We are about to enter December which means that it is time for the Triple Crown events in the snooker season to come along and they begin on Saturday when the UK Championship begins inside the Barbican Centre in York.
Judd Trump won the title last season, the last time he won a ranking event, and the world number one will be looking to keep hold of his crown but we’ve seen plenty of players win tournaments already this term and they’ll be out to deny him.
Recent Winners
2024 – Judd Trump
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
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
The defending champion is always at the top of the draw bracket when it comes to snooker tournaments which means that Judd Trump is at the summit of it this week. He is seeded to clash with the English Open winner Mark Allen in what would be a pretty tasty quarter final but the former winner Ding Junhui and the once World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui are the other two seeds in this quarter out to stop that from happening.
There are four qualifiers in each quarter of the draw this week and this one has the one that all of the seeded players would have wanted to avoid in Stephen Maguire. Another man who is quite capable of having a decent run if he is at his best is Ryan Day while Scott Donaldson will surely feel that he is playing with the house money after coming back from 5-0 down in his final qualifying match to beat Stuart Bingham 6-5. Xu Si is the other man in the quarter.
Second Quarter
The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters winner Neil Robertson will head up the second quarter of the draw this week. The former UK Championship winner will face another man who has had his hands on this trophy in the past in Mark Williams in the quarter final if everything runs to the seedings. Two Chinese tournament winners will be out to stop that happening in the form of the Wuhan Open champion Xiao Guodong and the International Championship winner Wu Yize.
The other qualifier that few would have wanted to face is in this quarter in the form of Dave Gilbert, who was pretty scathing of his form at the end of qualifying but who is more than capable of going deep on his day. Pang Junxu is a third Chinese player in this quarter with two complete outsiders making up the section in Michael Holt, who is looking to back up a run to the last eight here a year ago, and the debutant Julien Leclercq.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Third Quarter
The third quarter looks a very tasty one before a ball is hit as it has four seeds who have made a Triple Crown final in it. The Shanghai Masters winner Kyren Wilson is the top seed in the section and if this one plays out to the rankings then he will collide with the legend Ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarter final. The recently crowned Champion of Champions winner Mark Selby is one of the two seeds looking to stop that from happening while the finalist of last season, Barry Hawkins, is the other one.
In terms of qualifiers this looks a competitive quarter as well with the English Open finalist Zhou Yuelong probably the biggest name of the four. Lei Peifan will attempt to defend the Scottish Open shortly after this tournament concludes and he is in this quarter as well while it could be a huge week for Elliot Slessor should the Saudi Arabia semi-finalist have a deep run this time around. The veteran David Lilley makes up the eight man quarter.
Bottom Quarter
As ever when he isn’t the title holder, the world champion Zhao Xintong will be the top seed in the bottom quarter of the draw. He comes here having recently won the invitation event in Saudi Arabia so he looks to be finding form. He is set to go up against John Higgins in the quarter final should that be the way the rankings play out but Shaun Murphy has won the British Open and reached the Xi’an Grand Prix final and he’ll be out to deny that match taking place, as will the Wuhan Open runner-up Gary Wilson.
The qualifiers in this quarter of the draw are largely of a Chinese background. Zhang Anda has been seeded for this tournament in the last two seasons but came through qualifying to take his place in the draw while Lyu Haotian showed a welcome return to form in qualifying and having come from 5-1 down to beat Matthew Stevens in one of the matches he might feel he has the house money in his pocket. Ben Woollaston and Long Zehuang are the other players in this quarter.
Betting
This should be a good tournament because the draw looks nicely balanced which should contribute to another excellent week of snooker. In terms of finding a part of the draw to attack it isn’t terribly easy with so many different winners this season already so I’m just going to go after a bit of value and given his record in York and in this event overall, the 22/1 on Ding Junhui might just be a little big even allowing for the fact he doesn’t look to be having a great season and can be hit or miss.
There is something about York which gets the Ding juices flowing though. He has twice won this tournament inside the Barbican Centre and he has made two more finals as well so generally when he gets to this part of the country he comes alive. Ding hasn’t had the best season of his career but he’ll be favourite to beat Xu Si in round one and Mark Allen or Scott Donaldson are beatable. Judd Trump might be a different story but the quarter final of a Triple Crown event is entitled to be tough. Shaun Murphy has beaten Ding in his last two ranking events but he doesn’t meet him until the final whereas he lost in a deciding frame in the two prior that. He went down in a deciding frame to Murphy here in the last 16 a year ago but with the Magician elsewhere in the draw I’ll take my chances on Ding this week.
Tips
Back D.Junhui to win UK Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
