A day after the biggest Chinese tournament in the season so far was won, the attention turns to the Mattioli Arena in Leicester as 16 trophy winners from the past year head there for the Champion of Champions event.
Mark Williams rolled back the years when he won this tournament last year and despite a few injury concerns recently, the Welshman is in the field looking to make a successful defence but 15 other players are all capable of denying him that luxury.
Recent Winners
2024 – Mark Williams
2023 – Mark Allen
2022 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2021 – Judd Trump
2020 – Mark Allen
2019 – Neil Robertson
2018 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2017 – Shaun Murphy
2016 – John Higgins
2015 – Neil Robertson
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
The defending champion is always at the top of the draw bracket in a tournament so Mark Williams sits as the main seed in Group 1 of the draw. The Championship League winner Mark Selby is the second highest seed in the draw. He would have been in for his Welsh Open win anyway. The next seed is the ranking version of the Championship League winner in Stephen Maguire who arrives here off the back of a semi-final appearance at the International Championship with the other player in the group being the world seniors champion Alfie Burden.
Group 2
Group 2 looks a cracking group and heading it up is the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters winner Neil Robertson. He will be looking to get his hands on this title for the first time since 2019 but he could run into the Tour Championship winner and recent International Championship finalist John Higgins in what would be a tasty group final. The Wuhan Open winner Xiao Guodong and Shootout champion Tom Ford make up the quartet in this group.
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Group 3
There is always a Group of Death whenever there is a round robin format and this year it is definitely Group 3 where we are headed in ranking terms by the Shanghai Masters winner Kyren Wilson with the English Open champion Mark Allen the next highest seed but two class acts make up the group as the world champion Zhao Xintong will look to add the Champion of Champions title to his Sheffield crown. The last man in the field completes the group as the Northern Ireland Open winner Jack Lisowski makes up an elite quartet.
Group 4
The world number one Judd Trump headlines the action in the bottom group in the draw. The UK Championship winner will be expected to come out of the group but the British Open winner Shaun Murphy will be a tough obstacle to overcome. The Scottish Open champion Lei Peifan gets the chance to make his debut in this tournament from the third seeded position and making up the quartet of players in this section is the women’s world champion Bai Yulu.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of outright bets over the course of the week with the first of them being the main bet which is Mark Selby. The former world champion has been in good touch this season and has reached three semi-finals as well as the quarter finals of the International Championship last week where he only went down to the world champion Zhao Xintong in the last eight. Selby has never won this tournament but he is on home soil here and you get the feeling that this could be his year. There are fitness doubts over Mark Williams in his group and nothing spectacularly tough outside of Neil Robertson and John Higgins in the half of the draw he is in and the latter will be travelling back from China during the event. I think Selby is a more than fair price with his draw at 6/1.
I’ll also go with the other Leicester man in the field in Tom Ford. He has it tougher with Neil Robertson in the first round but if he is going to get the better of him then a best of seven might be the time to do it. Ford has actually won their last three meetings outside of the Championship League so there should be no fear there and if he can come through that he could quickly run into a jet-lagged John Higgins in his group final. If Higgins doesn’t beat Xiao Guodong then Ford would have a nicer run to the semi-final where were he to meet Mark Selby we’d be guaranteed a finalist. There were signs in Northern Ireland that Ford was coming back to form and on home soil he feels overpriced in the weaker half.
Tips
Back M.Selby to win Champion of Champions for a 2/10 stake at 7.00 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back T.Ford to win Champion of Champions (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 51.00 with Spreadex (1/2 1-2)
