After a couple of lesser ranked events and the quirky six red tournament what many would call proper snooker returns this week with the Shanghai Masters.
No disrespect to the European Tour events and the Australian Open but this is probably the biggest tournament of the season so far and as such many of the big names have entered and are showing up to play.
Snooker is becoming more and more a winter sport and this event launches a run of regular snooker which will be good for fans and punters alike.
After a series of short course events one of the beauties of this is that the tournament is best of nine frames up until the semi-final where it goes up to best of 11 ahead of a best of 19 frame final so luck and things should play less of a part in the overall picture.
Stuart Bingham is the defending champion having beaten Mark Allen in the final here 12 months ago and as such he is the number one seed but he hasn’t made the quickest start to the season so he could be a little vulnerable.
Judd Trump starts out as the 5/1 favourite to land the title ahead of Neil Robertson at 6/1 but such is the strength of snooker at the minute they’re in the same quarter of the draw so only one of them can make the semi-finals. Mark Selby is a 7/1 shot with local hero Ding Junhui and Shaun Murphy 10/1.
Although this is a more serious tournament with the big players in it there are still a couple of weaker portions of the draw with the way the seedings are at present. One of them comes in the third quarter where Ding is the main seed. It has been a good while since Ding has been anything like a regular winner playing well so he’s definitely one I’m happy to take on in what is his first 15 red event of the year.
Graeme Dott, Stephen Maguire and Joe Perry are the other seeds in this quarter and it is the latter I like this week. Perry was going along well in the six red thing last week before he ran into the eventual champion but that tournament can act as a useful prep to get his cue arm warmed up and I think he’ll go well this week.
Perry is now a tournament winner having won the PTC Finals last year and now that his duck is broken I expect the floodgates to open a little more so at 33/1 with the immediate draw he has I’m happy to get involved.
From an outright punt point of view I’m going to leave the sections with Trump and Robertson and Murphy and Selby alone because there are two big time players in each to come past just to make the semi-finals but there is one more weak section.
As I’ve mentioned Stuart Bingham could well be worth taking on in the top quarter. John Higgins is also in that section but whether he’s the player he was I’m not sure. He was pretty poor in the six red tournament last week though. Marco Fu and Barry Hawkins are the other seeds in the top quarter so it might be worth taking a qualifier at a big price.
Liang Wenbo fits the bill at a big looking 100/1. It remains to be seen how much the six red thing last week can be used as a form guide but winning matches and getting table time in competitive environments are never a bad thing so having made the final there last week Wenbo should have an advantage from it.
Wenbo will be on home soil this week which is never a bad thing and he’s made the final here before so we know he can handle the expectation. Admittedly he runs into John Higgins in the first round but come through that and the draw opens up for him. Wenbo has started the season well and looks a huge price if he can see off Higgins first up.
In the bottom quarter of the draw Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy are the standout names but we shouldn’t forget about last year’s runner up Mark Allen. Allen is back with Terry Griffiths now and I’m expecting good results from that set up.
Allen will need to be at his best to come through the quarter but if he is at his best we know he has every chance of coming past anyone so at 5/1 he is worth taking in the bottom part of the draw.
Back J.Perry to win Shanghai Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Bet365 (1/2 1-2)
Back L.Wenbo to win Shanghai Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back M.Allen to win 4th Quarter for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with Paddy Power
