The Masters might only have finished on Sunday evening but the snooker calendar stops for nobody and on Monday the World Grand Prix gets underway in Cheltenham as 32 men look to secure the opening Duelbits Series event of the campaign.
Ronnie O’Sullivan did exactly that a year or so ago when he won this title and he has done enough to get back into a position to attempt to make a successful defence. 31 other players will be looking to deny him that chance though.
Recent Winners
2021 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2020 (2) – Judd Trump
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 Cazoo Series is crowned over two sessions and the best of 19 frames on Sunday.
Top Quarter
It is the Northern Ireland Open and UK Championship winner Mark Allen who is a mile clear at the top of the ranking list used for this week. He is the number one seed and in the top quarter as a result of that. Such has been the surprise results so far this season, there is only one other top 16 player in this top section. That is Jack Lisowski. That doesn’t mean the other six are useless. Everyone here is in good form else they couldn’t have qualified. They are Dave Gilbert, Scottish Open finalist Joe O’Connor, Lyu Haotian, Zhou Yuelong, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Jack Lisowski and Robert Milkins.
Second Quarter
UK Championship finalist Ding Junhui is the highest ranked player on the one-year rankings in the second quarter. He has been placed in a section with no fewer than five top 16 players including the defending champion and world title holder Ronnie O’Sullivan. The English Open winner Mark Selby is here as is Masters finalist Mark Williams, Barry Hawkins and semi-finalist from Alexandra Palace, Stuart Bingham. The other two players in this quarter are perfectly capable themselves in Noppon Saengkham and Jamie Jones.
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Third Quarter
The European Masters winner Kyren Wilson heads up the one-year list in this third quarter of the draw. He might be one of the more vulnerable players in the draw in that his ranking is largely made up from winning the first tournament of the year. Just the one other top 16 player in the world rankings is in this quarter. That is Shaun Murphy. This is a competitive section though because British Open semi-finalist Robbie Williams, Ali Carter, Tom Ford, Sam Craigie, Anthony McGill and the British Open champion Gary Wilson complete the eight players in it.
Bottom Quarter
The British Open champion Ryan Day is the highest ranked one-year player in the bottom quarter of the draw and he is the highest seed in it this week. He certainly hasn’t been rewarded with an easy draw though as he has three other top 16 players in his section. They are the newly crowned Masters champion Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and Luca Brecel. The other four players in the field are Ricky Walden, Xiao Guodong, Joe Perry and Hossein Vafaei.
Betting
I’ll go with a player from each half of the draw this week. The top half player that I like is Stuart Bingham. He is in a tough quarter with the likes of Mark Selby, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Barry Hawkins and Mark Williams and the like but when Bingham plays well that doesn’t tend to matter. He played well at Alexandra Palace and probably left there after his semi-final defeat with a point to prove having not really turned up in the last four. I expect that to have motivated him to go well here and if he can bring the form of the first two rounds from last week with him then he could easily go well. Bingham spoke of last week being the beginning of a good end to the season under his new coach and if he is true to his word he could be dangerous here.
Shaun Murphy has an easier draw in terms of the lack of top 16 players in his quarter and I’ve seen enough from him to suggest that he is playing pretty well. He has run into some incredible performances in recent times to knock him out of competitions including at The Masters last week where Bingham put in a flawless performance against him. I get the impression that Murphy is eager to do deep in a few events rather quickly as he is defending a fair bit of cash between now and the end of the season and given the draw he has this week I’ll pay to see how deep he goes in it.
Tips
Back S.Bingham to win World Grand Prix (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
Back S.Murphy to win World Grand Prix (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Betfred (1/2 1-2)
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