The first Triple Crown event of the season gets underway on Saturday when 32 of the leading snooker players in the world head to the Barbican Centre in York for the UK Championship, one of the better tournaments on the circuit.
Ronnie O’Sullivan won this title once again last year and the greatest the game has seen is back in York this week for a crack at defending his crown but there is a really good field who will be out to stop that from happening.
Recent Winners
2023 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2022 – Mark Allen
2021 – Zhao Xintong
2020 – Neil Robertson
2019 – Ding Junhui
2018 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2017 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2016 – Mark Selby
2015 – Neil Robertson
2014 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Format
The format for the tournament this year is identical to last year in that the top 16 players have been seeded through to the main draw where they will be joined by 16 qualifiers, much like in the World Championship. The first round through to the semi-finals are all the best of 11 frames. The final is the second Sunday of the event with the champion being crowned over two sessions and the best of 19 frames. The draw has already been made with the seeds placed into the bracket depending on their world ranking. One qualifier has been drawn to face each seed in the opening round.
Top Quarter
As the defending champion it is Ronnie O’Sullivan who sits at the top of the draw bracket and he is the head of the top quarter. Each quarter has four seeded players in it and the one which O’Sullivan could face in the quarter final if everything goes to the rankings then he would run into Ding Junhui in what would be a repeat of the final from last year in the quarter final. The two seeds who will be out to stop that from happening are Shaun Murphy and the Wuhan Open champion Xiao Guodong.
Four qualifiers will also be in this section of the draw and they all look very strong so this is going to be a tough quarter. Barry Hawkins is the highest ranked of them but the World Championship semi-finalist Dave Gilbert is also in here. Robert Milkins is another of the qualifiers in this part of the draw but the most intriguing one of them all could be Zhao Xintong who will be competing in his first ranking event since his ban was completed.
Second Quarter
The former champion Mark Allen is the highest seed in the second quarter. He hasn’t really had the season he would have wanted so far but he has at least suggested that he found something to build on at the Champion of Champions and it will be interesting to see if that rings true here. He is on a crash course with Mark Selby in the quarter final but two other seeds will be looking to stop that from happening. They are Ali Carter and Si Jiahui.
Four more qualifiers will be in this quarter of the draw including a potential dark horse for the event in the shape of the former semi-finalist Jack Lisowski. Wu Yize made the English Open final earlier in the season and he will be looking for a deep run having qualified while Ryan Day is sliding down the rankings a little too much for his liking and he’ll want to resurrect the slide here. Jackson Page completes the eight players in this part of the draw.
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Third Quarter
The third quarter isn’t going to be short of attention this week with the world number one Judd Trump the headline act in it. He is scheduled to face off against the newly crowned Champion of Champions winner Mark Williams in the quarter final but a past champion of this event is also in this section in the form of John Higgins, the recent finalist in the British Open. The other seeded player is Zhang Anda who might just have drawn a short straw here.
The seeds are strong enough in this quarter but the qualifiers are decent enough as well. Arguably the biggest name of all of them are in this section in the form of Neil Robertson. He has a tasty clash with Trump in the first round. Stuart Bingham needs this tournament to complete his own personal Triple Crown and he will look to achieve that from this quarter while the Chinese pair of Lei Peifan and He Guoqiang will be out to cause a surprise or two.
Bottom Quarter
The world champion Kyren Wilson will look to add the UK Championship to his world title from the bottom quarter of the draw. He could face Luca Brecel in the quarter final. This is a huge event for the Belgian who provisionally at the end of the season has dropped a country mile outside the top 16 in the rankings. Two other seeds will look for glory in this quarter too with one of those the International Championship finalist Chris Wakelin and the other the man who won the Scottish Open and Welsh Open last term in Gary Wilson.
The highest ranked qualifier in the draw is in this quarter in the form of the world finalist Jak Jones. He is joined in this section by the former winner of the tournament in Stephen Maguire who will be looking to regain the title 20 years after he first won it. Matthew Selt has had some good matches here in the past and he’ll be hoping to progress deep in the competition while the second lowest ranked player left in the draw is Michael Holt and he is in this section.
Betting
Ding Junhui has a very strong record in this tournament having won it three times and made the final here in the last two years and there is nothing to suggest that he can’t go well at 14/1 this week. He comes in here boosted by a win at the International Championship and there is a good chance that he will have a comfortable time of it against Robert Milkins who hasn’t shown much form for a while now. He is in the top half of the draw which could really open up with a few seeds either not in great form or facing tough qualifiers. I like the Chinese player here.
As an outsider punt I think Jackson Page could be one to consider. He has Mark Allen in the opening round who despite supposedly finding something at the Champion of Champions isn’t in the greatest form in the world. Page is all or nothing but if he finds Allen on a going day then the winner of Si Jiahui and Wu Yize could be beatable. Once you get to the quarter final of this thing anything is possible. Page beat Hossein Vafaei in the final qualifying round with six breaks over 50 which is decent enough form. At 100/1 he feels a big price in that top half which could easily open up.
Tips
Back D.Junhui to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 15.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back J.Page to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back them here:
