China Championship Preview

Following the International Championship action from Daqing, we have a brand new event to the calendar from China in the form of the China Championship. For this year only it will be a 16 man invitation event with big prize money (though this will not count towards the rankings). From 2017 onwards the event will feature all 128 tour players and be a full ranking event so do not get too excited that this could be a long running Chinese equivalent to the Masters.

The 16 players were determined following the Shanghai Masters in September, with the top 10 players on the regular two year ranking list (which then extended down to Mark Williams after the withdrawal of Ronnie O'Sullivan), the best four players on the one-year list that had not qualified and two Chinese invites which were granted to Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo.

The event starts on Tuesday and concludes on the Saturday and is played over a two table set-up until the final. The Last 16 and quarter-final games are played over the best-of-11 frames, with the semi-finals being over the best-of-17 frames before a best-of-19 frames final, mirroring the International Championship format. Players get £15,000 just for turning up this week, with that doubling to £30,00 if they can win a match and get into the quarter-finals. Losing semi-finalists receive £50,000, the losing finalist will take home a very nice earning of £100,000 with the winner taking £200,000 home with the trophy.

Of the 16 players in action, only Mark Allen was not in attendance in Daqing after failing to qualify there, so the players should all be sharp and with the best players in the world involved the standard should be to the best of quality. As well of this, five of the 16 man field (John Higgins, Ricky Walden, Joe Perry, Mark Williams and Michael Holt) are not in the following weeks Champion of Champions event in Coventry with a place still reserved for the winner this week. If there is a "repeat winner", Joe Perry is the highest ranked player on the one year money list from the season so far so he will take the place.

Here's a look at what is in store over the five days in Guangzhou:

Quarter 1 

Mark Selby Vs Anthony McGill - Mark Selby of course comes into this as the International Champion having played some of his best snooker last week in Daqing and with some of the consistency he has showed this season, winning the Paul Hunter Classic, making the Shanghai Masters final and the European Masters semi-finals he could well continue this on for some time. As a two time world champion now he seems to be more relaxed than in his first campaign and incredibly confident to go with that making him even more dangerous. Anthony McGill has come of age by winning his first ranking title this season, and making another couple of quarter-finals on top of that to put himself on the verge of the top 16. However, after losing in the first round of the International Championships last week, he made the decision (according to his Twitter account at least) to go home and then fly back out to China for this event which is a very strange one but each player has their own way of doing things. Either way an in form Selby should be too strong in this one.  

Prediction: Selby to continue hot form with a 6-3 win

Mark Allen Vs Ricky Walden - Mark Allen comes into this one fresh after not playing in the International Championship and he is yet to hit the heights this season in terms of performance. Deciding to start his season later than most at the Paul Hunter Classic he reached the Last 16 there, and added further Last 16's at the Shanghai Masters and European Masters before an earlier Last 32 loss in the English Open. Ricky Walden meanwhile has found a little bit of form lately making the English Open quarter-finals and narrowly losing out to Ding Junhui in the International Championship Last 16. This match to me looks like one that could go to the wire and recent form could count a lot more than freshness at this stage of the season for me. 

Prediction: Walden to win 6-5

Quarter Choice: Mark Selby

Quarter 2 

John Higgins Vs Mark Williams - Mark Williams was a "17th man" style addition after the withdrawal of Ronnie O'Sullivan a few weeks ago from this event, but Williams has been in very poor form of late. Despite making the Last 16 of the English Open, he lost in the Last 64 of the International Championship to a Chinese wildcard, whilst also losing his first matches in the European and Shanghai Masters. Higgins meanwhile has quietly been picking up results without yet pushing on this season. He comes into this off of three consecutive quarter-finals and he beat Williams in July for a quarter-final place at the World Open. In fact the only two times this season Higgins hasn't reached the quarter-finals he has lost in the Last 16 so there haven't really been any surprise early exits from him. This week there is potential for the Scotsman to fire up and go a long way. 

Prediction: Higgins to win quite comfortably 6-3

Judd Trump Vs Ali Carter - You have to wonder at what point in the recent run of Judd Trump's when the let up will come and he may go quiet for a couple of events. He has exerted himself to the maximum lately with a win at the European Masters which was followed straight away by making the English Open final and then the semi-finals of the International Championship. In that International semi-final with Ding he did not really get going, falling 6-0 behind and eventually losing 9-4 and you wonder if a couple of earlier exits could come now as he starts to tire. If anyone can beat Trump, Ali Carter has shown that he is not afraid to. Carter was back in the big time in July winning the World Open, and he has made the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals on top of that showing good form in the Chinese events so far. He has dropped off a little in the last couple of events, losing in the Last 32 of the English Open after producing comebacks in the first two rounds to avoid losing even earlier, and after a great escape against Maguire in the Last 32 of the International Championship he was then thrashed by Bingham in the Last 16. This one could well be a tight finish.

Prediction: A tense affair to finish with a 6-5 win for Trump

Quarter Choice: John Higgins

Quarter 3

Shaun Murphy Vs Joe Perry - Both of these players have had similar seasons so far. Murphy started well with a semi-final in India and a quarter-final at the World Open (where he lost to Perry). However, he dropped off with early exits in Shanghai, Romania and Manchester. He did pick back up with a very narrow and unlucky quarter-final loss to Judd Trump in the International Championship. As a new father, being away for a couple of weeks without being able to go home between tournaments may allow him to catch up on any sleep he has lost and perhaps come in this week a little fresher. As for Perry he too has had a very patchy season. He made the final of the World Open in July, and the quarter-finals of last weeks International Championship but has suffered a number of early exits in the remaining events. In fact, Perry has lost his first match this season in the Riga Masters, European Masters, Shanghai Masters and English Open which is strange for someone of Perry's highly recognised quality within the game. A big event like this should produce the best in both players, but Murphy's Masters record in particular displays his ability to really fire things up in these major tournaments with the World's very best. 

Prediction: Murphy to come through a high quality opener 6-4. 

Ding Junhui Vs Marco Fu - Ding Junhui was the runner-up last week at the International Championships, after falling away in the final and taking a 10-1 thrashing on the day. What the week in Daqing did for the Chinese number one though was continue his fine return to form in 2016 after his Shanghai Masters triumph in September after reaching the World final in May. His scoring is back to its brilliant best and that means he is going to be a hard man to stop in the coming months. As for Marco Fu he has suffered a number of early exits in tournaments this season having not yet reached the Last 16 in any ranking event, yet it does not appear that he has always played bad snooker. On the whole he has been involved in a lot of narrow matches that have not gone his way at the start of this season, and that continued in Daqing. Having not made the latter stages in many events so far this year he has also not played any top players so it will be interesting to see how he responds in this match against Ding, because he could very easily rise to the challenge or end up losing quite comfortably. For me only one of these two is a real contender to take the £200,000 at the end of the week. 

Prediction: Another tight loss for Fu. Ding to win 6-5

Quarter Choice: Shaun Murphy

Quarter 4

Neil Robertson Vs Michael Holt - This is one match in the draw that could be a very intriguing one. Michael Holt has found some confidence and results in the last year or so, beating Ronnie O'Sullivan three times in that period and beating Neil Robertson in the first round of the World Championships. He reached the Riga Masters final at the very start of the season (losing out to Robertson) and has since added quarter-finals at the Shanghai Masters and International Championship playing the best snooker of his career. Neil Robertson's season (and in fact his 2016 results overall if you want to look further back) have been very mix and match with some hot streaks and a few icy cold ones. Losing seven frames in a row to lose the Welsh Open final against Ronnie O'Sullivan may have affected him as he did not win another match in the 2015/2016 season following that. This season got off to a promising start with a win at the Riga Masters and a semi-final at the World Open, but then when he next appeared at the Shanghai Masters he played a match of woeful quality losing 5-2 to Ryan Day. He was going well again at the European Masters before losing 6-0 in the semi-finals to O'Sullivan. In the Last 32 of the English Open he somehow went from cruise control against Xiao Guodong at 3-0 ahead with two centuries to his name to losing the match 4-3. Following his Last 16 exit to Joe Perry in last weeks International Championship I came across a video purely by chance, showing Robertson lashing out a couple of times, swinging his cue and smashing the cue ball off of the table on the way out of the arena after losing frame four. Then at 5-1 down it showed him apparently breaking off by smashing the reds everywhere, which all seemed very unusual for Robertson. If Holt can pounce on any frailties that Robertson shows this week then he has every chance of victory. 

Prediction: Holt to continue his confidence growing 2016 with a 6-4 win over Robertson

Stuart Bingham Vs Liang Wenbo - If Stuart Bingham and Liang Wenbo can produce a standard of match that gets anywhere near their semi-final from the English Open a couple of weeks ago then it could be a real treat. Liang came out on top 6-5 in that match with both players hitting a barrage of big breaks, before the Chinese went on to win that event for his first ranking title in a 12 month span that has seen him grow hugely as a player. He was unfortunate to lose out 6-5 in the International Championship Last 16 last week to Selby and looks to have really grown in confidence which makes him dangerous to everyone now. Stuart Bingham has had a much better start to this season than the one he had a year ago when the pressures of being world champion seemingly got to him. Already he has been in semi-finals at the Shanghai Masters, English Open and last weeks International Championship. Even in his Last 16 exits at the Riga Masters and Indian Open he lost to the eventual runner-up and winner of those respective events, as well as losing to eventual winner Carter in the Last 32 stage of the World Open. It is continually taking in form players seemingly at the peak of their powers to beat Bingham, and on that basis it cannot be long before he goes on and wins his first title since the 2015 World Championship. 

Prediction: Bingham to gain his revenge with a 6-4 win

Quarter Choice: Stuart Bingham 

Overall Winner Selection: Stuart Bingham 

The event on the whole will be covered on Eurosport for those that will be up early enough in the mornings and have free time over the course of the afternoons (at least if you are living in the UK or Europe). 

Updates will be brought to you throughout what could be a fantastic exhibition of snooker and a break from the full on nature of the tour and worries about ranking lists - for one week at least.

Fantasy Snooker: China Championship and latest update

Something for those of you out there who are involved in the 2016/2017 Fantasy Snooker league. Just a reminder that the China Championship which starts on Tuesday will be a part of the league (despite the event being announced just before the Shanghai Masters). The deadline for picks will be Tuesday November 1st 6.30am UK time. Before all of that though, here is an update on the points table including which players you have picked so far. 

1^st: Gary: Ding, Bingham, Murphy, Trump, Allen, Robertson, Higgins, Selby 250

2^nd: Anthony: Selby, Ding, Robertson, Hawkins, O’Sullivan, Trump, Higgins, Maguire 203

3^rd: Daniela Reich: Ding, Selby, Robertson x2, Trump, O’Sullivan, Allen, Gould 202

4^th: Kellie Barker: Selby, Wilson, Trump, O’Sullivan, Robertson, Bingham, McGill, Walden 192

4^th: Couge: Carter, Holt, Murphy, Selby x2 Robertson, Higgins x2 192

6^th: Isitan Bakar: Bingham, Maguire x2, Allen x2, Trump, Higgins, Robertson 189

7^th: Igor: Murphy x2, Carter, Selby, Trump, Higgins, Ding, Robertson 179

8^th: TYIO: Gould, Bingham, Carter, Walden, Higgins, Trump, Maguire, Ding 176

9^th: TungstenDarts: Perry, Bingham x2, Carter, Trump, Allen, Wilson, Higgins 175

10^th: John McBride: Selby, Trump, Robertson x2, Maguire, Murphy 150

11^th: Andrew Walker: Allen, Trump, Robertson x2, Selby, Bingham 147

12^th: Phil Mudd: Ding, Trump, Holt, McGill, Higgins, Gould, Robertson, O’Sullivan 136

13^th: SnookerFollower: Bingham, Ding, Carter, Holt, Allen, Higgins, McGill, Maguire 129

14^th: FAM147: Bingham, Perry, Robertson, Allen, Higgins, Wilson, Walden, Gilbert 127

15^th: Matthew Lowson: Murphy, Carter, Robertson, Selby, Higgins, Ding, McGill, O’Sullivan 126

16^th: Munraj Pal: Ding, Trump, Murphy, Allen, Robertson, Wilson, McGill, Walden 121

17^th: Mark Taylor: Robertson, Bingham, Holt, Carter, O’Sullivan, Selby, Maguire, Trump 107

18^th: LTD: Wilson, Selby x2, Hawkins, Walden, Allen, Robertson, Murphy 105

19^th: Gorkem: O’Sullivan, Selby, Hawkins, Murphy x2, Ding, M. White, Robertson 103

20^th: Andrew Brooker: Wilson, Maguire, Murphy, Carter, Allen, Ding, McGill, Bingham 95

21^st: Ezgi Ulutas: Wilson, Robertson, McGill, Higgins, Robertson, Fu x2, Wenbo 86

22^nd: Kjetil: Wenbo, Bingham, Murphy, Bingtao x2, Allen, Ding, Hang 81

This is very much a week to be careful with just 16 players in the field you will have to probably use one of your major player picks (especially given that a few players have already picked certain players twice), though the usual two picks are required by the deadline mentioned above. 

If you have any questions comment or tweet me @CueActionBlog otherwise, enjoy your picking, and I should have another update ahead of the Champion of Champions next week. 

China Championship: Stat Attack and Tournament Top Ten

This week's inaugural China Championship build-up begins with a combined "Stat Attack" and "Tournament Top Ten" extravaganza which will be changed to fully compare the full 16-man field for this week, so you know how every single player shapes up statistically for this week.

I will attempt to make things even more interactive with graphs to display how the 16 compare in all of the key statistics which will be: frames per 50+ break, average break when 50 or above, close frame win percentage, average frame aggregate (average points scored per frame - average points conceded per frame).

Of course, as this is the first ever staging of the event there are no "past statistics" like I would bring from many other events but we can start with a look at how the head to heads look for the opening round and even possibly beyond.

HEAD TO HEAD: 

- Mark Selby and Anthony McGill will meet for the first time in 2016, having played four times in 2015. Selby won three of those with deciding frame wins at the German Masters (which Selby went on to win) and Ruhr Open as well as a simple 6-1 victory at the 2015 International Championship. McGill's solitary victory was when he inflicted the "Crucible Curse" on Selby in the Last 16 of the 2015 World Championship

- Ricky Walden leads the head to head against Mark Allen, despite victory for Allen in their most recent meeting in the Players Championship final in March. Prior to that Walden had wins to boast in the 2014 Champion of Champions, which was the week after he had beaten Allen in the International Championship final also.

- John Higgins and Mark Williams have met a huge amount of times over the years, but not so much in recent times. Higgins did overcome Williams in this season's World Open, while Williams beat Higgins at the 2015 Bulgarian Open. Prior to that though they had not met in a ranking competition since the 2011 World Championship semi-final and the 2010 UK Championship final (both won narrowly by Higgins)

- Surprisingly, Ali Carter and Judd Trump have only had three major meetings in their career (despite playing a huge amount in the Championship League) and Carter leads 2-1 in those meetings with victory in this years Players Championship to add to his famous 2012 World Championship win over Trump. The left hander whitewashed Carter in this year's German Masters to give him his only win over Carter in ranking competition.

- Joe Perry has only beaten Shaun Murphy once in a major tournament, though this was in their most recent match up at the World Open. Murphy's previous wins include a thumping victory at the 2015 World Championship, and two victories of his own on Chinese soil from 2011 and 2012.

- Ding Junhui and Marco Fu will meet in the first round for their first match since 2013. Ding was the winner on that occasion on the European Tour a short time after he had also beaten Fu in the International Championship final 10-9. Outside of a European tour win from 2013 of his own, Fu has not beaten Ding in a major tournament since the 2008 Masters.

- Neil Robertson and Michael Holt will meet in round one for their third meeting in 2016. Holt overcame Robertson 10-6 in the first round of the World Championships, before Robertson took his revenge with victory in the Riga Masters in June. Holt's only other victory against Robertson however, came in the 2000 China Open with Robertson winning a further six times against Holt.

- Finally from the first round head to heads, Liang Wenbo has a winning record against Stuart Bingham having beaten him in their last three major meetings (and last four if you count the Championship League). That includes their recent English Open semi-final as well as the 2015 German Masters and 2015 Riga Open. Both of Bingham's wins were in China though, with an Asian Tour final win in 2014, and victory at the 2013 China Open.

- There are a lot of if's, but's and maybe's in terms of Quarter-final match-up's but if Higgins and Trump both win their first round games it would set up their fourth meeting of the season, with Trump winning the previous three at the Riga Masters, European Masters and English Open.

- All possible outcomes in the Murphy/Perry Vs Ding/Fu section are quite interesting. If Murphy wins he has beaten Ding in their last three meetings (2016 Grand Prix, 2014 World Open and 2014 Masters) but lost his last three against Fu (2014 and 2015 UK Championships and 2014 Champion of Champions). As for Perry he has beaten Ding in their last two meetings (2015 Masters and 2015 Players Championship) despite having an otherwise poor record against the Chinese, yet he has lost his last two meetings with Marco Fu (2013 International Championship and 2012 Australian Open) and only ever beaten Fu once.


PLAYER PERFORMANCE - KEY INDICATORS: 

Frames per 50+ break: 

The graph and table below demonstrates how relatively close all of the average frames per 50+ break statistics are between these top players, and the reason I have put these all in this week is to make it more interactive and show any big gaps between players.

Neil Robertson unsurprisingly leads the way here with Mark Allen just behind him in second. Then there is a small gap before Ding Junhui and Judd Trump sit in joint third and things get quite close between them two, McGill, Fu and Selby. The next biggest comes halfway down the 16 man table for this week between Liang and Shaun Murphy who is in joint ninth with Ricky Walden and that may be caused by a little gap in the form of some of these top players this season so far (as these stats have been measured since the start of the season). There is then a reasonable gap before Joe Perry who has not been in the best of form, while Stuart Bingham is a little lower than some of his finishes would suggest. Higgins is also lower than I would have thought someone who has had four quarter-finals in six events would be, while Williams has been very poor. Ali Carter is bottom of the list despite having won an event, which just demonstrates that frequency of big breaks is not the strength of his game and he is more reliant on the tactical side of the game.

Average break when 50 or above: 

Having dealt with frequency of scoring the next step is to look at weight of scoring, with the average break when a player makes any break of 50 or above. Marco Fu leads the way and this for me sums up the fact that while his results have not been great, he has not necessarily been losing matches by a long way or because he has not made enough big breaks, so losing close frames at crucial points of tight matches could be all that has gone wrong for Fu. Next up are tournament winners in recent times with Liang and Trump and with the heavy scorers that they are, you would expect them to be near the top of this chart when they are in form. Joe Perry is perhaps in a similar boat to Fu, though his frequency of breaks was not as good as Fu's. Higgins and Bingham sit well after their consistent starts to the season, having reached the latter stages a lot without getting a trophy to take home.

There is not a great deal in the middle of this table between top players, and even Allen's low score near the bottom does not matter when you consider how high up he was for frequency of big breaks. Ali Carter's lack of heavy scoring is somewhat reflected again here as a lower "break weight" average would suggest a lower amount of centuries. This is the same for the likes of Walden and Murphy who have not had as many deep runs into tournaments this year, while Mark Williams poor form is reflected in his bottom of the table finish and lack of really big breaks through the season to go with his low "break frequency" finish.


Close frames Win percentage: 

Next up are those all important tactical frames in the close frames win percentage statistics. Close frames I determined as frames where there are 20 points are less between the scores and with that in mind it is no surprise to see an in form Mark Selby at the top of this list. When he is winning tournaments he is always going to be in the top three on this list with all the other top players, such is how good he is at grinding down the top players as well as those that are lower down in the rankings. The in form Liang Wenbo is also very close behind Selby, before a fair gap finds Neil Robertson who has also had a tournament win this season, in third position. There is another little gap before two more tactical titans in Higgins and Carter complete the top five and it is certainly no surprise to see them there.

The percentages in the middle of the list for this week field are understandably close, but there is a gap before the guys at the bottom like Ricky Walden and Shaun Murphy who are once again in the wrong half of these standings (just like in the big break stats) and this again displays perhaps why they have not had so many big runs. It is surprising however to find two such hot players from the season so far with Ding and Trump propping up the close frame standings. Both have won a tournament and been a runner-up in one more, but with very good scoring statistics this may just show where their strengths and weaknesses lie or that they have been slightly unlucky in closer frames.

Average frame aggregate: 

Finally, there is the overall frame aggregates statistic which is the average points scored per frame minus average points conceded per frame. It is no surprise to see someone in the form that Trump is at the top of the table, with Robertson and McGill (both tournament winners in the early season) just behind. Selby is in fourth after a big climb in the rankings following convincing victories in the latter stages of his International Championship win. Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy have had a number of convincing wins in the early rounds of a few tournaments this year which is why they are higher up this league. As for Ding he was a lot higher in this standing until a 10-1 final loss in Daqing saw him drop a few places.

There is a little bit of a gap down to the bottom then where players that have not reached the latter stages of tournaments as much are found. Joe Perry has lost his first match in four tournaments this year, which will have heavily hindered his aggregate, while Carter has been involved in a number of close frames in his matches. Marco Fu's early exits see him lower on the aggregate, along with Ricky Walden and Mark Williams who have not had many deep runs in tournaments. Michael Holt has had a couple of good tournaments making the quarter-finals but he suffered heavy defeats (in terms of points) to Xiao Guodong in the English Open and John Higgins in the European Masters demonstrating again how one match can slide you down the list a long way.



TOURNAMENT TOP TEN: 

With a field of just 16 for this weeks China Championship I thought it would be fun to rank all 16 members rather than picking out the usual "Tournament Top Ten". The key indicators that went into this week were the recent events at the International Championship, English Open, European Masters and Shanghai Masters as well as the World Open as the other Chinese event from the season so far. Along with that the stats shown above were also put into the "generator" and with this being the first China Championship I felt the most similar event to this was the International Championship so the 2014 and 2015 versions of that were added to this years finishes from Daqing.

16- Michael Holt - Holt has had a couple of quarter-finals at the Shanghai Masters and International Championship, and if the Riga Masters would have been taken into account he would have been much higher on the list, despite not featuring in the top five on any stats lists.
15- Mark Williams - This placing for Mark Williams sums up a very poor season so far for Williams with just a couple of Last 16's in the events that counted towards this weeks "Top Ten" list and not featuring in the top five on any of the above statistics.
14- Marco Fu - Fu may feature as the number one player on the average break when 50 or above list but his results on the whole have been poor and he finds himself low down on the list for that reason.
13- Shaun Murphy - Murphy too is low, featuring in the top five in none of the four above statistics and only having a couple of quarter-finals in the International Championship and World Open out of the events that were viewed as important for this list.
12- Joe Perry - Perry started the season well by making the World Open final and is a little further ahead of the bottom four on this list. Otherwise, a series of early exits in between then and an International quarter-final see him lower down the list than you would perhaps expect.
11- Anthony McGill - McGill may have been an early season winner in India but that did not count towards this weeks list. Aside from that, he has had quarter-finals at the World Open and European Masters as well as coming in 3rd for the season so far on the average frame aggregates and fifth on frames per 50+ break stat.
10- Ricky Walden - Walden finds himself in the top ten (where there is a fair gap between 10 and 11) mainly thanks to his place as a former International Champion which seems relevant in a week with a very similar format. On top of that he has had a couple of recent last 16's in the European Masters and last weeks International Championship with a quarter-final appearance at the English Open sandwiched between.
9- Mark Allen - Allen was the runner-up in the year Walden was International champion, though did not qualify this year and was the only man out of the 16 involved this week who was not present in Daqing. He has had Last 16's in the European and Shanghai Masters and despite not yet really going deep into a tournament, Allen is fifth on the average frame aggregates list and second on the average frames per 50+ break list.
8- Stuart Bingham - Bingham has started to fire in recent weeks with three semi-finals in the last four events played (Shanghai Masters, English Open and International Championship). As well as that he is fifth on the average contribution when above 50 statistic. The fact he has not quite made a final is the main reason he is not within the top five on this weeks list.
7- Neil Robertson - Robertson has had a couple of semi-finals of his own that count towards this weeks rankings at the European Masters and World Open but it is statistically where he gains most of his ranking. First for frames per 50+ break, second for average frame aggregate and third in close frames win percentage display a good all round game for Robertson who too would be very high on this list if his win at the Riga Masters in June would be more relevant for this week.
6- Ali Carter - Into the tournament winners now, and the first of those on the list is July's World Open winner Ali Carter. On top of that win was a strong quarter-final at the Shanghai Masters and he is also boosted on this list by a fifth place standing on the close frames win percentage list.
5- Liang Wenbo - Liang Wenbo was a much more recent winner at the English Open and added to that Last 16's in the tournaments either side of that victory. Statistically he is fairly strong with second place finishes on the close frames win percentage and average contribution when above 50 lists, and with such a high standing on this weeks list he has to be classed as a contender.
4- Ding Junhui - There is a fairly big gap between fourth placed Ding Junhui and fifth placed Liang, mainly thanks to the fact that Ding featured in last weeks International Championship final and was a winner in September's Shanghai Masters. Statistically his best effort is a joint third place showing on the frames per 50+ break leaderboard of the players involved this week. The form certainly points to Ding being a strong contender this week.
3- John Higgins - Higgins may not have won this season as yet, but a win at the 2015 International being relevant to this week with the similar formats certainly makes Higgins noteworthy coming into the week. On top of that he has had a consistent season on the whole making quarter-finals in the World Open, English Open, International Championship and European Masters which all count towards this weeks list. Along with fourth place standings on the close frame win percentage and average contribution when 50 or above lists and Higgins is worthy of his podium place on the China Championship pre-tournament list.
2- Judd Trump - Judd Trump has been one of the season's form men so far and is very close to finishing top of the list here. A winner at the European Masters he followed that straight up by making the English Open final and International semi's. Statistically he is top of the average frame aggregates list above and third in both the average frames per 50+ break and on the average break when he makes one of those breaks of 50 or above.
1- Mark Selby - Yet, the man that tops this weeks list is the most recent winner on tour and the world champion, Mark Selby. Winning the International Championship is the highlight in a brilliant season so far that has also included a final appearance at the Shanghai Masters and making the last four in Romania as well as the last four of last years International Championship which is noteworthy to this weeks event. Statistically he leads the field for this week in the close frame win percentage list and is fourth when it comes to average frame aggregates. His levels of consistency through the most recent months make him a huge contender again for this weeks China Championship.


That concludes the statistical portion of analysis ahead of the China Championship which commences on Tuesday, but there will still be my full preview to look out for, where opinion will be added to facts and figures and then we will see how closely the events run to the numbers and predictions.

Ding Junhui first man into International Championship final

Ding Junhui thrashed Judd Trump in the semi-final's of the International Championship to take the first place in Sundays final. He will face either Stuart Bingham or Mark Selby who play in the second semi-final tomorrow in a repeat of the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, where Selby will be hoping to set up a repeat of the Shanghai and more famously the World Championship final.

This ended Trump's hopes of making it into three ranking event finals in succession, whilst keeping alive Ding's chances of adding the International title to his win in Shanghai from September and it all went downhill very early on for the Englishman.

After having a couple of chances in the first two frames but failing to get either one on the board, Trump then had to sit and watch as Ding helped himself breaks of 64 and 93 that pushed him 4-0 in front at the first mid-session interval. Following that break the Chinese number one kept the ball rolling and stormed further in front at 6-0, with Trump failing to score a point for four successive frames at this point.

Somehow, Trump picked himself up and in what could have been a crucial point of the match, he took the last two frames of the opening session with runs of 81 and 90 to get on the board and give him a glimmer of hope but still trailing at 2-6.

Those hopes became a lot fainter after the first frame in the final session when Ding stretched his lead back to five frames at 7-2, though a frame won on the final pink after chances for the Chinese in the tenth could have been crucial as Trump asked the question at 3-7. Adding to that a 70 break in the eleventh and all of a sudden the left hander had won four of the last five frames either side of the break between sessions and frame twelve became vital with Ding's lead at 7-4.

However, Ding got in early and made the most of his chances to record the best break in this last four tie with a magnificent 134 total clearance to put himself a frame away from Sunday's final with an 8-4 advantage to take into the final intermission. Only the one frame was required after the short interval as Trump's early chance went astray and Ding capitalised with the reds open to make a match clinching 72 that saw Judd Trump thumped 9-4.


You can read my thoughts on the second semi-final in my quarter-final round-up blog from Thursday which is here: http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/ding-trump-selby-and-bingham-come.html


Will it be World number 1 Selby or number 2 Bingham that faces up to the home favourite in Daqing for the final? All will soon be revealed tomorrow.

Ding, Trump, Selby and Bingham come through dramatic quarter-finals day

Ding Junhui, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham made it through to the semi-finals of the International Championships on a dramatic Thursday in Daqing.

Home favourite Ding was the first man through with a crushing 6-2 victory over defending champion John Higgins. Higgins took the opening two frames, despite a break of 70 in the second frame from Ding. After getting on the board in the third the Chinese great hit Higgins with a barrage of big breaks. An 81 made the match level at the intermission, before a 56 put him in front. Consecutive centuries of 104 and 130 in frames six and seven put him one away from victory, before he clinched the match in the next courtesy of a 63.

Ding will now play Judd Trump in Friday's semi-final after a thriller with Shaun Murphy. Trump made three centuries in the match, the first of which came in frame three to make it 2-1, before Murphy clearly levelled with the first of four breaks in the 70's that he made in the contest. Another century following the mid-session interval put Trump 3-2 ahead but he lost all of the next three frames to runs of 77, 75 and 70 as Murphy put himself a frame away from the semi-finals at 5-3 and was looking very strong at this stage. However, Trump hit back in the next two frames with Murphy failing to pot a ball as a break of 74 followed by Trump's highest break of 119 forced the decider.

The decider was worthy of a match of it's own with the amount of drama it created. After early chances for Trump, Murphy then cleared the final few reds to take a handy lead on the colours but turned down the yellow early on, before narrowly missing a tough attempt that would likely have clinched him the match. Trump then clawed his way back into things and looked like clearing when he potted the blue after earlier getting out of a tough snooker when Murphy would have been over the winning line with a miss. On potting the pink into the yellow pocket he looked like landing perfectly on the black until the cue ball caught the bump of the middle pocket leaving him in no man's land. After a few safety shots, Murphy came incredibly close to doubling the final black the full length of the table into the yellow pocket. Trump then had an attempt at a thin cut, but missed and left a long chance on for Murphy. He went for it, but the black came all around the table and left a simple match ball for the left-hander to put himself into yet another semi-final.


World Champion Mark Selby overcame Joe Perry 6-3, despite a small fightback from his opponent, to book his place in the last four for the second year in succession. Perry won the opener but then Selby went into overdrive. Consecutive centuries of 132 and 127 sent Selby ahead before he dominated the fourth frame to stop Perry potting a ball or scoring a point for the third frame in succession. A tight fifth also went to the World number one, and when the sixth followed he was one away from victory. Runs of 64 and 86 kept the Gentleman in the match at 3-5, but a tight ninth frame got Selby over the line.

He will now play the World number 2 Stuart Bingham after Bingham held off a valiant Michael Holt fightback to come through 6-5. Holt did not get out of the gates in the opening four frames, after his win over Ronnie O'Sullivan in the Last 16, and runs of 87, 80 and a further 80 put Bingham 4-0 ahead and cruising into the mid-session interval. Holt did not give up though and the tables well and truly turned. He took all of the next four frames, helped by match high breaks of 81 and 63 to come all the way back and square the match at 4-4. Bingham hit back in the ninth superbly with a 131 break to have two bites at the cherry to win the match. The game became understandably tense at this stage and Holt was able to force a decider to increase the tension. It came down to the final reds but Bingham eventually got over the line to book his semi-final place.

Along with that victory Bingham has booked a place in the Champion of Champions in two weeks time. As the highest ranked player on the one-year money list not already qualified, as well as the only player left in the tournament not to have qualified, whether he wins the tournament or not he will get the 15th place. Meanwhile, if the winner of the China Championship next week is already in the Champion of Champions it will be Joe Perry that takes the place as the next highest ranked player on the one-year money list.


Semi-Final Schedule: 

Judd Trump Vs Ding Junhui - Friday 28th September (First session 7am UK Time and Final session 12.30pm UK Time)

Mark Selby Vs Stuart Bingham - Saturday 29th September (First session 7am UK Time and Final session 12.30pm UK Time)


The semi-final matches are played over two days with Trump and Ding's up first on Friday and each will be played over the best-of-17 frames. It will be the first time Trump and Ding have met since the second round of the World Championships when the Chinese number one came out on top, in his run to the final. For Trump he will be looking to get to his third ranking event final in a row and with nine centuries to his name in his four matches so far this week he is clearly still on top form. As for Ding he has had a couple of scares against Mitchell Mann and Ricky Walden but aside from that his wins have been comfortable and full of high breaks also.

On Saturday it will be the turn of World numbers one and two when 2016 World Champion Mark Selby faces 2015 World Champion Stuart Bingham. The pair met recently in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters when Selby made one of his trademark comebacks. Prior to that the pair had not for nearly three years (when they had four meetings in the space of a year which were shared). Bingham had had three comfortable wins to open up this week and in the early stages of his match against Michael Holt it looked like being four easy wins out of four. If given the chance though he will need to finish off Selby as soon as possible with thoughts fresh in his mind of Selby's Shanghai comeback and Holt's fightback today. Selby has had to play one extra match this week with his heldover Last 128 tie, so will surely welcome the day off. He was pushed by Paul Davison before comfortable wins over Alfie Burden and John Astley. He had to dig in against Liang Wenbo to win 6-5 before then playing another tough player in Perry, so both players will be well prepared for the battle on Saturday.


The winner of the Trump Vs Ding contest will have the benefit of a day off before Sunday's best-of-19 frame final, which could be an advantage if Selby and Bingham's clash runs close on Saturday.

Holt beats O'Sullivan again in Daqing

Michael Holt today scored his third win of 2016 against Ronnie O'Sullivan with a 6-4 victory in Wednesday's Last 16 at the International Championship. Having previously beaten O'Sullivan in March's World Grand Prix and in the Shanghai Masters just over a month ago, Holt took an early 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval and was never pegged back to level terms by his opponent. Despite losing a narrow fifth frame, Holt bounced back to take a tight frame on his own and restore his two frame advantage. 96 from Ronnie closed the gap once more, and after Holt won the eighth he closed the gap again with a 76 to make it 4-5. Holt held himself together in the next though to win the match with a run of 70.

Holt will now play Stuart Bingham who met Ali Carter for the fourth time in 2016. After losing to Carter at the World Championships and in Carter's run to winning the World Open, Bingham completed a comfortable victory in the Shanghai Masters and added to that today with a 6-1 thrashing of the Captain. Bingham's high breaks in the match were 84 and 82.

In the battle of the former International Champions, Ding Junhui came out on top in a deciding frame against Ricky Walden. Ding surged into a 5-2 lead thanks to runs of 71, 88, 93 and 98. Walden kept on going though and started to produce some real quality himself with a break of 130 in the eight and after winning a tight ninth frame, another century in the tenth forced the decider. It came down to the colours in the final frame but in the end the home favourite was just too strong, eventually closing out the match.

Ding faces the defending champion John Higgins next after Higgins beat another Chinese player in Zhou Yuelong 6-2. The only highlight for Zhou was a break of 102 in the sixth frame, but he was already 4-1 down at this stage.

World Champion Mark Selby used all of his "Master of brinkmanship" qualities against recent English Open winner Liang Wenbo. After the opening four frames were shared, including a century from Liang. Selby did move ahead at 4-2 before Liang won three on the bounce to move one away from victory at 5-4. Despite chances from the Chinese in both of the final two frames, Selby took them both helped by a break of 69 in the decider.

Selby's quarter-final opponent is Joe Perry after Perry completed his second 6-2 victory over Neil Robertson this season, after their World Open semi-final. It was not the same level of incredibly scoring from Perry on this occasion, but highs of 80, 73 and 67 were enough to put him into the last eight.

Judd Trump kept his brilliant form going with a 6-3 win over James Wattana who was in the Last 16 of a ranking event for the first time in 10 years. After making two centuries in each of his two earlier wins, today he had breaks of 137, 133 as well as runs of 83 and 77. Wattana put up a valiant effort making breaks of 94 and 75 and pushing Trump as much as any other player so far.

Shaun Murphy thrashed Sam Baird 6-1 for his most comfortable win so far. Despite Baird making a century in the opening frame, he could not reach the same heights thereafter and Murphy made breaks of 64, 86 and a high of 101 to get into the quarter-finals and set up a meeting with Judd Trump.


Quarter-Final Schedule: 

7.30am UK Time: 

John Higgins Vs Ding Junhui
Judd Trump Vs Shaun Murphy

12.30pm UK Time: 

Stuart Bingham Vs Michael Holt
Mark Selby Vs Joe Perry

It is hard to pick the winners of any of those four matches with any certainty with eight such high quality players left in the competition. However, all of the last four meetings between Ding Junhui and John Higgins in ranking competition have seen Ding come out on top and it will be interesting to see if that run continues. Meanwhile Trump and Murphy will meet for the first time since November 2014 in a European tour semi-final when Murphy came from 3-0 down to win 4-3. Michael Holt will be hoping to do what he has not been able to after beating O'Sullivan on the two previous occasions in 2016 by winning his next match. As for Perry and Selby both have already had to come through deciders, Perry beating Higginson from 5-2 behind in the Last 64 and Selby coming from 5-4 down against Liang, and this could also be a very close match.


The quarter-finals will be played over the best-of-11 frames once more to set up two semi-finals that will be played on individual days over the best-of-17 frames. Presumably as the top half of the draw play earlier on Thursday, that semi-final will be on Friday but this is yet to be confirmed.

Top players continue International domination in Daqing

All of the top players to make into the Last 32 at the International Championships marched on further with wins on day three in Daqing. 

There were comfortable victories for Judd Trump against James Wattana, Mark Selby over John Astley, Ding Junhui thrashing Matthew Stevens, John Higgins easing past Jak Jones, Stuart Bingham beating Dominic Dale and recent English Open champion beating fellow Chinese Li Hang.  

Things were not quite as simple meanwhile for Neil Robertson who played out a drawn out affair with Anthony Hamilton. Hamilton did lead 4-3 after quite a long period of play, but 50+ breaks in consecutive frames from Robertson turned the tables and put him 5-4 ahead when the match was taken off having overrun for time. Resuming after the first match to conclude in the evening session, Robertson made a further contribution of 50 to win 6-4. 

Ronnie O'Sullivan had to play well to fight off Kurt Maflin. Having led 2-0 early on O'Sullivan was pegged back to 2-2 at the intermission. He edged ahead once more at 3-2, only for Maflin to win the next two and lead 4-3. However, O'Sullivan stepped up and levelled once more at 4-4 before then winning the next two frames with breaks of 84 and 101 sealing a 6-4 win. 

Shaun Murphy had to battle hard against young Chinese sensation Yan Bingtao coming through in a deciding frame. As in his first round match against Robin Hull, he found himself 3-1 behind at the mid-session break before winning the sixth on a re-spot in another mirror of the Hull match to level the scores at 3-3. He took the seventh for a third frame on the trot but then lost the next two to breaks of 60 and 50 which left him on the brink, 4-5 adrift. Murphy dug in with his highest break in the match, an 84, to force the decider and then came from behind in the final frame to seal a tense victory. 

Elsewhere, Ali Carter came from 5-2 behind to beat Stephen Maguire, Michael Holt came from 5-3 adrift to overcome Daniel Wells while Ricky Walden beat Graeme Dott 6-4 in a close encounter that Walden finished with a century. Joe Perry ended Aditya Mehta's run after coming with a 6-3 victory, improving on his match with Andrew Higginson when he had to come from 5-2 down to book his Last 64 spot. 

Only three of the sixteen remaining players are from outside of the World's Top 32. Sam Baird was the most impressive of these adding a win over Marco Fu to his earlier scalp of Michael White in this event. Baird had led 3-0 early on in the match only for Fu to turn things right around and lead 4-3. From here Baird dug deep and turned things around himself to win all of the next three frames and record an impressive 6-4 win. 

James Wattana is in the Last 16 of a ranking event for the first time since 2006 after beating Chinese amateur wildcard Xu Si 6-4, while Zhou Yuelong beat fellow non top-32 player Mark Joyce 6-4, after being pegged back from 4-1 to 4-4. 

Last 16 Draw and Schedule: 

7.30am UK Time: 

John Higgins Vs Zhou Yuelong - TV TABLE

Mark Selby Vs Liang Wenbo - TV TABLE

Stuart Bingham Vs Ali Carter 

Shaun Murphy Vs Sam Baird 

12.30pm UK Time: 

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Michael Holt - TV TABLE

Ding Junhui Vs Ricky Walden - TV TABLE

Judd Trump Vs James Wattana

Neil Robertson Vs Joe Perry

A brilliant line-up remains for the Last 16 with the World Champion playing the most recent winner on tour in Liang Wenbo. Stuart Bingham will take on Ali Carter for the fourth time in ranking competition in 2016, while Shaun Murphy and Sam Baird will play in a professional match for the first time. Ronnie O'Sullivan will be hoping not to fall to Michael Holt for the third time in succession, with Holt having beaten him in March's Grand Prix and in the Shanghai Masters last month. Two former winners face off when Ding plays Walden, while practice partners will turn rivals once more with Robertson taking on Joe Perry. 

All of these matches remain over the best-of-11 frames format to set-up what should be a sensational quarter-final line-up given all of the top players left in this week. 

World's best shine at International Championship

The top ranked players have all started well at the International Championships in Daqing, following the first two days of action. World number one Mark Selby overcame Paul Davison 6-4 in his heldover Last 128 match on Sunday, before a 6-2 victory over Alfie Burden in Monday's play saw him into the Last 32. Defending champion John Higgins also had his Last 128 match saved for the venue, beating Sydney Wilson 6-0 and then winning his Last 64 match with fellow Scotsman Eden Sharav 6-3. Ding Junhui did not have things all his own way in his held over Last 128 match (as the Chinese number 1) having to come from 5-2 behind against Mitchell Mann to eventually win 6-5, before beating David Grace 6-1 in the Last 64. Ding missed the brown in frame four of that match when on for a maximum 147 break. Finally from the hold overs, Chinese number 2 and recent English Open champion Liang Wenbo came from 5-3 behind to beat Mei Xiwen 6-5. On Monday playing one of the four Chinese wildcards that all came through their matches against professional opposition on Sunday, Liang managed to hold his nerve having watched his 5-1 lead disappear before winning a very tight deciding frame.

Mark Williams was one of the shock casualties of the Last 64 as he lost 6-5 to wildcard Xu Si, who had beaten Wang Yuchen on Sunday. Xu was 3-1 ahead at the interval before Williams went on to lead both 4-3 and 5-4, but it was the Chinese who came through the decider comfortably to book his Last 32 place. On top of that there were 6-3 defeats for Martin Gould against Mark Joyce and Indian Open champion Anthony McGill against Zhou Yuelong.

Judd Trump did overcome wildcard opposition in impressive young Yuan Sijun. Trump led 3-0 early on in the match before seeing his opponent win three in a row to draw level, only for Trump to win three more in a row and finish with two century breaks in a 6-3 victory.

Shaun Murphy meanwhile came from 3-1 and 4-3 down against Robin Hull to win 6-4 and book a Last 32 meeting with Yan Bingtao, who famously beat Murphy in last years Champion of Champions. Hull could have led 4-2 but for an in-off when potting the penultimate red and then giving away another snooker, seeing Murphy clear up to force a re-spot which he crucially won to level at 3-3.

Stuart Bingham was a comfortable winner against wildcard opposition, while Neil Robertson cruised past Oliver Lines 6-0 in the Last 64. Joe Perry meanwhile ended a poor run of results, but only just as he came from 5-2 down to beat Andrew Higginson.

Ronnie O'Sullivan had a nervous end to his 6-4 win over Xiao Guodong. O'Sullivan made a 137 break in the first frame, and went on to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval. Xiao won the first two after the break to level at 3-3 only for O'Sullivan to step up and move one away at 5-3. Xiao won the ninth to stay in the contest, and had a major chance to force a decider, but after O'Sullivan forced a re-spot the Chinese player went in-off to gift the five times world champion victory.

Last 64 Results in Full: 

John Higgins 6-3 Eden Sharav
Jak Jones 6-4 Jimmy Robertson
Mark Joyce 6-3 Martin Gould
Zhou Yuelong 6-3 Anthony McGill
Matthew Stevens 6-1 Chris Wakelin
Ding Junhui 6-1 David Grace
Graeme Dott 6-1 Fergal O'Brien
Ricky Walden 6-3 Ken Doherty
Judd Trump 6-3 Yuan Sijun
Tom Ford 6-3 Zhao Xintong
Xu Si 6-5 Mark Williams
James Wattana 6-3 David Gilbert
Sam Baird 6-2 Michael White
Marco Fu 6-4 Akani Songsermsawad
Yan Bingtao 6-2 Mike Dunn
Shaun Murphy 6-4 Robin Hull
Stuart Bingham 6-1 Zhang Jiankang
Dominic Dale 6-4 Luca Brecel
Ali Carter 6-3 Robbie Williams
Stephen Maguire 6-2 Rod Lawler
Kurt Maflin 6-2 Matt Selt
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-4 Xiao Guodong
Michael Holt 6-2 Jamie Jones
Daniel Wells 6-2 Stuart Carrington
Neil Robertson 6-0 Oliver Lines
Anthony Hamilton 6-2 Gary Wilson
Joe Perry 6-5 Andrew Higginson
Aditya Mehta 6-2 Ryan Day
Liang Wenbo 6-5 Chen Zifan
Li Hang 6-1 Lee Walker
John Astley 6-4 Mark King
Mark Selby 6-2 Alfie Burden


Those results have set up some brilliant Last 32 matches, so here is the draw and schedule with all of those games being played tomorrow:

Last 32 Draw: 

7.30am UK Time: 

Mark Selby Vs John Astley - TV TABLE
Neil Robertson Vs Anthony Hamilton - TV TABLE
Shaun Murphy Vs Yan Bingtao
Ricky Walden Vs Graeme Dott
Marco Fu Vs Sam Baird
Stuart Bingham Vs Dominic Dale
Mark Joyce Vs Zhou Yuelong
James Wattana Vs Xu Si

12.30pm UK Time: 

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Kurt Maflin - TV TABLE
Ding Junhui Vs Matthew Stevens - TV TABLE
John Higgins Vs Jak Jones
Judd Trump Vs Tom Ford
Ali Carter Vs Stephen Maguire
Michael Holt Vs Daniel Wells
Joe Perry Vs Aditya Mehta
Liang Wenbo Vs Li Hang


All Last 32 matches are played over the best-of-11 frames to set the line-up for Wednesday's Last 16.

International Championship Preview

The International Championship, China's biggest money ranking event, starts early on Sunday morning in Daqing. John Higgins is the defending champion and he, along with World Champion Mark Selby, China's No.1 and Shanghai Masters champion Ding Junhui and China's No.2 and recent English Open winner Liang Wenbo, has had his Last 128 'qualifying' match held over to the venue.

The format for the week is the much longer best-of-11 frames, compared to some of the recent best-of-7 dominated tournaments, up until the semi-finals which are played on Friday and Saturday over the best-of-17 frames before the best-of-19 frames final. 

As always there is a wildcard round, with four Chinese wildcards and Ian Burns, Ross Muir, Wang Yuchen and Tian Pengfei are the unlucky professionals who have been drawn to face the four wildcard players. This weeks notable absentees are Mark Allen and Barry Hawkins, who both lost in the Last 128 round that was played in Preston in September. Kyren Wilson meanwhile failed to enter for whatever reason, but other than that we have a top field again for this week. 

This will be the fifth staging of the International Championship, with Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and Ricky Walden being the other former winners that join defending champion Higgins this week, though this will only be the second year it has been held in Daqing. 

For viewers in the UK there is a 7 hour time difference that will then stretch to 8 hours for the final, when the clocks go back on Saturday 28th October. The event will be covered in full on Eurosport.

Quarter 1

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold) 

John Higgins/Sydney Wilson Vs Eden Sharav

Jimmy Robertson Vs Jak Jones

Martin Gould Vs Mark Joyce

Anthony McGill Vs Zhou Yuelong

Matthew Stevens Vs Chris Wakelin

Ding Junhui/Mitchell Mann Vs David Grace

Graeme Dott Vs Fergal O'Brien

Ricky Walden Vs Ken Doherty

Quarter one has three of the four champions in the International Championship history including Ricky Walden who has not had the best season to this point with just a quarter-final in last weeks English Open to cheer about after a few poor results. As well as Walden there is Ding Junhui who won the Shanghai Masters back in September and looks to be back to his best. Over the long format I would very much expect Ding to be a big threat and a contender for the title. Don't forget Indian Open winner Anthony McGill who has had an excellent season so far and is another big threat over the longer format. Chris Wakelin showed what he could do at the English Open in Manchester by beating McGill and Ronnie O'Sullivan on the way to the quarter-finals, while Jimmy Robertson and Martin Gould could also be dangerous players.

My opening quarter choice though is defending champion John Higgins. I have picked out Higgins to win his quarter in the European Masters and English Open and in both tournaments he lost out in the quarter-finals. He is the defending champion this week and his form has been pretty good through the first part of the season without yet really challenging for a title, but over the long format he really should be a major threat one again in Daqing. 

Quarter Choice: John Higgins 

Quarter 2

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold) 

Judd Trump Vs Ian Burns/Yuan Sijun 

Tom Ford Vs Zhao Xintong

Mark Williams Vs Wang Yuchen/Xu Si

David Gilbert Vs James Wattana

Michael White Vs Sam Baird

Marco Fu Vs Akani Songsermsawad

Mike Dunn Vs Yan Bingtao

Shaun Murphy Vs Robin Hull

The second quarter is where we find the other former International champion in form man Judd Trump, the way Trump has been going, winning the European Masters and making the English Open final, it's hard not to see him making the latter stages once again in China. Meanwhile, Mark Williams has struggled for form lately with a few early exits in the European and Shanghai Masters, while Shaun Murphy has also not been at his best in the last few tournaments with Last 32 exits in the Shanghai and European Masters and a Last 64 exit to eventual champion Liang Wenbo in the English Open. Last year's runner-up David Gilbert could be a sleeper in the draw having had another couple of decent results this season so far, while Tom Ford has reached the Last 16 in both the English Open and European Masters so he too could be a dark horse.

My quarter choice here is another former runner-up however in Marco Fu. Fu has not had the best of starts to the season but on the whole his form is usually fairly hit and miss. However, in the four stagings of the International Championship he has made three quarter-finals as well as being a runner-up in 2013. Fu also reached the quarter-finals of the UK Championships in the last couple of years, and the World Championship semi-finals back in April so it seems that he really thrives in some of these longer matches. With Fu's record in the International and the fact that he is certainly due a run in a big tournament this season he is my second quarter choice. 

Quarter Choice: Marco Fu

Quarter 3

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold) 

Stuart Bingham Vs Ross Muir/Zhang Jiankang

Luca Brecel Vs Dominic Dale 

Ali Carter Vs Robbie Williams

Stephen Maguire Vs Rod Lawler

Matt Selt Vs Kurt Maflin

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Xiao Guodong

Michael Holt Vs Jamie Jones 

Stuart Carrington Vs Daniel Wells

The third quarter is where we find World Open champion Ali Carter who could meet Stuart Bingham once again in the Last 16 of this one. Carter was knocked out in the Last 32 in both the English Open and European Masters and he could face a very tough Last 32 match here. Bingham has been in decent form with semi-finals in the Shanghai Masters and the English Open so he will be hoping to carry that on in Daqing. Stephen Maguire will want to pick up from his last China trip when he too was a semi-finalist in the Shanghai Masters, looking in fantastic form there but he has not replicated this since. Matt Selt was impressive in beating Joe Perry in the first round of the English Open, but then lost in the Last 64 to Anthony Hamilton and has not looked at his best this year consistently. However, Selt did win the event in China last year that very few pro's knew anything about. Xiao Guodong was impressive when I saw him in Manchester, and he battered Michael Holt there in round one, though Holt has also looked good this year so far. Either one of those two players could be dark horses in the draw.

However, my selection in this section is the one and only Ronnie O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan lost in the Last 16 of the Shanghai Masters in his first event back this season before flying to the final of the European Masters before losing out in a decider to Trump. He then lost out narrowly in the Last 32 of the English Open but having played his way into the season I think O'Sullivan will be ready for a big title winning performance very soon. The longer format matches should suit O'Sullivan and all of the other very top players this week, rather than the best-of-7 of recent times, and he should be inspired by the fact that this is one of the bigger tournaments on the circuit now and he is yet to win it. 

Quarter Choice: Ronnie O'Sullivan

Quarter 4

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold) 

Neil Robertson Vs Oliver Lines

Gary Wilson Vs Anthony Hamilton

Joe Perry Vs Andrew Higginson 

Ryan Day Vs Aditya Mehta 

Liang Wenbo/Mei Xiwen Vs Tian Pengfei/Chen Zifan 

Li Hang Vs Lee Walker 

Mark King Vs John Astley 

Mark Selby/Paul Davison Vs Alfie Burden

As with all of the others the final quarter in the draw is packed with talent. Liang Wenbo won his first ranking event at the English Open and with this new found confidence, he will be very hard to stop in Daqing and he showed last year in the UK Championships that he can do it over the best-of-11 frames longer matches. World Champion Mark Selby dropped off a bit in the English Open after reaching the European Masters semi-finals and Shanghai Masters final, but again over a longer format he should be able to get some results and he will be looking to go one better than his semi-finals efforts last year. Joe Perry has also been a finalist in China this season, but since the World Open in the summer he has not produced anything close to that form again with a first round exit at the Shanghai Masters, European Masters and English Open. Ryan Day reached yet another Last 16 in Manchester but once again failed to kick on, and with a lot of players from the "best player never to have won a ranking event" winning one this year, you have to ask now if Day ever will.

The fourth and final International Championship quarter selection is former finalist Neil Robertson. Robertson is a former finalist at the International Championship and his recent record in Chinese events has been a good one. Robertson has been in good form this season making the semi-finals of the World Open and the European Masters and winning the Riga Masters, and his draw for this week does look good for him to get into the event and really make a challenge for the title. 

Quarter Choice: Neil Robertson 

Winner Selection: Ronnie O'Sullivan 

A tough week to call given that this is the first longer format event of the season with the best-of-11 frames matches. In terms of scheduling, Sunday and Monday see the Last 64 completed as well as the heldover and wildcard games, Tuesday is the Last 32 before Wednesday's Last 16 and Thursday's quarter-finals. The two session semi-finals are played with one match on Friday and the other on Saturday before the final on Sunday 30th October.

Meanwhile, you can still view my combined Stat Attack and Tournament Top Ten blog here:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/international-championship-stat-attack.html

I hope to have a few updates on the blog through the International, before the build-up will again begin for the China Championships which start just a couple of days after things draw to a close in Daqing. 

International Championship: Stat Attack and Tournament Top Ten

Heading into the start of the International Championship I have decided to combine the Stat Attack with a shortened version of the tournament top ten blog in order for me to ensure that each of my pre-tournament features was still produced.

This week also sees a change in how the statistics I work on have been presented, attempting to make them slightly easier on the eye rather than a big clump of information. As always these statistics are based on the performances from the start of the season and are as follows, the frames per 50+ break, average contribution when a player makes a break of 50+, close frames win percentage, average frame aggregates (average points scored per frame - average points conceded per frame) and the quarter-finals or better reached since the start of the 2014/2015 season.

As we know, the International Championship has been staged four times previously from 2012 to 2015, while this years will be the second year in Daqing after the tournament moved there last year.

TOURNAMENT SPECIFIC STATISTICS: 

- Marco Fu has won more matches in the International Championship than anyone with 18 wins, while Mark Allen has won 15 but failed to qualify for this years tournament.

- Marco Fu has also played in more deciders than anyone else playing at the International Championship this week winning four out of seven he has played in this competition. Ryan Day is three out of three in this competition meanwhile and Michael White is three out of four in International deciders.

- Ricky Walden has won more money than anyone else from the International Championship (having won the tournament in 2014), the other three former winners take the next three spaces (Ding, Higgins and Trump). Marco Fu has won most money out of anyone never to have won the tournament.

- In terms of head to heads, Ken Doherty will be looking to end a record of heavy defeats against Ricky Walden, who has beaten Doherty 6-1, 5-1 and 5-2 in their three most recent meetings.

- Sam Baird has already beaten Michael White twice this year, including at the World Championship, ahead of their Last 64 meeting.

- Ding Junhui will meet Mitchell Mann for the second tournament in succession, following a 4-0 win over Mann at the English Open.

PLAYER PERFORMANCES KEY INDICATORS: 

*Each of the following "Best Five/Worst Five" lists only takes into account the players still in the tournament, including those with Last 128 matches held over for the main venue.

Close Frames Percentage:
Best Five:
1st: Yan Bingtao (86.67%)
2nd: Alfie Burden (80%)
3rd: Liang Wenbo (78.26%)
4th: Mark Joyce (75%)
5th: Mark Selby (74.07%)

Worst Five:
1st: Robbie Williams (11.11%)
2nd: Jimmy Robertson (23.31%)
3rd: Mitchell Mann (30%)
4th: Tian Pengfei (30.77%)
5th: Michael White (33.33%)

When it comes to close frames, most players are around the 50/60% mark, which makes Yan Bingtao's efforts particularly impressive, and the efforts of someone like Robbie Williams very surprising. It's no surprise to see Mark Selby in the top five, particularly given that he has had a good start to the season. Liang Wenbo's high percentage would have certainly helped him in winning the English Open last week. Tian Pengfei's lower percentage sums up for him, what has been a very poor season so far.

Average Frames Per 50+:
Best Five:
1st: Neil Robertson (2.08)
2nd: Ronnie O'Sullivan (2.19)
3rd: Marco Fu (2.43)
4th: Anthony McGill (2.46)
5th: Judd Trump (2.49)

Worst Five:
1st: Sydney Wilson (13)
2nd: Wang Yuchen (10.5)
3rd: Paul Davison (10.33)
4th: Ken Doherty (9.71)
5th: Ross Muir (9.43)

It will come as no surprise to anyone that Neil Robertson and Ronnie O'Sullivan are the leaders when it comes to making 50+ breaks, while Judd Trump is coming into this tournament off of a tournament win and a tournament final in successive tournaments so you would also expect him in the top five, Anthony McGill's impressive figures are thanks to his early season form, while Marco Fu is the surprising man of the top five as he has not had the best of starts to this season so far, but clearly his scoring has not suffered because of that and good things could be around the corner for him.
Meanwhile, it would be fair to say each of the players in the bottom five for the season so far have had poor starts to the season, and for the likes of Sydney Wilson and Paul Davison their Last 128 matches have been held over.

Average break when 50 and above:
Best Five:
1st: Marco Fu (82.4)
2nd: John Higgins (81.88)
3rd: David Gilbert (81.16)
4th: Anthony McGill (80.93)
5th: Liang Wenbo (80.53)

Worst Five:
1st: Oliver Lines (58.13)
2nd: Lee Walker (59.36)
3rd: Paul Davison (59.5)
4th: Wang Yuchen (60.25)
5th: Jamie Jones (66.06)

Marco Fu also features very heavily on the weight of 50+ breaks he is making, which is even more surprising with his poor results to be making breaks of such weight so frequently and still not getting to the back end of tournaments. There is little surprise in the remainder of the players in the top five, all very heavy scorers. Higgins has reached a number of quarter-finals this season so this could be his week to kick on, while McGill and Liang are of course tournament winners this season.
Paul Davison once again features in the bottom five, along with Wang Yuchen. It is slightly surprising to see Jamie Jones so low on the list given that he came through the qualifying rounds to reach the main draw of the Shanghai Masters, whilst it is difficult to know what to make of Lee Walker and Oli Line's numbers here, but clearly any heavy scoring has deserted them this season.

Average Frame Aggregate:
Best Five:
1st: Anthony McGill (22.11)
2nd: Shaun Murphy (21.67)
3rd; Judd Trump (20.95)
4th: Ding Junhui (20.36)
5th: David Gilbert (19.53)

Worst Five:
1st: Sydney Wilson (-28.92)
2nd: Paul Davison (-23.36)
3rd: Aditya Mehta (-19.4)
4th: Mitchell Mann (-18.64)
5th: Wang Yuchen (-15.97)

The same faces have come up again in the bottom five, with Sydney Wilson, Paul Davison and Mitchell Mann all to play their Last 128 matches against Higgins, Selby and Ding as heldover matches. Aditya Mehta meanwhile only one his first match of the season in the qualifiers for this event.
In the top five we have McGill once again who has had a brilliant season so far, and other tournament winners in Judd Trump and Ding Junhui. Shaun Murphy's high aggregate was helped mainly by very strong showings in the World and Indian Open's, with poorer results in more recent weeks. David Gilbert's heavy scoring in many of his wins is the product of such a high aggregate, sneaking him into fifth position.

Quarter-finals or better since 2014/2015:
Top Five:
1st: Judd Trump (12)
2nd: Stuart Bingham (11)
3rd: Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and John Higgins (10)

Another tournament final for Judd Trump at the English Open saw him stay out in front on the quarter-finals or better statistic, while a semi-final for Stuart Bingham in Manchester separates him from Mark Selby, Neil Robertson who had early exits in Manchester to follow semi-final losses at the European Masters. John Higgins has joined Selby and Robertson on ten after another quarter-final at the English Open which saw him lose to Trump in the quarter-final stages for the second event in a row.

TOURNAMENT TOP TEN: 

10 - Ricky Walden 
9- Ronnie O'Sullivan
8 - Ali Carter
7- Marco Fu
6 - Mark Selby 
5 - Liang Wenbo
4 - John Higgins
3 - Ding Junhui
2 - Neil Robertson
1 - Judd Trump



The tournament top ten for this week is incorporated of past finishes in the four stagings of the International Championships, the UK Championships of 2015, results this season in the recent English Open, European Masters but also the two Chinese ranking events in the Shanghai Masters and World Open. That also goes along with the statistics that have all been mentioned above.

In tenth we find Ricky Walden who is a former winner of this event from 2014, and with that in mind he is surprisingly low on the list which is mainly as he does not sit strongly in any statistics and has only a singular quarter-final this season, from the English Open.

Ninth is Ronnie O'Sullivan, in part because this is only the third time that he has entered the tournament, though he is a past quarter-finalist from 2014. O'Sullivan exited in the Last 16 in Shanghai and the Last 32 in Manchester but did have a final appearance in Romania, which helped near the top of the frames per 50+ break stat.

In eighth place is Ali Carter who's cancer treatments in previous years saw him miss this event a couple of times, else he may have been higher up the list. Carter features on the list mostly thanks to his win at the World Open in the summer and a quarter-final in the Shanghai Masters so he may have a third good run in the third Chinese event of the season.

Seventh position is where we see Marco Fu. Fu was a narrow runner-up to Ding in 2013, but has also reached the quarter-finals in all of the other three stagings of the International Championships, as well as a quarter-final in last years UK Championships. Added to this are his showings in the top five of both statistics related to 50+ breaks as were shown above.

World Champion Mark Selby is down in sixth position for this week. A runner-up in Shanghai he also made the semi-finals of the European Masters and going back to 2015 he made the semi-finals of both the International and UK Championships over a very similar format. Selby's best statistical showings as we saw, were in the quarter-finals or better statistic and the close frames win percentage.

Heading into the top five is recent English Open champion Liang Wenbo. That win was always going to shoot him very high up the list, but added to that is the fact that (over a similar format) he was a runner-up in the 2015 UK Championships, and has been a former quarter-finalist in this event. He also appeared above in a couple of the top fives in the close frames win percentage and average break per 50+.

Fourth position is where defending champion John Higgins appears on the list, mainly because of his win in this tournament a year ago, Added to that are a number of quarter-finals, starting in last year's UK Championships and going on to include to the World Open, and the two most recent events in Romania and Manchester. Statistically his quarter-finals or better number is high on the list along with his average break per 50+.

On the podium is the 2013 champion Ding Junhui. Ding has also been a winner this season at the Shanghai Masters, and would probably be leading the list if he would have backed that performance up in any of the other tournaments. Statistically the Chinese number 1 is in the top five for average frame aggregates that were displayed above, Clearly, he is serious contender this week.

In the runners-up spot this week is Neil Robertson. Robertson was also a runner-up the first time the International Championships was staged in 2012. Add to that a good start to the season that has included semi-finals at both the World Open and European Masters and Robertson looks like a top challenger this week. Statistically it is no surprise to see a scorer like Robertson in first place for frames per 50+ break, and he features in the quarter-finals or better statistic.

That means that this weeks tournament top ten leader is the very first International Champion Judd Trump. Trump has been flying in recent weeks with a final at the English Open to add to his European Masters victory and it really is no surprise to see him at the top of the list. He also leads this weeks field when it comes to quarter-finals or better, as well as featuring in the top five for average frame aggregates and average frames per 50+ so he is certainly worthy of the number one ranking on all fronts.



That is all of the statistical analysis offered up ahead of Sunday's start in the International Championship, and it will be interesting as always to see how closely things run to how the numbers would expect them to.

Still to come I will have my full tournament preview with my quarter choice's and winning selection before the tournament is underway.

Judd Trump and Liang Wenbo battle for English Open crown

Judd Trump and Liang Wenbo will face off today in the final of the English Open at Event City in Manchester.

The pair had varying routes to the final with Trump beating Hawkins very easily, 6-2 in the afternoon session. Liang meanwhile played out a cracker of a contest with World number 2 Stuart Bingham that went all the way.

Despite winning the opener against Trump with a break of 64, Barry Hawkins never quite got back into the match after losing the next three and falling 3-1 behind at the interval, aided by a match high break of 88 in the third frame. A ton to make 2-3 was as good as it got for Hawkins who had a lot of trouble missing blacks off of the spot into the same corner pocket, doing it a number of times throughout the match. The crucial moment came in the seventh when Trump won a re-spot after Hawkins had had chances, and was looking to close to within a single frame once more. Another black ball frame in the eighth saw Trump make the vital shots and put himself in the final.

Liang and Bingham scored much heavier in the second semi-final with seven breaks of 50 or above from Liang and five 50+ contributions from Bingham. After a 50 from Bingham, Liang won the opener by coming back with a 58. 66 was enough for Bingham to level and he soon took the third to move in front. Liang hit back with 63 to take them into the interval all square, but runs of 95 and 89 from the 2015 World Champion saw him move two clear for the first time in the match at 4-2. In the next two frames Bingham then did not score a point as breaks of 74 and a marvellous 134 drew the scores level once more at 4-4. 116 from Bingham in the ninth put him 5-4 ahead and have two cracks at winning the match, but he did not have a scoring chance in either frame. A match high break of 138 from the Chinese number 2 forced the deciding frame. An early run of 61 in the decider put Liang nicely in front but not quite over the line, but when his next chance came an additional 53 was more than enough to put him into the final alongside Trump.

Final Schedule: (Best of 17 frame) 

First Session: First 8 frames: 2pm UK time
Final Session: 7.30pm UK time


Today's winner between Judd Trump and Liang Wenbo will see the winner take home £70,000 and the new Steve Davis Trophy (which having seen it up close on Thursday looks like one of the better trophies on tour), while the loser will receive a very handy £30,000. If Liang wins it will get him into the Champion of Champions, and move up to 12 in the world rankings which would be a career high for the Chinese number 2. Victory for Trump meanwhile, will see him leapfrog losing semi-finalist Bingham into the number 2 spot in the rankings and of course it would be two titles in two weeks for him, and an overall earning of £126,250 for the fortnight.

Much like his route into the UK Championship final last December, Liang has had to come through a number of deciding frames and had his nerves tested to the maximum. He could easily have lost 4-3 to Shaun Murphy in the Last 64, and then again when playing Ben Woollaston in the Last 16 (which is probably what the celebratory slap of the face I witnessed was for). He had to dig very deep against Bingham but his best game came from that and he has been scoring superbly all week long with tough matches all the way from the start.

Judd Trump has made his week a lot more comfortable, with his only close game coming in Wednesday's Last 64 when he had a long wait before facing Jamie Bodle, coming from 2-0 and 3-2 behind to win 4-3. Since then wins of 4-1, 4-0, 5-1 and 6-2 have not tested him remotely but he should not have things all his own way against Liang, who will be much better for his experiences in that aforementioned UK Championship when he was very nervous and doing all sorts of strange twitching and movement with his body on some shots. He has certainly looked calmer this week, though the passion and big celebrations are still there and that is nice to see.

Over the best-of-17 frames this should be a brilliant match with plenty of power scoring and one to very much look forward to.

Thursday at the English Open: A Live Blog

Good day Ladies and Gentleman. If you were following this blog in February you will know that while I was at the Welsh Open I did a live blog to keep you all updated on the goings on from the tables that were not being Televised tables. While I am in Manchester today for the last 32 and Last 16 action I am hoping to provide some more live updates.

Last 16

Time to start the preparation for tonight's Last 16. Here's what we have schedule wise.

7pm: Ricky Walden Vs Yan Bingtao (Table 1 on completion of Higgins Vs Patrick)
Ryan Day Vs Barry Hawkins (Table 2)
Anthony Hamilton Vs Jak Jones
Xiao Guodong Vs Chris Wakelin

Not before 8pm: Judd Trump Vs Mark Williams (Table 1)
Liang Wenbo Vs Ben Woollaston
Stuart Bingham Vs Rhys Clark
Tom Ford Vs John Higgins/Fraser Patrick

Really looking forward to these. Particularly Walden Vs Bingtao and Day Vs Hawkins but I'm sat in a position to keep you across all of those four games commencing at 7.

Just a slight shame that once again play cannot start on time on table one. Particularly so given that play started an hour earlier today.

Great starts for Ryan Day and Chris Wakelin. All Xiao has done in frame one is break off, Wakelin knocking a long red in and then getting right amongst them. Day meanwhile was let in by a poor snooker escape from Hawkins for his opportunity. Both have taken their opening frames now.

Confident from Jak Jones in his match with Hamilton. 85 in the end winning that opener. That won't necessarily be the quickest match mind you. Was nice to see Wakelin recognise a stalemate come along and ask for a re-rack before all the messing about. Saves time. The second frame between Hawkins and Day isn't going to be a clean kill but some important tactical play is in progress. Big difference between 1-1 and 2-0 early doors.

Wakelin has a nice little chance in frame two now after his 130 total clearance in the first.

Wakelins chance didn't last long before he played safe, though having said that he now has another after a good long pot. The vital action has just taken place on table two where Ryan Day missed the final red for frame ball and Hawkins made a lovely clearance, particularly splitting pink and black from the side cushion and levels at 1-1.

Frame three not been the best between Day and Hawkins. Plenty of misses from both and it seems as though frame two has gotten into Days head. Jak Jones looking good to double his lead, while Xiao eventually levelled with Wakelin in a scrappy frame two.

Hawkins cleared from the last two reds to the pink to win an important frame three and then capitalised by making a break of 89 from the chance given to him in the fourth and he's now one away at 3-1. Hamilton has just missed on 66 in frame three against Jones. A very healthy lead of 66 but not yet a frame winning one.

Guodong getting the upper hand in the more dis-jointed frames against Chris Wakelin. 2-1 to the Chinese player there now while Hamilton did indeed get frame three on the board, trailing Jak Jones 3-1 now.

Barry Hawkins put Ryan Day away really well there, Day lost his way after the second frame and never recovered. Hawkins the first man into the quarters 4-1 without having to play his best by any means.

Jak Jones has not done a great deal in his appearances on the World Snooker tour from my memory but this will certainly be a highlight if he can finish it off. 3-1 up on Hamilton after another confident one visit kill in frame four. Woollaston is 2-0 up on Wenbo after a century in frame two, although I cannot see that table from my position. Higgins and Ford now underway on table two. Short turnaround for Higgins and this is the second event in a row these two have met in the Last 16.

Xiao Guodong isn't winning frames in one visit but the important thing is the former, he's winning frames and one away from the quarter-finals at 3-1. I cannot see the Bingham table but I can see the scoreboard ticking over at a rate of knots and the 2015 World Champion walking round the table with a spring in his step as he notches up a heavy break to lead Rhys Clark 2-0. Jones has missed an early chance in frame five and allowed Hamilton an opportunity to try and get back into things.

Hamilton is indeed back in it making 79 from the Jones miss to get back to 2-3. Higgins made an early 50+ in the first against Ford, before giving Tom an opportunity to counter but a costly miss makes it 1-0 to the Scot. Barring snookers on table three Wakelin has gotten one back after a good contribution in the fifth against Xiao.

Can see about a fifth of the table in the Bingham match but it was enough to see that Clark had left the brown in the jaws when attempting to clear and win the third. Bingham did the rest and leads 3-0. Every time I've looked at the Wenbo Vs Woollaston scoreboard since Ben went 2-0 ahead, Liang has been at the table and scoring, turning it right around to lead 3-2. Hamilton has a really golden opportunity to take his match with Jones the distance and you would expect him to do so. Higgins seems to have found something in the last hour or so he's had off. He misses the brown for a ton but leads Ford 2-0 now.

Those two deciders were contrasting as you'll know if you've been following my Twitter. 70+ from Hamilton wins his from 3-1 down against Jak Jones who didn't have a chance in the decider.

Chris Wakelin meanwhile had to come from 30 odd points behind with two reds left. All the reds and colours were in the middle of the table except for the black which was on the bottom cushion. He didn't get onto it perfectly but still rolled it in in dramatic style, gave a big fist pump and come on as he too comes from 3-1 down to beat Xiao Guodong 4-3.

While all of that excitement took place, Stuart Bingham eased past Rhys Clark 4-1, and John Higgins has just extended his lead to 3-1 against Tom Ford courtesy of a 80+ break.

Just gets better and better. On potting match ball pink in the decider against Woollaston, Liang Wenbo gives himself a couple of slaps to the face. As a sort of reward. John Higgins meanwhile has beaten Tom Ford 4-1, with a much better display than in the afternoon, finishing with a century.

Just the TV table left now where Judd Trump leads Mark Williams 2-0.

Judd ends up winning 4-0 against Mark Williams. He with Higgins and Bingham for me are going to be the main contenders for this title now.

Been a quality day here in Manchester, some thoroughly enjoyable matches to complete my two days here.

Here is the quarter-finals line-up for the English Open:

Barry Hawkins Vs Ricky Walden (12pm)
Judd Trump Vs John Higgins (to follow)
Stuart Bingham Vs Chris Wakelin (7pm)
Liang Wenbo Vs Anthony Hamilton (7pm)

Last 32

Mark Allen Vs Yan Bingtao going to be on table three this afternoon. Could be a great match that and I'll be keeping you across as much as I can. Ding Junhui is on table 4 and Walden Vs Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn on table 5 so if a good vantage point is secured I will have updates from those as well.

Stuart Bingham Vs David Gilbert - My second and final feature match of the Last 32 is underway. Who knows, after the shocks of this afternoon so far the winner could very easily come from this match.

After a slow start Stuart Bingham has gotten the first real chance and it's a decent look at taking the opening frame.

Confident start indeed free Bingham as a nice break of 75 makes it 1-0 after a shaky start from both players.

When these two met at the Shanghai Masters recently Gilbert got off to a slow start and couldn't recover. He's in danger of the same happening here after missing a yellow going into the bunch and leaving Bingham right in at the start of frame two.

However, Bingham has quickly lost position only making 30, and the frame is now becoming more tactical.

Gilbert has won that tactical battle and with reds open has a very nice opportunity to level the match.

At least it was a good opportunity until a fatal miss from Gilbert and Bingham has quickly cleared to double his advantage.

Bingham starting to look good here. After he was let at the start of the third frame he potted 10 reds but missed the tenth black of his maximum attempt and despite Gilbert briefly playing on, the contribution of 73 was enough for a 3-0 lead to go one away from victory.

Again in frame four Bingham had the first chance and once again he made it count, a break of 72 was enough to leave Gilbert needing four snookers and though he valiantly played on, it was soon all over with Stuart Bingham coming through a comfortable 4-0 winner.

Mark Allen Vs Yan Bingtao - the players are in the arena, and we're ready to go for this best-of 7 frames contest.

First chance for Yan here after a brilliant long red. Superb shot. Quickly up to 44 and reds opened from the pink. Great chance now to take the opening frame.

That was speedy from Yan. He misses a pink to middle on 75 but the damage is already done. 1-0.

Long pot in the second from Allen but he takes on a tricky green and misses. Good opportunity again for Yan.

Into the reds from a red he goes and gets a good split but faces a tricky black. In it goes and a great chance for 2-0 now.

Looked like a kick on the black on 45 to miss it by so much. Nothing was left for Allen but a missed shot to nothing from Yan leaves the red in the jaws. Good chance for Allen now.

The last red on the side cushion looked like it could have been the only stumbling block but with that negotiated a very nice clearance of 75 has seen Allen level at 1-1.

After a tactical start to frame three Allen has knocked in a great long red, gone straight into the bunch off of the first black and now has a decent chance with some reds open.

That's another very nice break from Mark Allen 79 featuring a double and he leads 2-1.

A poor safety from Allen and a red in off the one over the corner from Yan gave him a good chance in the fourth but he's missed and now left Allen a decent opening... Until he misses a red to middle, and Yan plays a red in off the green over the pocket to get back in.

He didn't kill the frame with that visit but a good mid-range pot (despite a loud sneeze on his back swing) leads to a run of 41 to square the match at 2-2.

Been a couple of misses in frame five a little table punch from Yan but Allen is in now with an opportunity to take that all important 3-2 lead.

A 3-2 lead Allen indeed takes. Some great shots in that break of 72 to give himself two bites at the cherry now to win this brilliant match.

Allen has had a chance at the start of the sixth but a kick ruined his position and ultimately cost him the break on 37. Yan in now. Can he force a decider?

Yes Yan can. A brilliant 92 clearance from the young Chinese player and we're going all the way here. This has been a treat to watch and is getting the finish it deserves.

First chance Yan in the decider. Knocked in some good balls so far but work to do to finish this off.

Yan misses the black on 56 two balls from clinching the match. Leaves nothing though, crucial safety battle now.

RESULT - YAN BINGTAO 4-3 MARK ALLEN

That's it for Allen. A good long pot from Yan already leading at 56-0 and he's able to finish the match off.

For the young Chinese he'll play the winner of Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn and Ricky Walden where Kritsanut has just gone 3-2 ahead with a big break.

I'll be focusing on those games under the "Meanwhile" section until Carter Vs Woollaston and Bingham Vs Gilbert get underway, Robertson currently leading 3-2 on that table

Meanwhile... Chance for Walden on table 5 after a miss from Kritsanut. Won't be an easy kill though

Robertson started with a big ton against Xiao but now Xiao has a chance to hit back.

Jak Jones looking in a nice position to the first with Ding but it's a scrappy table and could take some getting over the line.

Jones indeed goes 1-0 ahead.

Xiao missed a couple in frame two and Robertson has gladly done the rest for 2-0.

Walden has taken a very lengthy opener against Kritsanut and Ding is looking very good to square his match with Jones...and he has. Eventual break of 108 there.

Robertson on fire against Xiao 125 there to make it 3-0 but on table 5 Kritsanut has gone one better with a very classy 126 break. First time I've seen him I think and he looks a good player.

Walden moves ahead of Kritsanut again with a 51 while Jak Jones has potted some good balls in frame three to take the frame on the pink and lead Ding 2-1.

Xiao starting to fightback against Robertson. Was 3-0 but now 3-1 and a chance for 3-2.

Jak Jones looking confident against a miss firing Ding Junhui.

Jak Jones did go 3-1 up on Ding, but despite needing plenty of chances, Ding is hanging on in there now at 2-3.

Walden had a chance to force the decider with Kritsanut but going into the reds off a red, saw the pink that was at the bottom of the pack follow it straight in. No damage done though.

Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn was in with a reasonable winning chance in the sixth until he missed a fairly straightforward black off of the spot and Walden has done the rest to force a decider.

First chance to Walden in the decider, if he doesn't make it a winning contribution he can certainly take a healthy lead.

Walden takes a 51-0 lead, but with reds open had to win the safety duel that followed and after a missed long attempt from Kritsanut he now looks like sealing it.

RESULT: RICKY WALDEN 4-3 KRITSANUT LERTSATTAYATTHORN

Walden does eventually beat Kritsanut with that second contribution in the decider. Just a quick word of congrats to Wakelin on his win on the TV over Ronnie O'Sullivan. Ryan Day and Barry Hawkins both completed 4-1 victories on the tables I couldn't see and now O'Brien Vs Wenbo and Swail Vs Ford have started on these tables.

Two one sided frames in the in the Woollaston and Carter match see them at 1-1 in a match that should go close.

Jak Jones has just potted a brilliant pressure black on the bottom rail to force a re spot in frame 6 with Ding.

RESULT: JAK JONES 4-2 DING JUNHUI

Jones pots the re spot after a loose safety from Ding. The only attempt Ding had for a pot was from long range and he missed by a distance.

Woollaston looks fluent early on against Carter which is more of what we know he's capable of.

Kyren Wilson and Rhys Clark are now underway on table five while the decider between Robertson and Xiao on table two is still ongoing. Robertson has just missed to offer Xiao a chance with the scores fairly even but with reds safe there is plenty to do.

RESULT: XIAO GUODONG 4-3 NEIL ROBERTSON

Well what a comeback that is from Xiao Guodong from 3-0 down to beat Neil Robertson 4-3, after a 40+ minutes long decider. Robertson had a chance to clear from the last red but missed a tough blue to middle before Guodong potted blue and pink to clinch the match.

Stuart Bingham Vs David Gilbert will be next on that table and my next feature match which will appear at the top of the page.

Ben Woollaston continues to look good as he takes on Ali Carter, a clearance from the last couple of reds to pink making that 3-1. Carter will need a repeat of last night now to get through.

Woollaston has now beaten Carter 4-2 after hanging on as Carter made good attempts at snookers on the last red in frame six.

Mark Williams meanwhile opens up with a break of 138 in his match with Ian Preece, and is quickly in again in the second. The tip troubles from Monday appear to be behind him.

Rhys Clark has just compiled a clinical 72 that proved enough to turn his match with Kyren Wilson right around as he now leads Wilson 3-2 and is one away from consecutive Last 16 appearances following his run in Romania.

Aided by a series of foul points given away from his opponent Ian Preece is on the board against Mark Williams but remains 3-1 behind.

Williams has eventually seen off Ian Preece 4-1 and will play Judd Trump in the Last 16 this evening.