Donnell was in decent form earlier in the campaign and has the draw to get through a couple of rounds and anything can happen from there once you get into Thursday. At 200/1 I’ll pay to see what develops.
In the third quarter I’ll go with Noppon Saengkham who I think could actually cause a bit of an upset in this part of the draw. Mark Allen is without a doubt the man to beat in it but he will have off weeks and he’ll have plenty of scrutiny on him for the way it all ended for him in Cheltenham last week. Selby’s form looks to be absent without leave at the minute and the good lord only knows what has happened to Shaun Murphy. This section is crying out for a big price to come out of it and Saengkham could be the one to oblige. He was a semi-finalist here last year where Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson were among his victims. He’s already made the quarter final of the English Open this season and the semi-final of the World Open which he should have won. He’s too big at 200/1.
In the bottom quarter you can easily make a case for the big three in it but I’m going to look a little further down the rankings and have a go with Luca Brecel. To be fair the Belgian has been little short of hopeless since he won his only ranking event title to date in the China Championship last season but he is a former semi-finalist in this tournament and mentioned at The Masters how he is going to knuckle down and try and fulfil his potential. We’ve not seen him since then but if he has improved with the extra practice time he could go close here.
Tips
Back D.Junhui to win Welsh Open (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 21.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back L.Brecel to win Welsh Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 81.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
Back M.O’Donnell to win Welsh Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 251.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back N.Saengkham to win Welsh Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 201.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
