The newly introduced home series gets underway on Monday with the English Open, the first of four tournaments making up the event, beginning in Manchester. The Northern Ireland Open, Scottish Open and Welsh Open will all follow later in the season with the carrot of £1,000,000 being dangled for any cueist who thinks they can win all four tournaments and then proceeding to do it.
Of course the realists will tell you there is no chance of it happening but 128 players will be heading to Event City this week hoping to keep the dream of the bounty alive by winning the tournament. Just like last week’s European Masters, this is a brand new tournament so the winner will be the first name on the trophy.
The Format
This tournament is very similar to last week except all 128 players begin the tournament as opposed to pre-qualifying and the quarter finals are the best of nine frames rather than the best of seven. Until the quarter finals the matches are all the best of seven and then the semis will be over the best of 11 and the final the first to nine.
The tournament draw has already taken place with a completely open draw apart from the top 16 who were seeded. It is a knockout competition right from the beginning.
Top Quarter
The world champion Mark Selby heads the names in this top quarter. He has made the final and the semi-final of the last two tournaments so comes in here in excellent form. In terms of top 16 players he is joined in this section by Barry Hawkins, Ricky Walden and Mark Allen so this looks quite an open quarter.
Among the 32 players in this section there are some dangerous floaters. They are headed by Stephen Maguire who really should be in the top 16. Unfortunately for him he’s on a collision course with Selby as early as the third round.
Other dangerous men include Ryan Day, Jack Lisowski, Kurt Maflin, Robin Hull and Mark Davis so while there is an open look to the quarter it should be fairly competitive with it which makes for good viewing.
Second Quarter
European Masters champion Judd Trump is in this section of the draw and he’ll go in search of two wins in as many weeks. If you can’t be full of confidence after beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in a full ranking event final you may never be confident so it will be interesting to see how he plays.
John Higgins, Marco Fu and Mark Williams are the other top 16 players looking to make it out of this quarter and then there are dangerous challengers outside the elite including Martin Gould, Tom Ford, Matthew Stevens and Zhou Yuelong. Former world champions Jimmy White and Ken Doherty are also housed in this part of the draw.
Third Quarter
Ding Junhui is the main man here. The Shanghai Masters champion didn’t make it to Romania last week and that might act as a blessing in disguise for him. He is likely to be fresher than some of the other players in the tournament.
Shaun Murphy, Ali Carter and Joe Perry are the other top 16 members in this tournament with the interesting thing being that both Carter and Perry have first round draws against players in the top 32 so the luck of the draw certainly hasn’t been with them.
There are plenty of dangers to the top 16 players in this quarter. Liang Wenbo, Luca Brecel, Matt Selt, Peter Ebdon, Ben Woollaston and Graeme Dott are all in the top 32 while Sam Baird and Mei Xiwen have blossoming reputations.
Bottom Quarter
Former world champion Stuart Bingham is the highest seed in this quarter but most people’s attentions will be on Neil Robertson and Ronnie O’Sullivan, two men who could potentially win all four of these and scoop the million quid. Kyren Wilson completes the top 16 quartet in this section.
Some really dangerous players from outside the top 16 are in this section too. Anthony McGill won the Indian Open earlier in the season and was a quarter finalist last week while Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is a match for anyone. Dave Gilbert is another solid player while Michael White, Xiao Guodong, Alan McManus and Robert Milkins are good players too. This looks like a mini tournament in itself.
Betting
I’m going to take a couple of players outright at medium prices who could go well in the tournament and then I’m going to take one in the quarter betting too. The two outrights will be with those offering four places as it is hard enough to find players to make semi-finals these days without then needing them to win a last four match too.
In the top half of the draw I like Mark Allen. Allen was going along quite nicely in Romania last week until he ran into Ronnie O’Sullivan but even in defeat to him he wasn’t disgraced. Allen has had a slow start to the season having taken the summer off but you get the feeling he is just coming into top form ahead of the busy period and in what looks an open quarter he is good value both to make it out of the quarter and land the place money, and go a couple of wins further.
In the bottom half I like the World Open champion Ali Carter. Carter is doing a bit of TV work on the opening day which is no bad thing as it gives him a chance to get a feel for surroundings and relax into the tournament. He should be nicely refreshed having lost in the opening match in Romania last week although he lost to Anthony McGill so there was no shame in that. Carter is in Ding’s quarter but he wouldn’t face him until a potential quarter final so at a big price he can get into a profitable spot for us.
The second quarter isn’t lacking in big names but John Higgins didn’t look totally at ease with his game last week while Judd Trump played a lot of matches in Romania and would have to play four matches in three days to make it into a quarter final here which is a tough ask so it could be that a dark horse comes through this section.
Tom Ford has already made the final of a best of seven event this season so we know he’ll like the early format and he only went out in a deciding frame to John Higgins in Romania last week in a match he played pretty well in. Ford should make it to the last 16 here where he might meet Higgins again but I fully expect this section to open right up so at 25/1 I think the Leicester man is worth a small go.
Tips
Back M.Allen to win English Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Bet365 (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back A.Carter to win English Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Paddy Power (1/4 1-4)
Back him here:
Back T.Ford to win 2nd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Coral
Back him here:
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