The biggest snooker tournament of the season so far takes place over the next week or so when the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters is played out with the joint biggest first prize in the history of the sport the reward for the winner.
This is a full field tournament and with the money that is on offer in this event it isn’t a surprise that anyone who is eligible to compete in the competition is doing so which means that we should be in for quite a week of snooker.
The Format
There has been no qualifiers for this tournament and the format is the same as the World Championship in that the top 16 players in the world rankings don’t come into proceedings until the last 32. Before then, the players ranked 81-128 in the world are joined by 16 wildcards and amateurs for the first round with the winners going through to meet the players ranked 49-80 in the second round. The winners of those matches meet a player ranked 17-48 in the rankings in the third round with the 32 winners meeting each other for a shot at a top 16 player in the last 32. The event is a straight knockout from there. The first three rounds are the best of seven frames before rounds four and five are the best of nine frames. The last 16 through to the semi-finals are the best of 11 and the champion will be decided over the best of 19 frames on the second Saturday of the event. The tournament is live on Eurosport.
Top Quarter
As the world champion, Kyren Wilson is put right at the top of the draw bracket and he will be looking to follow up his win in the Xi’an Grand Prix last week with another big run in this opening staging of this tournament. There are four top 16 ranked players in each quarter and in the top one, along with Wilson are the Chinese number one Ding Junhui and a couple of members of the legendary class of 92 in Mark Williams and John Higgins.
There are a bunch of decent players outside the top 16 in each of these quarters as well and in this top one we have Robert Milkins leading the way. Stuart Bingham made the semi-final of the World Championship and he’ll be looking for an equally big payout here while Anthony McGill and the former Shootout winner Chris Wakelin are both in this quarter too. Fan Zhengyi, Jamie Jones, Ricky Walden and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh enter in the third round but before then the likes of Jimmy Robertson, Anthony Hamilton and Michael Holt come into the event.
Second Quarter
Two former world champions head up the field in the second quarter of the draw. The 2023 winner of the world title, Luca Brecel is actually the highest ranked player in the section but with the money at stake here all eyes will be on Ronnie O’Sullivan, who is an ambassador for snooker in this part of the world. Zhang Anda hasn’t started the season how he would have wanted to but can make up for that here and so can Tom Ford, who also hasn’t got going yet.
The two players of most interest outside the elite in this section of the draw are Hossein Vafaei and Si Jiahui, who with a decent week could easily finish the event inside the top 16 in the rankings. Matt Selt made the quarter finals in Xi’an recently and could be a threat while Pang Junxu has had some good results. Joe Perry, Joe O’Connor, Robbie Williams and Sam Craigie all come in at the third round stage while before that Graeme Dott, Ben Woollaston, Oliver Lines and Jimmy White enter earlier than that.
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Third Quarter
Judd Trump has started the season off like a house on fire having won the Shanghai Masters and reached the final of the Xi’an Grand Prix recently and he’ll be looking to make the most of a huge week here. He is the highest seed in the third quarter and is scheduled to face Mark Selby in what would be a tasty quarter final. Gary Wilson won two titles last term though and he’ll have a bit to say about that while Jak Jones will be looking to show everyone why he made the world final three months ago.
This is a really tasty quarter because among the players who enter the draw in the third round are Jack Lisowski and Neil Robertson, two men who are probably too good to not be in the top 16 in the world rankings. Dave Gilbert is another who will feel he should be in the top 16 while Stephen Maguire and Matthew Stevens have spent much of their careers in that zone. The other three players entering at the third round point are Wu Yize, Jackson Page and Jordan Brown. Alexander Ursenbacher and Mark Davis are among those who come in earlier.
Bottom Quarter
The world number one Mark Allen will look to take an enormous lead at the top of the world rankings from the bottom quarter of the draw this week. He is scheduled to meet the Shanghai Masters finalist Shaun Murphy in what would be another tasty quarter final but the Championship League winner Ali Carter will fancy his chances of putting a stop to that while Barry Hawkins is no stranger to going very deep in some big money tournaments.
Ryan Day will be looking for the week which will propel him into the top 16 ahead of the UK Championship and The Masters while Zhou Yuelong could get into that zone with a decent week too. Noppon Saengkham and Lyu Haotian are both good enough to progress through a few rounds here with the other players coming in at the third round stage being Elliot Slessor, Yuan Sijun, Xiao Guodong and Scott Donaldson. Daniel Wells made the semi-finals in Xi’an and he is a danger earlier in the competition as is Marco Fu.
Betting
Shaun Murphy has already reached a big final this season and I don’t see why he can’t do the same again here. If there is a concern it is that he has a terrible recent record in the UK Championship and World Championship which use this format but here the players who reach the stage where Murphy has entered are playing every day beforehand so that might not be the advantage it is in those other events. Murphy has made the final of the Shanghai Masters this term and was a semi-finalist at The Masters earlier in the year as well so he is playing decent enough snooker. He is in a nice quarter and one where I think he can get hot and go well again.
The other bet I like in this tournament is for Stuart Bingham to go well in it. He reached the last four of the World Championship back in May and he looks to be in a quarter that he can get out of because you would have to think that Kyren Wilson will mentally tire at some point after a tough week in Xi’an while John Higgins, Ding Junhui and Mark Williams haven’t pulled up any trees this season either. Bingham made the second round of the Championship League and was looking good in Xi’an until he ran into Xu Si who made two tons and an 80 against him. I don’t think Bingham is playing that bad and I’ll pay to see how he goes here.
Tips
Back S.Murphy to win Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 17.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back S.Bingham to win Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
