However, there are plenty of other big name players that will be battling it out for the first ranking title of the season, so it's time for me to take a look at who I think will go far in the next week:
Quarter 1:
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in bold)Neil Robertson W/O Alexander Ursenbacher
Michael Georgiou Vs Marcus Campbell
Michael Holt Vs Rory McLeod
Fraser Patrick Vs Sam Baird
Chris Melling Vs Andrew Norman/Zhao Xintong
Jack Lisowski Vs Lu Chenwei
Chris Wakelin Vs Joe O'Connor
Shaun Murphy Vs Rod Lawler
This quarter for me is all going to be about Neil Robertson, who has a bye into the Last 32 due to Ursenbacher's visa problems, and Shaun Murphy who will also be looking for a very good start to the season. Michael Holt made a good start to the season by making it to the final of the first Asian Tour event where he lost out to Ding Junhui and he's certainly the front runner from his section of 4 for a place in the Last 16 and he has the capabilities to go even further. Young Jack Lisowski also has a good chance of making the Last 16 here, expecting him to beat one of the new Chinamen to the tour in Lu Chenwei and from their he'll also be fancied to beat Chris Melling, Zhao Xintong or Andrew Norman in the Last 32 and he again has what it takes to even go on and win this quarter if he can keep his head down.
Shaun Murphy though is one of the hot favourites and he will be full of confidence after his brilliant second half of last season and you wouldn't be surprised if he walked away with the title this week as well and if it is to be a quarter-final between him and Neil Robertson you know he'll push him all the way. Neil Robertson though will be the favourite for this quarter and as defending champion he'll certainly want to defend his title this week and win even more titles than the two titles he managed this season and it will be even more interesting to see how close he can get to his enormous tally of last season and in my opinion in terms of what he achieved last season and his overall quality he has the edge on everyone else in this quarter
Quarter Winner: Neil Robertson
Quarter 2:
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in bold)Marco Fu Vs Craig Steadman
Jamie Jones Vs Ken Doherty
Kurt Maflin Vs Anthony Hamilton
Stuart Bingham Vs Tony Drago
John Higgins Vs Anthony McGill
Alan McManus Vs Gary Wilson
Barry Pinches Vs Yu DeLu/ Yan Bingtao
Barry Hawkins Vs Lee Page
This little quarter seems to be filled with much more talent with guys like Marco Fu, Barry Hawkins, Stuart Bingham and John Higgins fighting for a place in the semi-finals while guys like Kurt Maflin who has been climbing up the rankings at a superb rate over the last couple of years and Jamie Jones who looks to be getting back close to the snooker he played on his way to the 2012 World quarter-final.
One man that is far from his best is John Higgins and after the poor season he had last time out I doubt he'll be full of confidence for the start of this, especially after losing to a Chinese amateur in the early rounds of the first Asian tour event. Stuart Bingham will be aiming for a good start to the season after a poorer end to the 2013/2014 season after a very good start, but I think Stuart will have been working hard over the close season and will be back to his very best very soon and it may even be in this tournament.
Barry Hawkins after the form he's shown in the last 2 seasons will be one of the favourites for every tournament he enters and he'll be wanting to have a better start to the season than he did a year ago where it took him until the UK Championships to really start firing again. It'll take some fine displays to beat him if he's at his best, but I think Barry would've taken more of a break in the close season and it may take him a couple of tournaments to really get back into his stride. Marco Fu though is contender for every tournament he plays in just like Hawkins, though he may not be the most consistent player he certainly gives every tournament his all, all season through. Fu has certainly been working hard on his game in the last couple of seasons and I think he's at the stage of his career now where the hard work should be paying off into regular titles.
Quarter Winner: Marco Fu
Quarter 3:
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in bold)Oliver Lines Vs Oliver Brown
Martin Gould Vs Michael Tomlinson
Ryan Day Vs Matt Selt
Mark Williams Vs Mark Joyce
Stephen Maguire Vs David Gilbert
Michael White Vs Jamie Cope
Fergal O'Brien Vs Ben Woollaston
Judd Trump Vs David Grace
This quarter maybe lacking on a host of top quality names, but there are still so many players in here that could easily walk away with the quarter and go far in the tournament. The likes of Judd Trump, Stephen Maguire, Ryan Day and Mark Williams will be the favourites for the quarter, but guys like David Gilbert and Michael White are well capable of causing a few upsets and going on deep runs in this event.
The Welsh duo of Ryan Day and Mark Williams will be battling away for a quarter-final place in my opinion as they are clearly the 2 best players in that top little section and I was impressed with the way that Ryan Day got back into some form last season and I hope that he gets back to where he belongs in the top 16 before too long. Martin Gould can also be a threat in that section and I expect him to come back into form this season because he's been working very hard on his game and he's too good not to see the results of that hard work very soon.
The main contenders for this quarter though will be Stephen Maguire and Judd Trump who will probably meet in the Last 16 if things go as I expect them to. From there though it will be an incredibly close game I'd have thought with both players failing to win a title last season with Maguire's last coming in February 2013 and Trump's last in November 2012 which really is too long for players of their class. Maguire though really has been struggling for some time and things really seemed to be picking up for Trump towards the back end of last season and surely a title is not too far away for Trump with his talent and I'm sure he'd have been working hard on his game to get back to his best.
Quarter Winner: Judd Trump
Quarter 4:
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in bold)Ricky Walden Vs Peter Lines
Mark King Vs Cao Yupeng
Xiao Guodong Vs Robin Hull
Graeme Dott Vs Zhou Yuelong
Joe Perry Vs Scott Donaldson/Chen Zifan
Robert Milkins Vs David Morris
Liang Wenbo Vs Jamie Burnett
Mark Selby Vs Robbie Williams/ Niu Zhuang
The lead man in this quarter is of course the new World No.1 and World Champion Mark Selby, though of course the likes of Joe Perry, Ricky Walden, Graeme Dott, Robert Milkins, Xiao Guodong and Liang Wenbo are all capable of going on runs that would see them into the semi-finals.
Wenbo, Dott, Guodong and Milkins are all clear outsiders for this section but I think they can all go far. It wouldn't be surprising to me though if Xiao Guodong made it into the quarter-finals as I think it may take Ricky Walden a couple of tournaments to get into his season after the close season that he's had, while I think Graeme Dott is at the stage now where he is the kind of player that uses the close season for a break more than to practice perhaps.
In the bottom section of this quarter though I think we will have our semi-finalist. Robert Milkins went on a very nice run to the semi-finals of the Yixing Open AT1 last week and he started last season very well before tailing off quite badly and he'll be hoping for another good start to this season and this time to carry it on for a more consistent season. Liang Wenbo may have fell at the first hurdle in the first Asian tour event but he was back close to his best last season and it would be good to see him get back to where he belongs as well as he is a very classy player. Mark Selby would be an obvious favourite for this quarter given his triumph at the back end of last season, but after winning the world title it will always be tough to follow that up so soon afterwards and I think more than anything the close season for him would've been an opportunity for him to let things sink in and the first couple of events of the season will be a chance for him to get back into his stride. However, in all of this I think that after the consistent season Joe Perry had last season he will sense an opportunity for another good run here and possibly a chance to win his first ever ranking title, after the hard work he's been putting in over the last couple of years, and right now he's playing some of the best snooker of his life.
Quarter Winner: Joe Perry
Tournament Runner-Up: Marco Fu
Tournament Winner: Judd Trump
It'll be good to see the return of live snooker at the start of the 2014/2015 season with the Wuxi Classic live all week on Eurosport and I'm sure we are in for another week of brilliant snooker to start the season with things coming along thick and fast from this point on with a lot of titles to be won between now and next May.
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