Once again the tournament will be covered on ITV4 with the usual suspects (though Alan McManus will be on playing duties first up on Tuesday afternoon against Marco Fu) and after their great coverage of the World Grand Prix it will be good to see them take on another new event.
The format for the week in Manchester is exactly the same to that of the one we saw in Llandudno with the tournament starting on Tuesday with a two table set-up and first round, second round and quarter-final matches all taking place over the best-of-7 frames before the best-of-11 frames semi-finals on Saturday and the best-of-19 frames final on Sunday.
There are a number of notable absentees with six of the top eight players in the world rankings not taking part. Mark Selby was meant to be the number one seed for the event but he has withdrawn from the this event and the China Open for personal reasons. Hopefully everything will be better for him to be able to compete to a good standard at the World Championships.
Ronnie O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson are also not present after not entering enough of the qualifying events to have an impact on the order of merit, while John Higgins, defending champion Joe Perry and world champion Stuart Bingham all entered plenty of the European Tour events but just fell short.
To bring in a quick statistic, despite the Grand Prix places being filled up by the top 32 players on a one year ranking list from the start of the season to the Gdynia Open, and the Players Championship Finals effectively being filled by the top 32 on a combined order of merit from the six European Tour events and lone Asian Tour event, 20 of the 32 players involved this week were also in Llandudno.
Stephen Maguire is also not present in Manchester and he is provisionally seeded 19th for the World Championships so will need a big week in Beijing to qualify automatically by getting back in the top 16. Michael White is provisionally 15th with £187,033, while Liang Wenbo is provisionally 16th on £178,101 roughly £9,000 behind. Ding Junhui is then just over £3,000 behind Wenbo, with Wilson just under £6,000 behind Liang coming into the week. Even Ryan Day could have a chance if he were to have a strong week this week despite being £27,000 behind.
A look at the money breakdown tells you that by getting into the event the players are guaranteed £4,000, with £7,000 for reaching the last 16, £12,500 for getting into the quarter-finals, £20,000 for losing semi-finalists while the runner-up receives £38,000 and the winner £100,000.
All to play for then this weeks, so here is how the draw looks for the penultimate event in the Crucible lead-up:
Quarter 1
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Andrew Higginson Vs Matt Selt (Wednesday 23rd March at 1pm)
Ben Woollaston Vs Jimmy Robertson (Tuesday 22nd March around 3pm - second afternoon session)
Mark Williams Vs Dominic Dale (Wednesday 23rd March around 9pm - second evening session)
Shaun Murphy Vs Liang Wenbo (Tuesday 22nd March around 3pm - second afternoon session)
Looking at the top section of the quarter we have a massive opportunity for one of the four players involved. Matt Selt has been the beneficiary of a lucky loser situation after the withdrawal of Mark Selby. He just missed out on the combined list but now he is back in and will play Andrew Higginson in round one. Ironically, before this draw amendment was made, I was talking about the rise of Matt Selt with my brother and we likened him to what Andrew Higginson was essentially in around 2011/2012 when he rose up in the rankings to just outside of the top 16 and generally looking like a solid player. Now though Higginson has lost his consistency and Selt is found quite a lot of consistency through pure hard work and determination to succeed. Do not be surprised at all if Selt goes a long way this week.
Meanwhile we have Ben Woollaston and Jimmy Robertson who are also in that top section, and Ben Woollaston has found quite a bit of form in recent times. He made the last 8 both in the Welsh Open and Gdynia Open, the latter of which helped to solidify his place in this competition. Again Ben Woollaston is a hard working player who is climbing up the rankings and again if someone like himself or Matt Selt could have a good week this week they would put themselves on the edge of the top 16.
Elsewhere in this quarter we find Mark Williams who, while he has found some form over the last couple of years, has not had the results in recent times to back that up. Tough draws against Ding and Trump saw him losing in the first round of the Gdynia Open and World Grand Prix. This is also his last event before the World Championships having failed to qualify for China next week so he could do with finding some form this week to boost his confidence ahead of Sheffield you would feel.
Shaun Murphy is after another successful week having taken home the trophy and £100,000 from the Grand Prix. He seemed to find his form there after a bit of a lean season by his standards, and now he will have his sights set on more glory in a place where he lived for many years until recently. First up this week he has Liang Wenbo who he beat in the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix as Wenbo only scored 36 points. Though with plenty on the line for Liang in terms of automatic Crucible qualification you would expect him to give Murphy a closer contest on this occasion. However, once the Magician gets his tail up he is pretty tricky to stop and if he can get through the first couple of rounds again then who knows, he could be taking home another trophy and another £100,000 winners cheque.
Quarter Winner: Shaun Murphy
Quarter 2
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Mark Allen Vs Mark Davis (Wednesday 23rd March around 3pm - second afternoon session)
Mark King Vs Sam Baird (Wednesday 23rd March around 3pm - second afternoon session)
Ryan Day Vs Kyren Wilson (Wednesday 23rd March 7pm)
Rory McLeod Vs Mike Dunn (Tuesday 22nd March around 9pm - second evening session)
Straight away by looking at the draw you can see two massive matches featuring players that are both outside of the top 32. Firstly there is King and Baird. Mark King has had a good season on the European Tour making the quarter-finals in Gibraltar and Gdynia, as well as a semi-final at the Paul Hunter Classic and after qualifying for the tour finals last year he also made it to the last 16. Sam Baird is still quite hit and miss as a player. On his day he could breeze past King but if he has not quite got it together then it could be a much easier afternoon for the KingDog. Then of course there is Mike Dunn and Rory McLeod which is a very interesting game. McLeod has been quite hit and miss this season, at times of course he has been very good. He would not have won his first professional title at the Ruhr Open otherwise. Other times he has been ridiculous. Losing from 4-1 up in the German Masters and 5-1 up at the UK Championships are not exactly habits you want to be getting in to. Mike Dunn meanwhile has been a lot better on the circuit since this time two years ago when he just avoided dropping off of the tour by making the semi-finals of the China Open. For other players around him, he is usually tough to beat just as Rory is so that could be quite a battle on Tuesday evening.
Mark Allen considered himself very unlucky last week at the Grand Prix to lose from 2-0 up in the Last 16 to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, although he did not seem to have the same comfort within his game that he had displayed a few weeks earlier on the way to the semi-finals of the Welsh Open. He starts off this week in a tough match with Mark Davis, but like Murphy, he too could go very far this week if he can get past the opening round or two. I think that could be particularly true given how much better I feel he has played this season compared with previous campaigns.
Then you have an absolutely massive match between Ryan Day and Kyren Wilson. Wilson is right in the thick of it for a place in the top 16 for the Crucible while with the form Ryan Day showed at the Grand Prix last week he could get in there with a couple of strong weeks. This match is almost too close to call given the importance and I am of the belief that the winner of this match could win the entire section. Day looks like he is very close from everything clicking into place and finally getting rid of the tag of 'best player never to win a ranking event'.
Quarter Winner: Ryan Day
Quarter 3
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Marco Fu Vs Alan McManus (Tuesday 22nd March 1pm)
Tom Ford Vs Ricky Walden (Wednesday 23rd March around 9pm - second evening session)
Martin Gould Vs Judd Trump (Tuesday 22nd March around 9pm - second evening session)
Ali Carter Vs Graeme Dott (Tuesday 22nd March 7pm)
Tom Ford and Ricky Walden are two players that are going to be very tough to separate in round one. Walden has not had the best of years and that was signified by his absence from last weeks World Grand Prix. He is too good of a player not to turn it around though and maybe this could be the week, after a bit of time off to work on his game, where things start to click again and he finds his form. Tom Ford is not an easy opponent though as we saw from his victory against Mark Selby. He has found a lot more form this season because Ford is a better player than his ranking would suggest, and I actually fancy him to beat Walden this week.
Marco Fu has been quite inconsistent again this season. At the back end of 2015 he found some great form making the UK quarter-finals and winning in Gibraltar but since the New Year he has suffered early exits in the Grand Prix and German Masters and not been able to re-create any of his pre-Christmas snooker. I still fancy him to beat Alan McManus in round one this week but looking at the names in this quarter this week, he will have to do it the hard way to progress through the draw.
Ali Carter was quite impressive in the Grand Prix. He dominated Luca Brecel who had been in good form and then took care of Tom Ford in round two without any problems whatsoever. Joe Perry in the quarter-finals was just a step too far for Carter as he failed to really get going in that contest, but that does not mean that he will not have another very good week this week. Graeme Dott is his first round opponent this week and we all know that Dott is never an easy player to get past. The key against Dott is to score well when you get in to avoid being dragged into the kind of tactical battles in which he excels, and that is what Carter does very well when he is at his best though his tactical is also a great match for Dott on top of that.
Finally in this quarter it is time to talk about the absolute blockbuster that awaits us between Martin Gould and Judd Trump. This is the sort of match that the draw for events like this can throw up, if you get players like Judd that have not made it to the final of one of the tour events in order to get a higher seeding. Martin Gould is in the form of his life at the moment after winning his maiden ranking title and getting to the Gdynia Open final in the space of a month, while at last weeks Grand Prix it took eventual champion Murphy to beat him in the last 16 and that shows that the signs are great for him. Judd Trump meanwhile has had an inconsistent year of losing to plenty of players that he would have beaten had he been at the top of his game, having been pretty close to the top of his game in the rounds leading up to that. Trump could easily hit the ground running this week and breeze through the draw to another ranking title.
Quarter Winner: Ali Carter
Quarter 4
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Ding Junhui Vs David Gilbert (Tuesday 22nd March 1pm)
Michael White Vs Luca Brecel (Tuesday 22nd March 7pm)
Tian Pengfei Vs Robert Milkins (Wednesday 23rd March 7pm)
Barry Hawkins Vs Michael Holt (Wednesday 23rd March 1pm)
Michael White and Luca Brecel is one incredibly tough match to call as well, following the theme of the rest of the draw. Luca's run to the German Masters final did him the world of good in terms of confidence as we saw when he made the last 16 of the Welsh Open a couple of weeks after. Michael White made the quarter-finals that week in Cardiff and was unlucky to run into a bit of a steam train in Llandudno when he was playing Shaun Murphy. I have a lot of time for Brecel as a player as he seems very likeable as well as someone who works hard on his game now and is very easy to watch when knocking in the long balls and big breaks. I fancy Brecel to win this one against White.
Barry Hawkins will be looking for a good week here as he aims to defend the points won two years ago from lifting the Players Championship title. His form coming in is nothing too special after losing 4-0 in the first round of the Grand Prix and suffering a couple of last 16 exits in both Berlin and Cardiff, and he is up against his good friend Michael Holt in round one. Holt had a big win against O'Sullivan on the TV in Llandudno so he will come in with another confidence boost after a reasonable season that he will be looking to finish off well in the next few weeks. Whoever comes through that could indeed go very far this week.
Ding Junhui is the final man I want to come to in this section and this preview. He of course is still fighting hard to get back in the top 16 as a seed for the World Championships and has hit a little bit of form recently. A quarter-finalist in the Welsh Open he made a 147 there but it still was not enough to beat an in form Neil Robertson, and then he followed that up with more valuable ranking money in the Grand Prix fighting hard to get to the semi-finals before losing the final four frames of a 6-3 loss to Shaun Murphy. Working hard with Terry Griffiths looks to have been working wonders in fact and it does not feel like the Chinaman is too far away from getting back into the winners circle.
Quarter Winner: Ding Junhui
Predicted Tournament Runner-Up: Shaun Murphy
Predicted Tournament Winner: Ding Junhui
As I say this is a key event in the race to the Crucible particularly with all of the absentees and £100,000 once again for the winner. It does get very cramped at the back end of the event with the China Open starting the day after the final here in Manchester and that could cause all sorts of problems for the players that make the latter stages on Sunday and even Saturday's semi-finals and will most likely see some schedule changes for World Snooker to make with the schedule. In fact, the only two players in the top half of the draw not in the draw for the final stages in China are Allen and Williams, while in the bottom half every single player involved is on duty again in Beijing next week.
As for me, I will be back throughout this week with updates after each round with my preview of the China Open being left until as late as I can for the reasons I have mentioned above about the short turnaround as I wait to see who makes the latter stages here.
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