The busy time in the snooker season continues this week as the 32 top earners on the one year order of merit head to Wales for the World Grand Prix, an exclusive tournament covered in full by ITV4 which actually adds to the prestige of the event such is the quality of their coverage.
Anyone who is anyone in the world of snooker is in this tournament and that includes Ronnie O’Sullivan who will be looking to follow up his Masters and Welsh Open wins this week.
I guess we need to start by being brutally honest. If the O’Sullivan that was in London and Cardiff turns up in Llandudno this week then the rest are playing for second place. He’s that good right now. When Mark Selby and Neil Robertson can’t get close nobody is going to do it.
However there is a carrot the field can cling to this week and it comes in the format where the slightly annoying best of seven frame duration is trotted out from the first round up to and including the quarter final. You would think if Ronnie were to be beaten this is the format for it. The semi-finals are best of 11 with a best of 19 final.
O’Sullivan is in the bottom half of the draw this week. Michael Holt is his first potential victim and Liang Wenbo or Graeme Dott await in the second round. Ronnie could play Shaun Murphy in the quarter final but really he looks to have a nice quarter to come through.
The bottom quarter is a tasty looking one with Mark Allen, Ding Junhui, Marco Fu and Neil Robertson all battling it out to come through and probably face O’Sullivan in the semi-final. You would probably side with Robertson on current form but over this format nothing is certain. Either way with Ronnie in the bottom half my focus from an outright betting point of view is in the top half.
Judd Trump defends the title this week and he probably doesn’t hate what he sees from the draw. Mark Williams in the first round has the potential to be tough but aside from John Higgins and Stephen Maguire who play each other in the first round, there isn’t too much to fear in his quarter.
I can’t quite get a feel for Trump’s form though while Higgins just looks to have come off the top of his form which has to be a concern. Maguire’s need for ranking points to qualify automatically for the Crucible is becoming bigger by the week so that puts me off going anywhere near him.
The second quarter looks quite competitive but at the prices I think it is worth taking a chance on Barry Hawkins. He tends to come into form around this time each year. He’s won the PTC Finals in the past which is often in March and we’ve seen him make the world final and the semi-final of that event so the spring tends to bring out the best in the Englishman.
Hawkins will have to take care of Joe Perry in the first round but he has beaten him at The Masters and in Poland already since the turn of the year. Mark Selby could be a quarter final opponent but this is the best 32 players in the game. You’re not getting an easy time if you make the last eight but with no Ronnie until the final I think it is worth chancing ‘The Hawk’ at a tasty looking 33/1.
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