The Tour Championship begins on Monday and it does so with the number one seed in the field playing the number eight seed over the best of 19 frames as Mark Allen meets Ding Junhui inside the Bonus Arena in Hull.
That means we open up the tournament with a repeat of the UK Championship final which Allen won 10-7. The winner here will move straight through to the first semi-final on Friday and win another £20,000 in the process.
Mark Allen
When you look at the one-year ranking list you will see that Mark Allen has more than double the points of anyone else this term which highlights just how much he has been the standout player of the campaign. He has won three big titles in the form of the Northern Ireland Open, UK Championship and the World Grand Prix, the first leg of the Duelbits Series, but his form since that Grand Prix win has tailed off a fair amount and everyone knows that.
Allen did make the quarter final of the Welsh Open but didn’t play great in getting there and then got well beaten by Robert Milkins when he was there. He lost in the third round of the WST Classic and again didn’t really show signs of life so the 2020 finalist in this event will need to hope the one-table setup and big arena feel plus the longer match length will bring out the best in his game. If it doesn’t you just wonder whether he can battle his way through a best of 19.
Ding Junhui
When you consider that Ding Junhui hasn’t won a ranking event this season and only been past the last 32 of one counting competition towards this tournament, it is quite remarkable that Ding Junhui is in the field this week. He is here courtesy of making the final of the biggest ranking event so far in the campaign, the UK Championship, where his £100,000 runner up prize was bigger than the majority of winner cheques this term. The fact he only has £140,500 in ranking events this season highlights how dry the rest of the campaign has been.
There was some solace and an upturn in the Six Red World Championship recently where Ding went to Thailand and won. That isn’t a ranking event so the £100,000 he won there doesn’t count towards this but given it was only three weeks ago it was a timely reminder of his qualities heading into this tournament. The one thing we know about Ding is he is very much a big stage specialist. At the UK Championship he thrashed O’Sullivan 6-0 on his way to losing to Allen in the final. He isn’t one for scratching around in front of nobody at qualifying events so there is a feeling this environment might be right up his street.
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Head-to-head
There have been 16 meetings between these two men in the past with the Chinese star 10-6 in front. He only leads 67-61 on the frame count though so he doesn’t win those matches particularly comfortably. This will be their third meeting this season. Allen won 10-7 in the UK Championship final and then 4-3 in the second round of the English Open a month later. This will be the third time they have met in a two-session match. Allen has won the first two, in the UK Championship via a deciding frame in 2010 and then in that UK final earlier this term. This will be their first meeting in this tournament.
Betting
In an ideal world Ding Junhui would have been bigger than 11/10 for this match but I think that highlights that bookmakers are all too aware that really if we are being completely honest, Mark Allen hasn’t played his very best snooker since he lost the British Open final earlier in the season. There is no guarantee that his best form will come back here, although he has shown on a number of occasions he is prepared to shut down the opponent and grind his way to victory, much like he did against Ding in the UK final.
Ding led that final 6-1 though before Allen got a foothold into the match and eventually came out top in it and you sense with the form the Northern Irishman is in here and the fact that there were certainly signs of life in Ding in the Six Red tournament, that if the Chinese player can go ahead again and force Allen to find his best snooker he might quickly learn that it isn’t coming. Ding thrives in these conditions and while I would have liked the price to be a little higher I will trust the Chinese ace to come through this one.
Tips
Back D.Junhui to beat M.Allen for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
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