The final ranking event of 2022 gets underway on Monday when the stars of the snooker tour head to Essex for the English Open, the third leg of the Home Nations series and the one where the Steve Davis Trophy is played for.
Neil Robertson won this title a year ago and he will be looking to make a successful defence of the crown but everyone in the field will be looking for a tasty pre-Christmas pay day so this should be a competitive week of snooker.
Recent Winners
2021 – Neil Robertson
2020 – Judd Trump
2019 – Mark Selby
2018 – Stuart Bingham
2017 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2016 – Liang Wenbo
The Format
These Home Nations events have been around for a while now and while the format of them hasn’t changed, the way the arenas have been put together have. There are four tables in action throughout the event, which allows us to follow the action a lot easier, and there has been a qualifying round to avoid taking the whole 128 players in the field to the main venue. Some of those qualifiers have been held over and will be played on Monday through with the main draw also beginning on Monday. The tournament is the best of seven frames up to the quarter finals which are played over the best of nine frames on Friday with the two semi-finals the best of 11 frames on the Saturday and the title will be won on the Sunday of the event over the best of 17 frames.
Top Quarter
As the defending champion, Neil Robertson is the top seed in the draw this week and he’ll look to make a successful title defence from the top quarter. There are three other members of the top 16 who will be looking to stop Robertson’s title defence. Mark Williams is scheduled to meet him in the quarter final while Barry Hawkins and Ryan Day have both been to one final this season and will be looking to end the year in similar fashion.
We all know by now that the draw for these Home Nations events always have a number of household names from outside the top 16 in each quarter. Ricky Walden will go down as the biggest of those names but Jimmy Robertson has won a ranking event title in the past. Matthew Selt is another with a ranking event trophy on his mantelpiece while Matthew Stevens, Dominic Dale and Elliot Slessor will be looking for a big run to assist their ranking.
Second Quarter
Mark Selby will be the man looking to win his home event for a second time from the second quarter of the draw. He has been threatening an event this season without getting over the line to date and he’ll be looking to make up for that here. He is scheduled to meet John Higgins in the quarter final but the Scot isn’t having a particularly good season and with this the last tournament to count towards the standings for the World Grand Prix, Higgins has to near enough win the title to be in that event. Two other members of the top 16 are in this quarter. They are Jack Lisowski and Shaun Murphy, the latter being another not yet guaranteed for the World Grand Prix.
As ever there are some decent players who aren’t in the top 16 who are in this quarter of the draw. They include the man who was a win away from claiming the Scottish Open crown a couple of weeks ago in Joe O’Connor. Sam Craigie caught the eye at the recent UK Championship and he is in this quarter, as is the former world finalist Ali Carter who will be looking to win on home soil. Gibraltar Open champion Rob Milkins, Mark King, Cao Yupeng and Anthony Hamilton are some of the others hoping for a big week.
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Third Quarter
The third quarter this week is all about Judd Trump. The 2020 champion will be keen to regain his crown, especially after a disappointing loss to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh at the Scottish Open when the draw was beginning to open up for him. His rival Kyren Wilson is the man who is seeded to meet him in the quarter final but Stuart Bingham and Luca Brecel will be the two other top 16 players looking to stop that match from happening.
There are some capable names looking to upset the applecart from this part of the draw as well with Dave Gilbert the main one of those. He is 34 on the one year list so needs to move up a couple of places to make it into the World Grand Prix. Jamie Jones, Ben Woollaston and Mark Davis are recognisable names in this section. Lu Ning would have been in this part of the draw but he is one of those who were suspended last week and will miss out.
Bottom Quarter
The bottom quarter this week is loaded with talent with the world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan the top seed in the bottom section in a tournament that takes place literally on his doorstep. Zhao Xintong wasn’t one of the Chinese quintet that was suspended last week and he’ll be out to do some damage in this quarter. Northern Ireland Open and UK Championship winner Mark Allen is also in this quarter with Yan Bingtao the other top 16 member who is here.
The UK Championship finalist Ding Junhui remarkably has still never won a Home Nations event since the series came about. He’s in the bottom section looking to put that right this week. Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson is in this part of the draw too as is Martin Gould and the former European Masters winner Fan Zhengyi. Hossein Vafaei, Pang Junxu, Xu Si and Zhang Anda are others who could make a name for themselves here.
Betting
I’ll go with three bets this week with one of the two main bets coming in the form of Ding Junhui. I was initially going to take Mark Allen from the bottom quarter but he posted on Twitter on Sunday night that his flight was cancelled because of the snow so that is less than ideal. Ding is based in England so hopefully won’t have that problem. He plays his first round match on the Tuesday too when hopefully the snow in the south will have melted. Ding has been to the final of the UK Championship this season and was looking good in the Scottish Open until he ended up involved in a late night last 32 match with the eventual finalist Joe O’Connor. The Chinese player is too good not to be winning tournaments and with no pressure about making the World Grand Prix to worry about I think this can be the week he walks off with a trophy.
Barry Hawkins is another who doesn’t have any concerns about reaching the World Grand Prix so he can just set about winning this tournament. This is usually the part of the season where he tends to come good and he is in the top quarter which is where I want him to be here. If you take Neil Robertson out of the equation, and he remains a little undercooked for my liking, then this section is wide open with Mark Williams in no real form and Ryan Day very hit and miss. Hawkins has run into some decent performances recently but his draw is fairly kind in the early rounds so if he can get to the last 16 he should be in form to go very deep.
Finally I’ll have a small dabble on Ali Carter to win on home soil. The Essex cueist has been playing some nice stuff this season. He started the year with a run to the semi-final of the European Masters where he went down in a deciding frame to eventual winner Kyren Wilson. That is a theme of his season because he has either had a nasty draw like he did against Ding Junhui in qualifying for Northern Ireland, or he’s gone down in a deciding frame which he did to Liam Highfield in UK Championship qualifying and Jack Lisowski at the Scottish Open, both of whom played inspired snooker from two down with three to play. Carter could run into Lisowski in the last 32 here but if you keep playing well in this game you generally end up getting rewarded and I’ll pay to see if that reward stretches to a run to the final this week.
Tips
Back D.Junhui to win English Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with 21.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back B.Hawkins to win English Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
Back A.Carter to win English Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
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