The snooker circuit doesn’t ease up at the minute as just two days after the conclusion of the International Championship a new Chinese event begins when the China Championship kicks off in Guangzhou.
16 of the best players in the world make their way to the city for the richest Chinese tournament in history with the winner this week trousering a cool £200,000. That certainly isn’t anything to be sniffed at so this should be a highly competitive tournament.
The Format
The draw has already been made and will be played out as a knockout event from the beginning. The last 16 matches and quarter finals will be the best of 11 frames before we move up to the best of 17 frames for the semi-final ahead of the final which is the best of 19 frames.
Top Half
This looks the quality half of the draw. The winner of the International Championship tops the list in this half as Mark Selby goes after a second title in the space of six days. He isn’t the only big name in this part of the draw though. John Higgins and Judd Trump are both there to keep him company.
The other five men who make up this part of the draw are Anthony McGill, Mark Allen, Ricky Walden, Mark Williams and Ali Carter so you can tell this is going to take some decent snooker to come through here.
Bottom Half
There might be some big names in this half of the draw but it has a weaker feel to it. Sunday’s losing International Championship finalist Ding Junhui is in this part of the draw as is Neil Robertson. Stuart Bingham is in this half too.
They are joined by Shaun Murphy, Joe Perry, Marco Fu, Michael Holt and the English Open champion Liang Wenbo so you can see how this looks the weaker half of the draw on paper at least.
Betting
I’m going to leave the top half of the draw alone this week. It looks a really competitive section and I would expect either Mark Selby or Judd Trump to come through there but we won’t get too rich backing either so I’ll head for the bottom half for my outright interest and it is a man I took last week.
Liang Wenbo did nothing wrong last week. He lost in the last 16 in a deciding frame against the eventual champion Mark Selby but he got as close to him as anyone in the tournament did so we shouldn’t be in a hurry to desert the Chinese star. There is no doubt Liang is playing good snooker and with his draw about as comfortable as you can get in a tournament of this type with the bigger names all looking out of nick he looks a good bet at 40/1.
Tips
Back L.Wenbo to win China Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
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