Snooker Players Championship
Six weeks of near enough constant snooker kicks off on Tuesday when the leading 32 players from the PTC order of merit head to Manchester for the Grand Finals (Snooker Players Championship), a tournament which has always been lucrative but now carries terrestrial TV coverage to make it an even bigger event than before.
The first thing we need to point out is that the top 32 in the order of merit in the six European Tour events and the Asian competition make it into this tournament and there are a number of big names who didn’t qualify for the event.
The second thing to note is that with ITV Sport taking on the coverage this season they have extended the latter stage format. The usual best of seven format is being used from the first round up to the end of the quarter finals but then we go up to 11 frames for the semis and 19 for the final.
Former world champions Neil Robertson and John Higgins failed to make it here as did the current world champion Stuart Bingham. Ronnie O’Sullivan never entered enough qualifying events and Stephen Maguire and the current champion Joe Perry are two others who won’t be here this week. World number one Mark Selby did qualify but he has pulled out due to personal reasons.
Despite all those big name absentees we’ve still got a pretty decent field of 32 headed by Judd Trump who is the 4/1 favourite to land the crown. World Grand Prix champion Shaun Murphy is next at 5/1 with Mark Allen a 10/1 shot. Ding Junhui comes next at 11/1 with Barry Hawkins and Marco Fu, the only other two men shorter than 20/1 in the outright market.
Most of the big names are housed in the bottom half of the draw in this tournament. Judd Trump, Ding Junhui, Marco Fu and Barry Hawkins are all in that section while really in terms of absolute standout names only Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy are in the top half.
There might be more of the bigger names around him but I like Ding Junhui this week. I had sensed he had been coming back into some form prior to last week’s World Grand Prix and his semi-final performance there showed me I was right. With that in mind I think he is worth following this week.
Ding won this tournament in Ireland three years ago when he beat Neil Robertson in the final and we know if he is playing well that he can beat anyone in the game. With one or two of the very best names absent this week the door could just be ajar for Ding to storm through and confirm his automatic qualification for the Crucible which would be a big thing for him.
Ding showed in both Welsh tournaments recently that the form is returning and at 11/1 I’m going to take him this week in the hope he crowns that return to form with the trophy.
I’m going to chance one in the top half of the draw as well where the withdrawal of Mark Selby as the number one seed has left a gaping hole. Matt Selt, Selby’s replacement is a competent player but he’s no Selby and I’m sure everyone in that quarter will be looking to take advantage.
Form and ranking wise you would suggest Murphy is the man best equipped to do that but I don’t think he’s a sure thing by any stretch of the imagination. Mark Allen should go well this week but he seems to throw in a bad performance or meet someone who does something crazy and gets found out.
I’m going to take a chance on Ben Woollaston this week. He has good pedigree in these best of seven events and while the format goes up at the end of the week I don’t think by that time he will be too disadvantaged by that.
The Leicester man has shown some good performances in recent weeks. He made the quarter final of the Welsh Open where Joe Perry was too good for him and he followed that up with another quarter final in Poland which emphasises that this best of seven format really suits his game.
Woollaston should have beaten Ding in the first round of the World Grand Prix last week so he’s going along nicely. Jimmy Robertson and then either Selt or Andrew Higginson represents his path to the quarter final. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get that far and then we’ll sit back and see how close to the title he goes.
Back D.Junhui to win Players Championship (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 12.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back B.Woollaston to win Players Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 67.00 with Skybet (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
