A big run of snooker events begins this week with the Shanghai Masters being played out in China. This is the 10th staging of this tournament and has produced some really good action throughout the years. It is now established as a key event on the calendar and the prize money and ranking rewards reflect that.
A strong field heads to China for this renewal including the seasonal debut of Ronnie O’Sullivan. Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui and John Higgins are all here among others which should make for an excellent tournament.
Recent Winners
2015 – Kyren Wilson
2014 – Stuart Bingham
2013 – Ding Junhui
2012 – John Higgins
2011 – Mark Selby
2010 – Ali Carter
2009 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2008 – Ricky Walden
2007 – Dominic Dale
The Format
32 men qualified for the final stages of this event although eight of them have to play a blasted wildcard round match. The early stages of the knockout tournament are the best of nine frames. That moves up to the best of 11 for the semi-finals and then the final next Sunday is the best of 19 frames to decide the champion.
Top Quarter
This top section is an absolutely loaded one with the defending champion Kyren Wilson, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ding Junhui and Mark Allen in it. The seeded players alone make it a minefield but when you factor in that two of the qualifiers are Liang Wenbo and the Indian Open champion Anthony McGill we have a mini tournament in itself in this quarter. Michael Holt and Scott Donaldson complete the professional qualifiers.
Second Quarter
There is no let up in the quality in this quarter either as the main seeded players are Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy, two potential winners of any tournament let alone this one. They are joined by former champion Ricky Walden and former world finalist Barry Hawkins from the seeded players.
The qualifiers look good here too with Stephen Maguire and Michael White equally capable of winning any event they enter while Robert Milkins and Ben Woollaston aren’t exactly mugs either. This looks a very competitive section.
Third Quarter
Former world champion Stuart Bingham is the headline act in this quarter although former champion John Higgins isn’t too far behind him. World Open winner Ali Carter is also here while Marco Fu completes the seeded players.
Dave Gilbert, Matt Selt, Jamie Jones and Kurt Maflin are the qualifiers in this quarter so you would expect the seeds to go well here although one or two of them can be dangerous if given the chance.
Bottom Quarter
This one on paper at least looks between Neil Robertson and the world champion Mark Selby although Joe Perry and Mark Williams will have other ideas. Martin Gould and Ryan Day are dangerous floaters in this part of the draw but they’ve drawn Selby and Robertson respectively in the first round should they overcome wildcards.
Betting
The entire top half looks like a tournament in itself and while we should get some fantastic action from it I’m not sure I want to be betting in it as literally anything could happen in that. With that in mind my two bets this week are going to come from the bottom half of the draw.
The Six Red World Championship might have come at a good time for Stuart Bingham. He made the final in that tournament which should have given him a lot of confidence after a tough time of it since he won the world title but he remains a class act and just needed a decent run somewhere to restore a bit of belief.
Having had that and being in the weakest part of the draw this has the potential to be a decent week for Bingham and at 25/1 he is my first outright bet in the tournament.
I’m going to chance Joe Perry in the bottom quarter too. He is playing well at the minute as we saw in the World Open where he made the final where encouragingly he beat Neil Robertson in the semi-final. He could meet him in the quarter final here so that is a positive. He’s no certainty to come through this section but at 66/1 there is certainly value there to pay and find out.
Tips
Back S.Bingham to win Shanghai Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Ladbrokes (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back J.Perry to win Shanghai Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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