The format sees two tables in play, with the Last 32 being completed over Monday and Tuesday with all of those matches being over the best-of-7 frames, which is the same for the Last 16 on Wednesday, and Friday's quarter-finals when we get down to one table. Saturday's semi-finals are over the best-of-11 frames before the best-of-19 frames final on Sunday, so the format may be short for the early rounds but it all comes to an appropriate conclusion later in the week. Prize money for this event obviously doesn't count towards the ranking, but a £100,000 top prize is still a very lucrative one, with the runner-up receiving £35,000 and the losing semi-finalists getting £20,000 each.
There are 32 brilliant players involved this week, all thoroughly deserving of their places in this tournament, so let's have a look at how the draw shapes up for this week:
Quarter 1
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Mark Selby Vs Michael Holt
Martin Gould Vs Alan McManus
Stephen Maguire Vs Xiao Guodong
Shaun Murphy Vs Peter Ebdon
In this section we have the World Champion and top seed Mark Selby, Masters Champion Shaun Murphy, UK semi-finalist and Lisbon Open champion Stephen Maguire, Bulgarian Open runner-up Martin Gould as the main four seeds, while they're joined by four equally dangerous players in Michael Holt, Alan McManus, Shoot-out runner-up Xiao Guodong and Peter Ebdon, all of whom will be battling for a lucrative semi-final place.
Stephen Maguire has been in much better form over the last 3 or 4 months getting to the latter stages of a number of events, but he has failed to kick on when I thought he might be able to win one of the bigger ranking events. Semi-finals at the UK Championships and German Masters are all well and good but he never looked like getting into the finals of either of those, and when he got to the Welsh Open quarter-finals he threw in one of his worst performances of the season that I'd seen. A first round exit at the Gdynia Open most recently was not in the script, and I'm just hoping that the defeat to Higgins at the Welsh Open didn't hit his confidence that he'd managed to build up over the recent tournaments with those good runs that I mentioned. He has a tough first round draw against Xiao Guodong here, but if Stephen can come through it there's no ruling out another big run this week.
Shaun Murphy has been absolutely flying this season so far, cueing well, high on confidence and putting in big performances all over the place. The title of Masters champion is a huge weight off of his shoulders now as that had been his missing title for a number of years. Along with this Shaun has made the German Masters final since that Masters triumph, and a semi-final at the European Tour event in Gdynia along with his wins in Bulgaria and Germany earlier in the European Tour this season saw him finish at the top of the order of merit, and if his form can continue to build along nicely Shaun will be confident of a second World Title. A tough first round match with Peter Ebdon could cause him problems, but he knows Peter very well and with his confidence levels high he will still be expecting to win that one.
Mark Selby hasn't actually had the best of seasons, since his World title triumph at the end of last season. He struggled during the other big events like this in the UK's, Masters and even the Champion of Champions, while a German Masters title was great boost for him, the early exits continued in Wales and Gdynia. The thing with Mark is that he's a very gritty player, and you'd expect that to be enough in a lot of matches, it's just been that this season he's come up against the wrong player at the wrong time on a number of occasions, and he's also had a lot of things to contend with away from the table with the birth of his first child. Mark has had a nice couple of weeks off from proper snooker now though, and should come into this event finely tuned and fresh. The other thing about Mark is that he does love these big events like these with the one or two table set-ups, and it has always been said that this is when he comes into his own, and you'd certainly never count him out of doing that again this week.
Quarter Winner: Mark Selby
Quarter 2
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Ricky Walden Vs Ding Junhui
Mark Williams Vs Ryan Day
Joe Perry Vs Ben Woollaston
Judd Trump Vs Dominic Dale
Here in this section we have the new leading money earner of this season so far in International Champion and Indian Open runner-up Ricky Walden, along with Australian Open champion and UK runner-up Judd Trump, Wuxi Classic runner-up Joe Perry, Gdynia Open finalist and International Championship semi-finalist Mark Williams as the top seeds. They are joined by Welsh Open runner-up Ben Woollaston, Shanghai Masters semi-finalist Ding Junhui and the Welsh pair of Ryan Day and Dominic Dale, so once again it is a strong line-up that will be whittled down to the one player who will move into the last 4.
Ricky Walden is one of the very top seeds for this event, and rightly so too. His win at the International Championships was richly deserved and showed that he can compete in the bigger events, but again it was in China where he has now won 3 ranking events and all of his 4 ranking finals have come in Asia now after reaching the Indian Open final just yesterday. I have to say he clearly loves the conditions in Asia and seems to deal with them better than the other players, but again, when he's at the very top of his game his fluency and break building are superb and he's a match for any other player in the world.
Ding Junhui is Ricky's first round opponent and Ding is struggling more this season, than possibly at any other point in his career. It's a tough one to put your finger on and analyse really. The only possible explanation is that winning five ranking titles, and making the final of another has put too much pressure on him to recreate that form again this season, and therefore he has struggled to produce his best form. On the other hand, he may have seen his dominance of last season as what he'd been working so hard for, and maybe he has taken his foot off of the gas in belief that the titles would continue to come. Ding has already has Last 128 exits in the Wuxi Classic, International Championships and Welsh Open, while he also lost in the Last 32 of the UK Championships and German Masters, the Last 64 of the Indian Open and he still hasn't won a match at the Masters since taking the title in 2011. His form has now been a cause for concern for some time, and you can't imagine that deep down he'll have very much confidence at all. When you're struggling like this, the one thing you really need is an easy draw to get into the tournament, something he didn't have in India, and he doesn't have again here either.
Mark Williams is the form man meanwhile of the entire snooker tour in the last month or so. Within the last month he's played in most days of snooker possible, making the Welsh Open semi-finals, Gdynia Open final, winning the World Seniors title, and reaching the semi's again in Mumbai in the last few days. With all of this coming in such quick succession though, you have to ask the question of when Mark will start to feel the burden of the amount of snooker and travelling he's had to do in such a short space of time, and with this weeks event in Wales starting just days after the Indian Open and with the Players Championship finals in Thailand coming quickly after this too there is no rest for Mark, and I feel like an early exit for him this week wouldn't be the worst thing to happen, just for him to take a couple of days off. He has a tough first round match with Ryan Day, and even though Day is in poor form he will cause Williams problems, though I think Mark's form will be enough to get him through that match, it might not carry on to take him much further in the tournament.
Judd Trump was one of the form players in the early parts of this season, but he hasn't done as much since Christmas in terms of big runs, while there has been a lot of Last 16's and Quarter-finals. He reached the Last 16 in India last week but he had to battle hard there and didn't play very well at all suffering from a shoulder problem. If that shoulder problem continues it is always tough to play to the standards that Judd has set for himself, and he said that he was still struggling with the power shots even though his shoulder did improve through the tournament, and of course the power shots are as big a part of Judd's game than any other player on the circuit. Another thing with problems like this is not that it makes playing tough, as it does the practice. If you can't put the hours in pain-free, it becomes tough to step out on the big stage and play your best snooker. With all of this in mind, I wouldn't be putting the kitchen sink on Trump to go deep in this event.
Joe Perry has again, been plugging away hard this season, continually going very well in tournaments and carrying on from last season to play some of the best snooker of his career so far. He's been doing particularly well since Christmas, reaching the quarter-finals of the Masters, Gdynia Open and most recently last weeks Indian Open, along with another Asian Tour title win in January too. Joe has the confidence and belief in his own game, that by this age he should be producing performances like this as he still very much has the game to, and of course the experience. What I like most about Joe is how relaxed he often seems around the table, and while he can get a bit disgruntled during matches if things aren't going his way, when he's at the table he scores pretty well and just goes about his business quietly and confidently.
Quarter Winner: Joe Perry
Quarter 3
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Neil Robertson Vs Luca Brecel
Marco Fu Vs Mark Davis
Barry Hawkins Vs Matt Selt
Stuart Bingham Vs Anthony McGill
Looking now at the bottom half of the draw, we have some more top quality players with Masters finalist Neil Robertson, Marco Fu, Barry Hawkins, Shanghai Masters champion Stuart Bingham, Welsh Open semi-finalist Luca Brecel, Mark Davis, Lisbon Open runner-up Matt Selt and UK quarter-finalist Anthony McGill, who all have a great chance of winning this quarter.
One thing that stands out to me about Marco Fu coming into this event as how little it feels like he has actually played in recent times. After pulling out of India and not qualifying for the German Masters, the only big events Fu has been at are the Masters in January where he reached the quarter-finals, the Welsh Open where he reached the quarter-finals and the Gdynia Open where he was knocked out in the Last 32. While Marco has several quarter-final appearances to his name this season he hasn't played particularly well at any stage, and has generally been knocked out of a tournament 95% of the time when he comes up against a player playing well. His first round opponent this week is Mark Davis and that will be a very tough game and one which I expect will go down to the wire.
Mark Davis is a very similar player to Marco Fu in that a lot of the time he doesn't have to play his very best snooker to get a result, but when he does play well he goes far in an event. He played pretty well in reaching the Indian Open quarter-finals whitewashing John Higgins along the way. Mark does a lot better in the best-of-7 frames matches than in any other it seems and I have a feeling that if he plays like he did in India against Marco that he'll come through, but he certainly doesn't stand out as a player that I think will go deep in this tournament.
One thing that was said during the match between Barry Hawkins and Nigel Bond about Barry Hawkins by Willie Thorne when Barry lost 6-5 from 5-0 up at the UK Championships is that it could ruin his season. Since then he's lost 6-1 in the first round of the Masters, withdrawn from the Indian Open, lost in the Last 32 of the German Masters (first round at the venue), and the Last 64 of the Welsh Open, and he didn't even bother with the Gdynia Open either. On the provisional end of season rankings, Barry is down from his current seeding of 5th to a seeding of 8th, with the China Open, Players Championships and the World Championships to play that will change his ranking. If he fails to go well at any of those he could easily dip out of the top 8, and on the one year rankings from money earned this season, Hawkins is down in 25th. To say that defeat has ruined his season to this point is putting it kindly. This week his first round opponent is Matt Selt who is certainly going in the other direction with his confidence particularly, but also with his form, so again it's sure to be a very tough match for Barry.
Stuart Bingham is going along nicely this season once again, with another ranking title to his name early in the season and taking the Championship League title last month. Another semi-final at the UK Championships was very nice as well and even though he's been a bit quiet in 2015 away from the Championship League, now wouldn't be a bad time to start firing 100% once again, because it's not like he's been playing badly in the last few weeks either. He'll be another player coming into this run in period of the season fresh after missing the Indian Open, and that could be the key for Stuart threatening for another title in one of the remaining events this season.
Neil Robertson had been struggling just a little bit by his own very high standards at times coming into the Gdynia Open, where he played magnificently to capture his first title since the seasons start at the Wuxi Classic, which by his standards is a much longer wait. However, he has been playing very well again of late, with a temporary blip coming in the Masters final against Shaun Murphy and an unlucky result against Stephen Maguire coming in the German Masters quarter-finals, but while the results haven't gone his way he has still been very close to the top of his game, and he is now into the swing of his new Vegan diet.
Quarter Winner: Neil Robertson
Quarter 4
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Mark Allen Vs Liang Wenbo
John Higgins Vs Graeme Dott
Robert Milkins Vs Michael White
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Rod Lawler
Finally, in the bottom quarter of the draw we have the UK and Champion of Champions Ronnie O'Sullivan, International Championship and Shanghai Masters runner-up Mark Allen, Welsh Open champion John Higgins, Indian Open champion Michael White, Ruhr Open finalist and International semi-finalist Robert Milkins, German Masters semi-finalist Liang Wenbo, Graeme Dott and Rod Lawler.
Michael White is on top of the world at the minute having won £82,000 across two events in just a couple of weeks. First Michael White came through the lottery that is the Snooker Shoot-out to win the £32,000 top prize there, and as happened with Barry Hawkins when he went on to win his maiden full ranking event title a few months after, many fancied the same to happen for Michael. However, White didn't have to wait a few days like Hawkins, more just a few days before he dispatched of Ricky Walden 5-0 to win the Indian Open title and rise to a career high of 17th in the World rankings. He'll now be full of confidence for the rest of the season and will be a handful for the four remaining events on the calendar. One thing that hamper him in this event is that with a few tournaments and tournament wins in quick succession he may still be coming to terms with everything he has achieved as he comes out to play an incredibly tough player in Robert Milkins in the first round here, and with tiredness a factor too it will be very tough for White to continue his run.
Robert Milkins after all is not playing badly himself. Quarter-final appearances in the recent Gdynia and Indian Open's see him coming here in full confidence himself, and even though this is a non-ranking event, he'll want to continue his good rhythm and play as he looks for good runs in the Players Championship and China Open, still with hopes of qualifying automatically for the World Championships. Such a target can help focus the mind and bring out your very best as a player, and even though he doesn't need to be this week as I've mentioned, that won't stop Robert from being a handful.
It will be very intriguing to see the form of Ronnie O'Sullivan in this event ahead of the China Open, but more importantly the World Championships to end the season after he certainly wasn't himself last time out at the Welsh Open. His mind certainly wasn't with his snooker in that tournament as he played awfully at times and exited at the Last 32 stage to Matthew Stevens who played pretty badly himself. In fact, I sensed even earlier than this that Ronnie's mind seemed to be preoccupied at the Masters in January where he was thumped in the semi-finals by Robertson, but wasn't playing well really throughout. Even Ronnie's German Masters quarter-final exit to Shaun Murphy from 4-2 up was surprising, simply as it is so rare for Ronnie to lose when on the brink of victory like he was there, and in fact he was only a ball away from victory in the deciding frame. If he's not with it in the early stages of this tournament he could easily lose his head against someone like Rod Lawler and with a tough second round match against either Milkins or White he certainly has his work cut out again.
John Higgins would've taken an enormous boost in confidence and belief after the torrid time he'd had before winning the Welsh Open in February. A lot of inconsistencies had crept into his game over the recent months leading up to Cardiff and they were still present in Cardiff at times during some of the games, as he still missed a fair amount of balls you would expect him to get, while Last 16 exits since at the Gdynia and Indian Open's still present signs that John is not at the top of his game, and while he can still start matches off well, and play well for times in matches, he is now going missing in matches part way through for a couple of frames or more which is completely unheard of for John. He has a tricky first round tie this week with an equally gritty and tough player to beat in Graeme Dott and while you wouldn't rule Higgins out of winning this quarter, he could just as easily be thumped by Dott in round one.
Mark Allen was one of the stand out players of the first half of the season, but again he's been a little quiet in the last couple of months. Finals in the International Championship and Shanghai Masters were impressive but he was poor towards the back end of the year in the Champion of Champions and UK Championships. A Masters semi-final saw some more good performances from Allen, but since he's managed little with a German Masters last 16 and only a Last 32 at the Welsh Open, before not entering Gdynia or India to have a lot of time off before this run into the end of the season. I'm still waiting for Allen to really kick on and win a big event, but who knows he could be saving his best for the World Championships, because at the end of the day that's the one everyone wants to win.
Quarter Winner: Mark Allen
Tournament Runner-Up: Neil Robertson
Tournament Winner: Mark Selby
That draw is shaping up to have very exciting matches with plenty of twists and turns, from the outset right until the very end of this tournament with all of the top names and the men in great form obviously qualifying for this event, and being seeded and drawn accordingly. A fantastic mix of top players, improving players and young players starting to really breakthrough, I think there will plenty of the lower 16 seeds that come through and with the best-of-7 frames format in the early stages it's going to be a tough week for the top boys, but a very rewarding one for the winner with £100,000 at stake. I'll be back with plenty of updates throughout the week and it should be another enjoyable event, especially for terrestrial TV viewers of snooker in the UK who don't get to see as much quality tour snooker as those of us with Eurosport.
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