The early news from the China Open this week is that Ronnie O'Sullivan has withdrawn through health issues, which is apparently a return of his glandular fever, after suffering with that in 2012 I believe. That means the winner of the wildcard match between Robin Hull and Yan Bingtao gets a bye into the Last 32. We still have most of the rest of the top players out in Beijing with the exception of Mark Allen who failed to qualify, and that could potentially damage his Crucible seeding too.
Thankfully following the Players Championship Finals the best-of-7's are over for the season and we are up to best-of-9 frames for the opening matches of this week with an interval after the first four, while the semi-finals are over the best-of-11 frames and next Sunday's final is played over two sessions and the best-of-19 frames. Of course the one thing that has been apparent in recent years is the China Open curse, with the winner going on to do very little at the World Championships in Sheffield. All of the 2012, 2013 and 2014 winners have failed to get past round one at the Crucible, while the 2011 Beijing champion Judd Trump did make the World Championship final. There's no real reason for this China Open curse as such and to be fair when Peter Ebdon won it in 2012 he still had to qualify and lost to eventual champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in round one, but if the winner this week is seeded through to the Crucible they should still have a nice two week period to rest and fully prepare ahead of the start on Saturday April 18th.
Enough talk about the World's for now though as there is still a job to be done this week, so here is how the draw shapes up in Beijing:
Quarter 1
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Ding Junhui Vs Marcus Campbell
Mark Davis Vs Kyren Wilson
Mark Williams Vs Alex Davies or Zhao Xintong
Michael Leslie Vs Joe O'Connor
John Higgins Vs Yu De Lu
Graeme Dott Vs Daniel Wells
Peter Ebdon Vs Zhang Anda
Judd Trump Vs Andrew Higginson
In this quarter we have the struggling defending champion Ding Junhui along with the likes of Players Championship runner-up Mark Williams, Welsh Open Champion John Higgins, Championship League runner-up Mark Davis and the new World Grand Prix champion Judd Trump. In terms of seedings for the Crucible here we have Andrew Higginson and Yu De Lu who are provisionally seeded 49th and 51st respectively and both are within a first round win of Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in 48th who didn't qualify. The only down side for these two guys is that they are big underdogs to win their first round games with Higginson playing an in form Trump and De Lu playing John Higgins. Meanwhile, on the provisional end of season money list Marcus Campbell is 67th and around £8,000 away from 64th placed Tom Ford, who hasn't qualified, but again Campbell could've had easier draws than Ding Junhui, even if Ding is in very poor form.
Ding Junhui as I say is in frankly rubbish form at the moment, and if you think that is harsh then here's a stat for you. Other than his semi-final at the Shanghai Masters, Ding Junhui has not gotten past the Last 32 of a full ranking event all season and he still hasn't won a match at a main venue in a big event since the Last 64 of the UK Championships. Are there any signs that he could begin to play well? Not in terms of the way he's been playing but if something suddenly starts to click in one match and his confidence starts to build up again then who knows, and even though he is a top player, this is a real confidence flushing season.
Mark Davis meanwhile is in decent form at the moment. He's had two good wins lately against Neil Robertson to reach the quarter-finals of both the Grand prix and Players Championship Finals, as well as making the quarter-finals in Mumbai this month too. It's worth remembering that Davis was in the top 16 for a year or two until this season and that he can beat the very top players and have these good runs in events and there is certainly nothing from stopping him doing that again in Beijing this week, especially after some of the performances he's put in in the last few weeks.
Mark Williams on the other hand is the form man of the entire tour at the moment. He's played lorry loads of matches in all sorts of tournaments left, right and centre in the last month and a half and in those tournaments he can boast a Welsh Open and Indian Open semi-finals, Gdynia Open and Players Championship runners-up positions, a World Grand Prix quarter-final and even a small win at the World Seniors. Mark is certainly riding on a high at the moment in terms of confidence and his results show not only his confidence but his combination of determination but also that laid back attitude that can make things that are so much to him, actually seem like they're worth very little. This is thanks in part to the work he's put in on and off the table in the last year. Working with his personal trainer he's found a new way of living it would appear and in the process lost 2 and a half stone to become a lean Welsh potting machine. What this also means is that he's still relatively fresh and in great shape coming into all of these tournaments despite all of the travelling that he's had to do, hence the consistency in his results that he is starting to show now making him a contender for every event.
John Higgins meanwhile has had no consistency to his results at all. Since winning the Welsh Open he hasn't reached another quarter-final, and he didn't get past the last 16 in events much before taking the title in Cardiff either. What this shows is a lot of inconsistency from John and not only is it showing throughout tournaments from event to event and even match to match, but even from frame to frame where he could follow up two fantastic breaks by missing a load of easy balls by his standards. This will worry John and stops him from being as big a contender as he was when playing the really top players (something he didn't have to do much at the Welsh Open with all due respect to most of the lower ranked players that he did play) and he'd like to find some of that consistency back ahead of the World Championships.
Judd Trump meanwhile is another one of the form horses on the snooker tour and has been really for most of the season. After winning the World Grand Prix he got his first final victory against Ronnie from three attempts this season and followed it up by getting to the Players Championship semi-finals before losing out to Mark Williams, someone he has played four times in the last month and a half. This event will also bring back hugely special memories for Judd as it was by winning this title in 2011 that he made his real breakthrough and took his first ranking event title, and I'm sure it would mean a lot to him if he could repeat that success again this year.
Quarter Winner: Judd Trump
Quarter 2
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Barry Hawkins Vs Gerard Greene
Dominic Dale Vs Jimmy Robertson
Ryan Day Vs Liam Highfield
Stephen Maguire Vs David Morris
Ricky Walden Vs Cao Yupeng
Liang Wenbo Vs Gary Wilson
Alan McManus Vs Jack Lisowski
Neil Robertson Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng
Completing the top half of the draw we have the likes of Neil Robertson, Ricky Walden, Stephen Maguire and a badly out of form Barry Hawkins as the biggest of the names, whilst again there is something to play for here in terms of Crucible seedings. Stephen Maguire still has work to do this week in terms of staying in the top 16. He is currently around £9,000 clear of Michael White in 17th, so if Stephen gets knocked out in the early rounds he could be left squirming come the back end of the week. Meanwhile, his first round opponent David Morris is 50th provisionally hoping to get into the top 48 to be seeded in round two of qualifying if he could win his first round match at Ponds Forge, and a win against Stephen would more than likely get him into that top 48.
Barry Hawkins comes into this event with absolutely no confidence at all following yet another first round exit at the Players Championship, which follows a first round exit from Llandudno, and a Last 64 exit in Cardiff too. He looks a shadow of the player that reached the World Championship final in 2013 and the semi's in Sheffield in 2014, and I can't really see him going on much of a run this week unless he is able to grind out a couple of good results early on in the week.
Stephen Maguire meanwhile was in good form at the very start of the year and looked to be playing well after missing the Indian Open and turning up at the World Grand Prix. However, slightly surprising results in the Last 16 in Llandudno and Thailand this week do raise small questions about his form and of course this could be caused by the huge amount of pressure he has put himself under to retain his top 16 seeding for the Crucible. David Morris isn't the easier first round opponent you could ask for, as Mark Selby found out in the Last 64 of the UK Championships, and if he were to lose that match it would leave him sweating for the rest of the week waiting to see if anyone overtakes him. However, if he could land a couple of early wins this week and see those around him exit before he does, expect to see him loosen up a bit and start to play some more fluent snooker.
Neil Robertson is on quite an inconsistent run of form at the moment. He may have gotten to the Masters final at the start of the year but after that he exited the German Masters in a quarter-final decider, the Welsh Open in a shock Last 16 exit to Gary Wilson before winning the Gdynia Open. However, since that win he's again exited the last two tournaments at the Last 16 stage both of which have seen him lose to Mark Davis. It's tough to tell what the reason for these defeats is, and it could simply be the lack of consistency he's showing in his game right now, or maybe the pressure to live up for the heights of last season where he played well throughout the year, but he hasn't gotten too close to doing the same this season.
Ricky Walden has had a very good season this time around meanwhile, and that has been particularly evident once again in Asia. Winning the International Championships in November provided his biggest career title in terms of prize money, while he's also made a final at the recent Indian Open and still got to the Welsh Open quarter-finals, despite also suffering at times this season with a shoulder problem. One of Ricky's traits is how well he seems to adapt to the more sticky conditions in China and all of the humidity as China is the scene of all three of his ranking event triumphs. Overall, Ricky has had one of his best ever seasons as a professional and he'll be keen to finish off well now with a good run at this event to try and set-up a performance that can at least equal his World Championship semi-final in 2013.
Quarter Winner: Ricky Walden
Quarter 3
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Robin Hull or Yan Bingtao W/O Ronnie O'Sullivan
Mark King Vs Jamie Burnett
Fergal O'Brien Vs Mike Dunn
Ali Carter Vs Kurt Maflin
Marco Fu Vs Ashley Carty
Matthew Stevens Vs Jamie Jones
Anthony McGill Vs Alfie Burden
Shaun Murphy Vs Jamie Cope
After Ronnie O'Sullivan's withdrawal the top players in this section of the draw are now Masters champion Shaun Murphy, Marco Fu and Ali Carter. However, there are many other guys in quarter number three with loads to play for in terms of Crucible seedings and tour survival. The main candidates to get into that all important top 32 are all in this section with Anthony McGill provisionally 32nd and around £1,000 clear of Matthew Stevens, with McGill playing Burden and Stevens playing Jones and both are tough games. Mark King sits around £3,000 behind McGill with an equally tough game himself against Jamie Burnett but once again there is still potential for him to get into the all important top 32. In terms of tour survival and the end of season money list, Robin Hull may possibly have been helped out as his wildcard round match is effectively a Last 64 game thanks to Ronnie O'Sullivan's withdrawal and he is around £12,000 behind 64th on the end of season list so the extra £3,500 for winning against Yan Bingtao would be enormous if he could do it. Jamie Cope in 62nd and Alfie Burden in 63rd aren't save yet either with Burden roughly £6,000 and Burden £7,000 clear of 65th placed Joe Swail, while Swail has also qualified for this tournament.
Mark King as I've already identified could do with a good run this week to get back into the top 32 ahead of the World Championships. He played well at least weeks Players Championship finals where he saw off Barry Hawkins before pushing in form Judd Trump very close, and was actually distracted in frame five when looking good to win it, by a power cut at the venue. Mark is a very gritty player, but when he's confident he's as good as anyone else in the top 32 and it's easy to underestimate him as a player given his not so easy on the eye style, but he is a former top 16 player, and with no O'Sullivan to face in the Last 32 now if he were to beat Jamie Burnett, who knows he could have another good run this week.
Ali Carter of course still has his seeding frozen at 13 as it will be for the World Championships after the amount of tournaments he's missed this season due to his treatment for cancer at the back end of 2014. Since then Ali has struggled really to get a foot in the door results wise, and suffered yet more misfortune by not being able to get a visa for the Indian Open, which means in turn that he's not particularly 100% match sharp having not played now for a full month in competition and he's not actually played in China since last years China Open where he did make it to the latter stages. However, when you consider that everyone else he's coming up against at the moment is so match sharp and perhaps not as rusty as he will be, then i find it tough to tip him to do overly well in this event as a whole.
Marco Fu is struggling as well just a little bit at the moment. After several unconvincing performances at the Welsh Open he's not made it past the Last 32 of the Gdynia Open, Grand Prix or Players Championship (where he actually lost from 3-1 ahead against Neil Robertson on Tuesday), and the fact that he was forced to pull out of India with visa issues has not helped him, as he too hasn't really played as much snooker in 2015 as most of the other players, having failed to qualify for February's German Masters. The thing with Marco is that he always tries 100% and can come into decent form really at any time because of this if things just click for him, and perhaps this could be the week for him.
Shaun Murphy was the form man on tour before skipping the Indian Open to stay fresh for the seasons remainder, but since then while he's still striking the ball pretty well, he's not quite getting the luck and results that he needs. A poor performance at the World Grand Prix was followed by a Last 16 exit at the Players Championship where as i say, he was striking it well but not quite getting things to go his way, while also being rather disgruntled with the playing conditions. However, he's still very confident after the season he's had so far and i expect him to come good this week and show us all once again why he's one of the main contenders for this years World Championships. The form he's showed this year as well as the self-belief and improvements to his all round game, make him a big force to come up against.
Quarter Winner: Shaun Murphy
Quarter 4
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Stuart Bingham Vs Peter Lines or Yuan Sijun
Michael White Vs Ken Doherty
Joe Swail Vs Zak Surety
Robert Milkins Vs Nigel Bond
Joe Perry Vs David Gilbert
Anthony Hamilton Vs Zhou Yuelong or Zhang Yong
Matt Selt Vs Elliot Slessor
Mark Selby Vs Mark Joyce
The World Champion Mark Selby and recent Players Championship winner Joe Perry along with Championship League champion Stuart Bingham in this bottom quarter may be safe in terms of their spots at the Crucible but there are still players in this quarter with something to play for in terms of that and of course the end of season listings for tour spots. Michael White and Robert Milkins both in this quarter have chances of making the top 16 if Stephen Maguire slips up this week. Both would need big runs though and as they are due to meet in the Last 16 they can't both get them. White is presently about £9,000 behind and Milkins is even further away trailing by £19,000. As for Joe Swail he currently sits in 65th place on the end of season money list and is only £6,000 behind 64th placed Tom Ford who he needs to leapfrog before the end of the season and of course, Tom is not in the tournament so with a good result or two he could be breathing right down his neck by the end of the week.
Michael White comes into this week as a recent ranking event winner in India but after two tough games against Robert Milkins at the World Grand Prix and Martin Gould in Thailand last week, he's still looking for his first win as a full ranking event winner. He also has it in the back of his mind that he can still qualify for the Crucible with a run this week and that is surely something that will spur him on, which is of course dangerous to those around him with the confidence he'll be oozing after that Mumbai triumph. After those tough couple of weeks since that I've mentioned, hopefully now he'll have come back to Earth following the March that he's had, and if he is as focussed and determined as ever, who knows what this week could bring.
Robert Milkins is in the same boat as Michael White, although a much bigger amount of money adrift from Maguire, thanks in part to a 4-0 thrashing he received in a big surprise exit to Chris Wakelin in Thailand. Prior to this Milkins seemed to be playing decent snooker with an Indian quarter-final and a Gdynia quarter-final under his belt, but he really needs to get a couple of early wins this week to start building his confidence back up, and momentum too after admitting that he was tired following that shock Players Championship finals defeat last week. It was a miraculous semi-final at the International Championship semi-finals that helped him to get in the top 16 for the Masters though, so who knows... he could always do the same again this week.
Joe Perry meanwhile will be on cloud nine after achieving his "dream" of winning a full ranking event by taking home the £100,000 top prize as the Players Champion beating Mark Williams 4-3 from 3-0 down in Thailand. He thoroughly deserves to have gotten that first full ranking title under his belt after working so hard over the course of his long career as a professional and it's only now that he's starting to play his very best snooker. You could certainly see this coming after winning an Asian Tour event in January and reaching the Indian Open quarter-finals, coupled with the series of good runs he has in ranking events across 2014 as a whole. Although, thinking about his chances in this event, with such a short turnaround for Joe it may be tough for him to come straight back down to Earth and ready to play in yet another event after a busy month for him, and with a tough draw with David Gilbert in the first round and a possible Last 16 with Mark Selby he'll have a tough ride ahead this week if he is again to make the latter stages.
Mark Selby has had a rough season as World Champion, with this now being his last event before he goes back to Sheffield to defend his title. Other than a German Masters title, Shanghai Masters semi-finals and a European Tour win right at the very beginning of the new season, Mark has had some relatively poor results by his usually consistent standards. Recently he's suffered Last 16 exits at the Welsh Open, Players Championship Finals and the World Grand Prix with two of those being against opposition he would normally dispatch in Brecel and Gould, while he had several chances to beat Mark Williams in Thailand last week as he lost 4-3 from 3-1 up. He struggled too at the Gdynia Open losing in the Last 32 and he seems to not be playing with anywhere near the same confidence with which he started the season, following his Crucible crowning moment. Mark is still a very gritty and determined character though and there is certainly no ruling him out of winning this title or at least running deep through the draw this week.
Finally, Stuart Bingham is another man that will be high on confidence after yet another good season on tour. His Asian dominance has been there for all to see again this season as he won the Shanghai Masters but also another Asian Tour event, and just last week he reached the Players Championship semi's which followed making the last four at the Grand Prix and his gruelling Championship League win earlier in the year. Overall, Bingham has been in good form throughout the year despite the odd blip in form here or there and with the likes of Ricky Walden and Joe Perry he seems to have dominated things in China and Asia as a whole this season as the three of them have been winning or thereabouts in many of the major Asian events. The only thing missing from a good second half to he season that's seen a number of semi-finals in major events since making another UK semi-final, is of course another major title to go with Shanghai Masters triumph of earlier in the season. For me, Bingham is becoming now one of the tours most consistent players and that will surely yield more titles as he seems to play in almost every event and turns up to each event pretty match fit and raring to go, making him more of a contender now that he's ever been.
Quarter Winner: Stuart Bingham
Tournament Runner-Up: Ricky Walden
Tournament Winner: Stuart Bingham
Whoever the winner is this week it will fill them with confidence ahead of the big one next month, and with the amount of players fighting for different things all over the place this week, it's certainly going to be a hard fought victory for whoever comes through and another good week of snooker for us fans to watch on Eurosport once again. I'll be back throughout the week with regular round by round updates, and I hope you all enjoy the event wherever you are.
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