The notable absentees from this week are Ronnie O'Sullivan (did not enter qualifying), Mark Selby (withdrew from both this and the Players Finals a week and a half ago) as well as Mark Allen and Mark Williams who did not win their qualifying matches. This probably is not the worst thing for Allen who at the time of publication is in the Players Championship final.
The likes of Stuart Bingham, Liang Wenbo and Ding Junhui have all had their Last 128 matches held over as the world champion and top two highest ranked Chinese players respectively. Meanwhile their are also four wildcard round matches to be contested on the opening days play as well as this.
Ricky Walden and Ben Woollaston do not have to play until Wednesday and the Last 32 after Robin Hull and Adam Duffy both had to withdraw through illness, and Hull tweeted about having chicken pox which as an adult can be quite a nasty one, but that of course is a topic for another day. This is particularly lucky who at the time of publication is in the Players Championship Final in Manchester.
With this being the final event ahead of the World Championships and the seedings cut off it makes it a massive week for those chasing a place in the top 16 to avoid having to go through three rounds of qualifying. Guys like Michael White, Ding Junhui, Kyren Wilson, Liang Wenbo and Stephen Maguire are either not yet safe or chasing a place amongst a host of others who could possibly get in by winning the tournament.
With all of that in mind there are also a couple of players involved who could help their tour survival situations with a victory or two, so let's take a look at their chances and what the draw looks like for this week:
Quarter 1
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Darryl Hill Vs James Wattana
Jamie Jones Vs Dominic Dale
Michael White Vs Jack Lisowski
Stephen Maguire Vs Gary Wilson
Mark Davis Vs Rhys Clark
Joe Perry Vs Alfie Burden
Alan McManus Vs Mike Dunn
Rory McLeod Vs Mitchell Mann
Michael White and Stephen Maguire are two guys that are in that battle for World Championship seedings. White sits fairly well at the moment in 15th on the provisional seedings on £190,033 which is around £12,000 clear of provisional 17th seed Liang Wenbo. What that means for him is that if he were to lose to Lisowski and Ding made the Last 16 while Wenbo made the quarter-finals (as they both have to play their held over first round matches) then White would be struggling. Beat Lisowski and his position is made slightly stronger in the fact that both would have to go a round further to displace him. Stephen Maguire is a part of the chasing pack and the fact is he is already £13,000 adrift of Ding provisionally who would make that £17,000 if he won his held over Last 128 match. There is also the small matter of the fact that he would need to do better than Kyren Wilson and Liang Wenbo in this event who are provisional seeds 17 and 18. Maguire will probably have to make the semi-finals minimum but more than likely the final itself to have any chance and that would still be reliant on other results.
Joe Perry meanwhile is probably the favourite to win this quarter on balance. He has had a good second half to the season with runs to the semi-finals of both ranking events in Wales, and after that narrow loss at the Grand Prix to Bingham he has had a couple of weeks off to get over it and get ready for Beijing. His draw looks like one where you would expect him to do well if he keeps his form up as their are no top 16 players between him and the quarter-finals and even then only Michael White and Stephen Maguire are the only players in or around the top 16 and they are under a lot of pressure with their ranking. Perry can just go about his business and play with one eye on the Crucible and going their with another good run under his belt to further increase the confidence he must have right now.
Quarter Winner: Joe Perry
Quarter 2
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Judd Trump Vs Stuart Carrington
Anthony McGill Vs Jimmy Robertson
Marco Fu Vs Yu De Lu
Robert Milkins Vs Ross Muir
Matt Selt Vs Chris Wakelin
Joe Swail Vs Martin O'Donnell or Wang Yuchen
Ali Carter Vs Mark King
Shaun Murphy Vs David Grace (To be played on Wednesday)
Shaun Murphy is an interesting one this week. By getting to the semi-finals of the Players Championship he now has a bit of a mad dash to get to Beijing. His Last 64 match has been moved to Wednesday which may sound helpful but all it could mean is two matches on the same day and if he is suffering with any jet lag in the aftermath of the long flight that could be his stumbling point this week, particularly with a potential last 32 tie with Ali Carter who has a good record against him. After a long couple of weeks after going deep in Manchester and winning the World Grand Prix another big run here could be a very big ask.
Judd Trump has had a very poor year this year by his standards ever since the Shanghai Masters final. Since then he has reached one ranking event quarter-final with early exits in the UK and International and more recently losing in the Last 16 of both the Grand prix and Players Championship Finals to players that he would probably have expected to beat when at his best. That sums up the rest of his season, showing brief patches of form mixed with losses to players he would have beaten if that form had have kept up. He desperately needs a run this week to give himself any kind of confidence to go to Sheffield with for the World Championships because watching him and listening to his interviews, it seems like he does not have much at the moment.
Ali Carter has been playing well recently with quarter-final appearances in both of the Players Championship finals and the World Grand Prix prior to that. What it has offered him is the opportunity to get into the top 16 for the World Championships by winning the title this week, so long as Ding and Wenbo lost before the semi-finals and Kyren Wilson lost before the final. As a former Shanghai Masters champion and a twice semi-finalist in this event, he is no stranger to doing well in China and recent events will have given him a lot of confidence. Looking at some of the main contenders in this quarter like Trump and Murphy, he has good records against both and will certainly not have a fearful approach to any of the matches that face him this week.
Quarter Winner: Ali Carter
Quarter 3
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Neil Robertson Vs Noppon Saengkham
Ben Woollaston W/O Adam Duffy
Martin Gould Vs Andrew Higginson or Yuan Sijun
Graeme Dott Vs Matthew Stevens
David Gilbert Vs Gerard Greene
Ding Junhui or Lee Walker Vs Li Hang
Luca Brecel Vs Mark Joyce
John Higgins Vs Zhou Yuelong
Neil Robertson has had a couple of weeks off since his first round exit in the World Grand Prix and having missed the Gdynia Open and Championship League prior to that he has only played one match in snooker tournament play since the middle of February when he lost the Welsh Open to Ronnie O'Sullivan 9-5 from 5-2 ahead. His record in Beijing was never that great until he won the title in 2013 and went on to lose in the final in 2014 trying to defend it. The Australian will have the World Championships very much in the forefront of his mind and knows that a good week here could set him up very nicely for a crack at winning his second world title. I think we can expect a decent run from Robertson this week.
Ding Junhui still needs to win a few games this week to secure his place in the top 16 for the World Championships. This looked very unlikely prior to the Welsh Open. A return to form with quarter-final appearances in Cardiff and Manchester with a semi-final in the World Grand Prix sandwiched in between show you how well he has had to play just to give himself this chance. On paper he you feel like he should make the last 16 which would certainly strengthen his position and a quarter-final or semi-final again this week would pretty much guarantee it barring some strange results elsewhere. He has always historically gone well in the China Open having won the title twice, reached one further final and four further semi-finals in a total of 11 appearances in the event. Once again this week I see him going very well.
Quarter Winner: Ding Junhui
Quarter 4
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Barry Hawkins Vs Tian Pengfei or Niu Zhuang (Last 64 match to be played on Wednesday)
Michael Holt Vs Nigel Bond
Ricky Walden W/O Robin Hull
Ryan Day Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng
Kyren Wilson Vs Tom Ford
Liang Wenbo or Peter Lines Vs Rod Lawler
Peter Ebdon Vs Ian Burns or Guan Zhen
Stuart Bingham or Cao Yupeng Vs Sam Baird
Ricky Walden and Barry Hawkins both have the mad dash to make it to the China Open this week after going deep in Manchester. Walden at the time of writing is still in the final, so will not be flying out until Monday if he bothers at all in fairness. The only reason he would be encouraged to is because of a first round walkover that would see him start on Wednesday in the Last 32, and of course having played well at the Players Championship he will want to keep that going, having already won three ranking events in China previously, with the China Open the only long standing one missing from his list. Hawkins meanwhile made the semi-finals which means he would not have flown out too early for this one and is the reason that his Last 64 match has been rescheduled to Wednesday which could see him play twice on the day with his last 32 match later in the day against a tough opponent in Bond or Holt. If the two of them were to under perform after a hectic period then it could give someone in this section a huge opportunity.
Ryan Day, Liang Wenbo and Kyren Wilson are all chasing places in the top 16 for the World Championships. Wenbo has the best hope as he is £5,000 behind Ding Junhui in 17th places with neither player having yet played their Last 128 games. However, Wenbo would still realistically have to make the semi-finals to have a shot and he has a very tough draw. Peter Lines in the Last 128 round needs wins himself to save his tour place so that will be a very tough match up there by the look of things. Then there is the possibility of a Last 32 match up with Wilson so one set of top 16 hopes will end at this stage, though Wilson has a tough match with Tom Ford in round one. Wilson is currently £11,000 behind Ding but again that could go to £15,000 after the held over match meaning that Wilson would have to make the semi-finals at the very least to get into the 16. Ryan Day will feel like he blew a massive chance in Manchester by losing to Mike Dunn in the last 16 of the Players Championship as another couple of wins at Event City could have given him a much more realistic chance. As it is he leads a group of several players who need at least to make the final, or possibly even win the tournament to make it.
Stuart Bingham has his final tournament before making that trip back to the Crucible to defend his World title. It has not been his best season but he has still made a semi-final in Shanghai and the final of his last event which was at the World Grand Prix. A couple of weeks off could have done him some good too in terms of preparation for this week and looking at this quarter there are players around him battling for top 16 places for the Crucible or to stay in the top 64 at the end of the season, while two more of the top players in this section have had a much shorter turnaround. His form looked a lot better in Llandudno and there is certainly less pressure on him for once than some of the players in this quarter so that could do him good.
Quarter Winner: Stuart Bingham
Predicted Tournament Runner-Up: Ding Junhui
Predicted Tournament Winner: Stuart Bingham
So, a very important week in store and since the clocks have gone forward the main sessions on Eurosport who are covering the event will be at 7am and 12.30pm UK time and I will be keeping you updated every step of the way with my round by round previews as things heat up before Sheffield.
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