The final snooker tournament of 2020 gets underway on Monday when the World Grand Prix begins inside the behind closed doors setup at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, as the first leg of the ITV series starts out.
This tournament sees the leading 32 players on the money list from this season in action and with only the top 16 making it through to the Players Championship later in the season and top eight for the Tour Championship, the need for a good week here is there for everyone.
Recent Winners
2020 – Neil Robertson
2019 – Judd Trump
2018 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2017 – Barry Hawkins
2016 – Shaun Murphy
2015 – Judd Trump
The Format
The top 32 money earners on the season so far make up the draw and the players have gone into the bracket placed where they are in that money list rather than their world ranking. The first two rounds of the tournament are played over the best of seven frames over the first four days of competition before the quarter finals see the format increasing up to the best of nine. The two semi-finals take place on Friday and Saturday evening over the best of 11 frames and then the winner of this first leg of the ITV Series is crowned over two sessions and the best of 19 frames on Sunday.
Top Quarter
The world number one and winner of two tournaments this season Judd Trump is the top seed in the draw this week. As well as winning the English Open and the Northern Ireland Open, Trump was also a finalist in the UK Championship so he goes into this tournament as the one to beat, especially as the next two highest seeds in the quarter, Lu Ning and Martin Gould are both ranked outside the top 20 in the official world rankings. Li Hang is the next seed in this draw and he has only just crept back into the top 32. In terms of names Stuart Bingham and Mark Allen are the two strongest challengers to Trump this week. Robbie Williams and Michael Holt complete the section.
Second Quarter
The Championship League winner Kyren Wilson is the top seed in the second quarter. He was involved in a car accident last week so what sort of state he is in physically is unknown. That might open the door to the world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan who was having tip problems last week and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise if he is an early casualty. Barry Hawkins has had a better season and comes in here as the 12 seed while the Northern Ireland Open semi-finalist David Grace is seeded 13. The four lower seeds here are Yan Bingtao, Ricky Walden, Ali Carter and Kurt Maflin so this is a competitive section.
Third Quarter
The European Masters and newly crowned Scottish Open winner Mark Selby is the headline act and seed in the third quarter. He is one of just two men who are ranked in the top 16 who are in this quarter. The other one is Ding Junhui but it is his Chinese compatriot Zhou Yuelong who is the second highest ranked seed on the qualifying criteria for this tournament. Joe Perry is the man seeded 14 with the other four seeds in the quarter being Liang Wenbo, Anthony McGill, Jak Jones and Hossein Vafaei, forming another competitive section of the draw.
Bottom Quarter
The recently crowned UK Championship winner Neil Robertson is the top seed and the big name in the bottom quarter of the draw. He isn’t the only one though because the legend that is John Higgins is also in here and ranked as the second highest seed in it. The next seed is the Scottish Open semi-finalist Jamie Jones with Shaun Murphy completing the higher ranked seeds in the second. Jack Lisowski, Zhao Xintong, Xiao Guodong and the experienced Robert Milkins complete the field in a good looking draw.
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Outright Betting
I’ll take a couple of value punts each way this week as given the amount of snooker that has been played in the last few weeks it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if we see a bit of burnout hitting home. Even if there isn’t the best of seven first two rounds will throw up surprises. It wouldn’t be that much of a surprise if Stuart Bingham came through the draw though because it was only a couple of weeks ago that he was banging in a 147 in the UK Championship and you don’t do that if you are not hitting the ball well. He looked to be going alright in the Scottish Open as well but couldn’t convert a 3-1 lead against Li Hang, which is unlike him as he’s usually a decent front runner. I suspect with his Masters title defence on the horizon Bingham is putting a maximum amount of work in so I expect his game to be in decent shape this week so at 40/1 he has every chance here.
Ricky Walden has been going well over the last few weeks and it has taken Judd Trump and Mark Selby to take him out of the UK Championship and the Scottish Open and while he could come up against another of the elite players in Ronnie O’Sullivan, there really is a fair chance that this draw opens up given the amount of snooker that Judd Trump and O’Sullivan have played recently. We saw Graeme Dott make the final here last year when the draw opened up and Walden is playing well enough to do similar. In the last two tournaments he has beaten Mark Williams, Tom Ford and Mark Allen and taken Mark Selby the distance. That is decent enough form to justify a small punt at 150/1.
Quarter Betting
I’ll also take a couple from the quarters this week as well. The first of those is a punt on Walden to come through the second quarter which makes a lot of sense in case he has to run into Judd Trump in the semi-final. Clearly O’Sullivan is the biggest danger to his chances in this section but at 20/1 I’m prepared to take the chance, especially as they would meet while the event is still the best of seven frames. There is nobody in the other half of the quarter that would be a significant concern so while the first two rounds would be tricky the odds dictate that we have a small punt on Walden here.
Moving into the third quarter and Mark Selby would need to be some sort of bionic man if he isn’t going to feel tired by the end of the week so with that in mind I’ll take the second highest seed in the section in Zhou Yuelong, a player who reached the quarter final of the English Open and then came out of it in the UK Championship recently. Going back to the start of the year he made the final of the European Masters so this has been a decent year for the Chinese ace. He looks to have really improved of late and if anything happens to Selby there isn’t a huge amount to concern him in this quarter. At 15/2 he looks overpriced to me.
Tips
Back S.Bingham to win World Grand Prix (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back R.Walden to win World Grand Prix (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Betfair (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back R.Walden to win 2nd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Coral
Back him here:
Back Z.Yuelong to win 3rd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 8.50 with Bet365
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