After an extended summer break for me from the last event I wrote about back in July with the Australian Open and that's simply because the tour took a month off for summer after Australia and of course I only cover a handful of ET's with the first being a couple of weeks ago in Riga, Latvia which was won by Mark Selby. However, I do love to watch this event and it is a special event that feels like more than what it essentially is so for me it is a must to cover.
Now then it's time to have a look at the draw and who I think will come out on top:
Quarter 1
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in bold)Mark Selby Vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Dominic Dale Vs Oliver Lines
Shaun Murphy Vs Amateur Qualifier
Mark Joyce Vs Lu Ning
Jak Jones Vs Amateur Qualifier
Liam Highfield Vs Cao Xin Long
Andrew Higginson Vs Liang Wenbo
Mark Davis Vs Amateur Qualifier
Chris Wakelin Vs Amateur Qualifier
Michael Wasley Vs David Grace
Allan Taylor Vs Tom Ford
Ricky Walden Vs Andrew Pagett
Ryan Day Vs Amateur Qualifier
Gerard Greene Vs Peter Lines
Fergal O'Brien Vs David Morris
Marco Fu Vs Amateur Qualifier
As with every quarter of the draw in every ET event, this quarter is packed with talent and plenty of players that could go on to the latter stages. Mark Selby of course won the first ET of the season in Riga, while Marco Fu, Shaun Murphy, Mark Davis, Ricky Walden, Ryan Day and Liang Wenbo are all capable of doing the same.
With the confidence Mark Selby's in at the moment coming off the back of his World Championship triumph which he followed up with a win in Riga to get an early season title under his belt, he's certainly the form man and the man that everyone will be targeting if they are to progress. From the rest Shaun Murphy had a good start to the season in Wuxi but has been struggling of late with a neck injury that is causing him some trouble at the moment so it'll be interesting to see hoe he goes this weekend with that in mind. There was also talk of Ricky Walden having some back issues going into the Riga Open where he suffered an earlier exit, and once again it'll be interesting to see whether that's a long term or short term problem for Ricky. Looking at the draw for both Marco Fu and Mark Davis I'd be surprised if, after starting pretty nicely this season, they both didn't make it to Sunday and possibly make a charge to win this quarter.
In ET's of course it's really tough to pick out a clear favourite to win an event or win the quarter and with plenty of guys there that could win this quarter it makes it twice as difficult, but one man really does stand out from the rest right now, and that's Mark Selby
Quarter Winner: Mark Selby
Quarter 2
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in bold)Judd Trump Vs Zhou Yuelong
Anthony Hamilton Vs Steven Hallworth
Tony Drago Vs Lee Page
Nigel Bond Vs Amateur Qualifier
Jimmy White Vs Ahmed Saif
Stephen Maguire Vs Hammad Miah
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Steve Mifsud
Aditya Mehta Vs Amateur Qualifier
Matt Selt Vs Alfie Burden
Michael Georgiou Vs Tian Pengfei
Chris Melling Vs Cao Yupeng
Mike Dunn Vs Ian Burns
Noppon Saengkham Vs Ronnie O'Sullivan
Robbie Williams Vs Amateur Qualifier
Michael Leslie Vs Amateur Qualifier
Barry Hawkins Vs Amateur Qualifier
The focus in this quarter by many is that of the return of Ronnie O'Sullivan to defend his Paul Hunter Classic Title and play in his first tournament since finishing runner-up at the World Championships in May. The other big names featuring in this section of the draw are the likes of Australian Open champion Judd Trump, Stephen Maguire and Barry Hawkins with this section also seeing a lot of younger players like Un-Nooh, Yupeng and Tian Pengfei.
My favourites for the quarter are clearly Trump, O'Sullivan and Hawkins, although of course Maguire can always do damage but in my opinion I think Maguire's at a stage where he's not as concerned with these smaller events as perhaps some of the other top players are. Judd Trump is of course the form horse at the moment after his win in Australia and that will give him a heap of confidence having not won a major title for over a year and half before that and stopped a lot of the doubters who were talking about where exactly his form and promise had gone and it'd be good to see him really kick on from there and win as much as possible.
Ronnie of course is picking and choosing his events wisely which was something he did very well last year to win quite a few events including this one, but it makes him an incredibly hard man to predict when he hasn't played a single tournament for over 3 months. It will be interesting to see how he goes in the early rounds though starting off against good young Thai player Noppon Saengkham and with a possible match up with Barry Hawkins waiting for him as early as the Last 32. Barry has been very consistent in the last couple of years since winning his first ranking event, and he's a contender to be in the latter stages of events. For me though at the moment Judd Trump will be full of confidence and playing with no fear like he is when he's at his very best.
Quarter Winner: Judd Trump
Quarter 3
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in bold)Anthony McGill Vs Mitchell Mann
David Gilbert Vs Craig Steadman
Neil Robertson Vs Elliot Slessor
Jimmy Robertson Vs Vinnie Calabrese
Kyren Wilson Vs Amateur Qualifier
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Lu Chenwei
Jack Lisowski Vs Stuart Carrington
Graeme Dott Vs Amateur Qualifier
Mark Williams Vs Rod Lawler
Sam Baird Vs Yu De Lu
Dave Harold Vs James Cahill
John Higgins Vs Zak Surety
Mark King Vs Amateur Qualifier
Jamie Jones Vs Lu Haotian
Ross Muir Vs Matthew Stevens
Stuart Bingham Vs Fraser Patrick
This quarter of course is headed by century machine Neil Robertson who has been in top form again this season, Graeme Dott and Mark Williams who these days are hovering around the 16 mark in the rankings, John Higgins who is also on a little bit of a downwards turn at the stage of his career that you would expect that to happen and Stuart Bingham who's coming back into some better form.
Neil Robertson may have suffered an early exit in Riga but you'd let him off for that after a good run at the start of the season that saw him reach the final of the Wuxi Classic and the final of his home event in Bendigo so he'd obviously the man to beat here. John Higgins, Mark Williams and Graeme Dott aren't necessarily in good enough form for me to say that they will win the quarter but you know that one of them will be challenging and the good thing about these events is that if you can get through a couple of the early rounds you can easily play yourself into form. Stuart Bingham I think has a draw where he can do that and play himself into the event and possibly save some energy for the back end of this tournament when you need to have your energy in reserve after a fast paced weekend. Bingham is always around at these ET events and for me he's certainly due a run to go really deep in the event.
Quarter Winner: Stuart Bingham
Quarter 4
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in bold)Alan McManus Vs Amateur Qualifier
Gary Wilson Vs Steve Davis
Kurt Maflin Vs Li Hang
Joe Swail Vs Scott Donaldson
Michael Holt Vs Xiao Guodong
Alex Davies Vs Joel Walker
Jamie Cope Vs Barry Pinches
Ben Woollaston Vs Amateur Qualifier
Robert Milkins Vs Chris Norbury
John Astley Vs Amateur Qualifier
Martin Gould Vs Ryan Clark
Michael White Vs Marcus Campbell
Ian Glover Vs Ratchayothin Yotharuck
Luca Brecel Vs Ken Doherty
Rory McLeod Vs Alex Borg
Mark Allen Vs Lee Walker
Finally here we have a quarter that isn't exactly packed with top 16 stars but there are a lot of young players and players around the top 32 that can do damage. The stand out player here is Mark Allen, but guys like Robert Milkins, Martin Gould, Alan McManus, Ben Woollaston, Michael Holt, Kurt Maflin and Xiao Guodong are all capable of doing some damage and of course winning the quarter if Mark Allen falls early.
Mark Allen played out a pretty perfect week to get to the final in Riga and lead that final 3-0 against Mark Selby but he couldn't quite get over the line as Selby came back to win, but it was still a very impressive weekend for Allen and perhaps signalled a return to form for him at the same stage of the season where last time around he was able to win consecutive ET events which is a pretty big effort given the nature of these events. One man that always impresses me in these ET events is Ben Woollaston who always seems to come along and make it to the Sunday and the Last 16 of events making the Grand Finals later in the season on a regular basis, showing good consistency without actually winning a particular event.
For me though in terms of picking out a particular favourite for the quarter it's tough to see past Mark Allen if he continues his good form.
Quarter Winner: Mark Allen
Tournament Runner-Up: Judd Trump
Tournament Winner: Mark Allen
As always this event will be broadcast on Eurosport both in the UK and on the continent from Friday through to Sunday's conclusion and I'm sure that it will be another fantastic event to honour and celebrate the great player and the great man that was Paul Hunter.
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