The snooker circuit heads back to China for the next week for the International Championship, one of the bigger events of the year and the one which will determine the seeding for the upcoming UK Championship so there is plenty on the line here.
Zhang Anda won his first career title here a year ago and the home star will be in the field looking to make a successful defence of the crown but so many players look in excellent touch and will be out to take the trophy off him.
Recent Winners
2023 – Zhang Anda
2019 – Judd Trump
2018 – Mark Allen
2017 – Mark Selby
2016 – Mark Selby
2015 – John Higgins
2014 – Ricky Walden
2013 – Ding Junhui
2012 – Judd Trump
The Format
One of the reasons why this is a highlight of the early part of the season is because it is a longer format than most events these days. The first round, including the heldover matckes, through to the quarter finals are the best-of-11 frames and then the semi-finals take place over two sessions and the best-of-17 frames on Friday and Saturday before the tournament concludes on the second Sunday of the competition when the finalists battle it out over the course of 19 frames for a first prize of £175,000 and ranking points.
Top Quarter
This is one of those tournaments where the defending champion is the number one seed which means that Zhang Anda will be sat right at the top of the draw. There would ordinarily have been three other members of the top 16 in this quarter but one of them at the time the draw was done, Jak Jones, lost out in qualifying so there are only two others. They are the Saudi Masters finalist Mark Williams and the Shanghai Masters runner up Shaun Murphy.
Everyone in the draw will be looking for a big week here not least John Higgins who has made his way back into the top 16 since the draw for this tournament was made. Stuart Bingham is another who could close in on the elite bracket with a solid week while Chris Wakelin is another. Lyu Haotian will be hoping to go well on home soil while the likes of Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Ben Woollaston and Matthew Stevens will be looking to move towards the top 32. Mark Davis and David Grace will be looking for a couple of results which will ease their tour survival fears.
Second Quarter
The former champion Mark Allen is the highest seed in the second quarter of the draw. He hasn’t really delivered the results he would have wanted since he went to world number one and he’ll be looking to get back on track. His problem could be that he is on a collision course with Ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarter final. The Rocket returns to action this week but there is a question over whether he will be rusty. Two other top 16 players will be hoping that is the case as Si Jiahui and Ali Carter will be looking to make hay although both have to come through their held over qualifying match first.
Jack Lisowski is the obvious big name outside of those in the top 16 who are in this quarter. The money on offer here could see him back into the top 16 if he can go well. Xiao Guodong won the last tournament in China when he landed the Wuhan Open and he’ll be out to double up over the course of the week while Pang Junxu made the semi-final of the Northern Ireland Open just over a week ago and he is in this section as is the other man who went down in the last four there in Elliot Slessor. Dave Gilbert could push for a top 16 spot with a big week too.
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Third Quarter
Judd Trump was beaten in the final of the Northern Ireland Open last week but he’ll be looking to get back to winning ways in the third quarter of the draw here. If everything goes to the ranking list he will face off against Mark Selby in the quarter final. As above there would usually be two top 16 players out to stop that from happening but one of those lost out in the qualifying round in the form of the beaten finalist of a year ago in Tom Ford. The other one is here though and that is Gary Wilson.
Ryan Day is close enough to the top 16 of the rankings that with a big week from this section he could make his way into that band ahead of the UK Championship. Noppon Saengkham is another who could break into the top 16 with a big week here. Other names to follow in this section include Joe O’Connor, Anthony McGill, Robbie Williams and Stan Moody who has been showing some decent form in recent times.
Bottom Quarter
This is where the world champion Kyren Wilson will look to win a third title of the season from. He has already claimed the Xi’an Grand Prix and Northern Ireland Open trophies and has already been helped in his quest for this crown too as potential quarter final opponent Luca Brecel bit the dust in qualifying. That leaves just two players from the top 16 in this section heading into the week. They are the home superstar Ding Junhui and the English Open champion Neil Robertson.
Barry Hawkins begins the week less than £20,000 outside the top 16 and he’ll be looking to make that deficit up this week. He could be involved in a massive clash with Robertson for a top 16 spot at some point in the week. Fan Zhengyi, Lui Hongyu, Jiang Jun and Yuan Sijun are some of the home players looking to make a huge name for themselves in this section while Joe Perry, Michael Holt and Hoosein Vafaei will look to roll back the years too.
Betting
It remains to be seen whether John Higgins can go the course and distance of an event like this these days but if he can he couldn’t have asked for a much better draw to run well with here. He won’t come up against a single top eight ranked player until we get to the quarter final and were he to get through that he would have a day off either between quarter to semi-final or semi-final to final which might make him more competitive in the latter stages rather than when he has to continuously play back-to-back matches in some of the other events. We saw at the British Open that Higgins hasn’t lost any of his class and the last four players to beat him this season were Mark Allen, Mark Selby, Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins so it has taken a decent player to stop him. With those few and far between until the semi-final I’ll take the chance that the Scot delivers the goods.
The other player I’ll take a chance on is Hossein Vafaei. He probably hasn’t had the season he would have wanted this term but there is no doubt that he is a class act and he doesn’t have the toughest path to the quarter final with the exception of Ding Junhui. Ding isn’t exactly pulling up trees this season either so there is no reason why Hossein couldn’t win a potential showdown between the two and from there he would be favourite to reach the last eight. The longer format might just bring out the best in the Iranian and at the price I think he’s worth a go in a section where the field is loaded in the other half of the quarter to the one he is in which is no bad thing.
Tips
Back J.Higgins to win International Championship (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 15.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
Back H.Vafaei to win International Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 56.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
