The second leg of the Duelbit Series has arrived with the 16 best players in ranking events this season heading to Wolverhampton for the Players Championship, an event which leads to the increasingly important Tour Championship.
Neil Robertson got his hands on this trophy last year but his season has not lived up to expectations and he isn’t going to be here this week so we are guaranteed a different winner of the second event of the Duelbit Series.
Recent Winners
2022 – Neil Robertson
2021 – John Higgins
2020 – Judd Trump
2019 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2018 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2017 – Judd Trump
2016 – Mark Allen
2015 – Joe Perry
2014 – Barry Hawkins
2013 – Ding Junhui
The Format
One of the attractions of this tournament is that it is a long format right throughout, and after the first round we are in a one table arena. The first round through to the semi-finals are the best of 11 frames and then the champion will be determined on Sunday over the course of two sessions and the best of 19 frames. The top 16 on the one-year list have qualified for the tournament and have been placed in the draw by their ranking on that list.
Top Quarter
Mark Allen is a country mile clear in that ranking list, so much so that if he doesn’t win another match between now and the Tour Championship he will still be the number one seed for that event. He is in the top quarter as a result of that success. That means he gets to sit in a quarter which has the eighth and ninth seeds as well as the final player into the draw. This week they are the English Open finalist Luca Brecel, UK Championship semi-finalist Jack Lisowski and Scottish Open finalist Joe O’Connor.
Second Quarter
After his win at the Welsh Open, Robert Milkins is the fourth best player on the season and so he is the leading seed in the second quarter of the draw this week. He is narrowly ahead of the man he snatched the BetVictor Series from in the form of the German Masters winner Ali Carter who is seeded fifth this week. The two men who join these in this quarter are Judd Trump, who is still looking for a first ranking event success of the season to go with his title at The Masters. German Masters finalist Tom Ford is the other player.
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Third Quarter
Kyren Wilson has never been in doubt of his place in this tournament from the moment he won the opening event of the season in the European Masters. That is enough to have him sat at three in the one-year list and he heads up the third quarter as a result of that. He is in with the Scottish Open winner Gary Wilson, UK Championship finalist Ding Junhui and the runner up at the Northern Ireland Open in Zhou Yuelong.
Bottom Quarter
Ryan Day is another man who won a tournament earlier in the season to guarantee his place in this event from a mile out. He is the number two seed this week and is the top seed in the bottom quarter of the draw. This is a bit of a feisty section because it has the man who has just lost the Welsh Open final in Shaun Murphy in it. Two tournament winners are also in here in the form of the English Open champion Mark Selby and the Shootout champion Chris Wakelin.
Betting
I always think that this is the best of the three Duelbits Series events but the way the season has panned out we only have half a dozen top 16 players in the overall rankings taking to the baize, although the likes of Ali Carter, Ding Junhui and Zhou Yuelong are all top 16 players in quality if not ranking so this should be a competitive event rather than perhaps the highest standard. I’ll go with one outright bet in the hope his time is coming.
Shaun Murphy did everything but win the Welsh Open last week and I see no reason why he can’t build on that this week. He knows he has a chunk of ranking cash coming off his total at the end of the season and needs a good end to the campaign to protect his status. He looked brilliant last week until the semi-final when the events of the week caught up with him but he made a 145 and a 147 that week and you don’t do that if you are not hitting the ball well. Murphy went down to Milkins in the final on Sunday but he didn’t do a huge amount wrong. He faces Mark Selby in the first round here and Selby will no doubt have the fact he has never won an event on ITV rung down his neck in the lead up to that match. Selby isn’t playing brilliantly so if Murphy comes through that then there is a wide open route to another final at his disposal. All the hullabaloo caught up with him last week but four matches in six days shouldn’t be too much of an issue this week so I’ll back him at perfectly fair odds of 10/1 when you consider there is no O’Sullivan, Higgins, Robertson or Williams to encounter this week.
Tips
Back S.Murphy to win Players Championship (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 11.00 with 888sport (1/2 1-2)
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