The home favourite for this week will obviously be Northern Ireland's Mark Allen, who will be desperate to win this one in front of his home fans. Joe Swail will also be hoping for a good run on his home patch, while there are also two Northern Irish amateur invites in the field with Patrick Wallace and Jordan Brown.
As was the case with the English Open this event will be covered by Eurosport who will also air their coverage on freeview channel Quest (Just in the afternoons for the early rounds though as they did in Manchester) and hopefully their studio coverage can live up to what they have shown us both at the English Open, and when they have done it on previous occasions like at the German Masters.
Once again the draw for this week sees the top 16 seeds placed in the draw, and the remaining 112 players drawn at random which has once again thrown up some mouth watering ties that we would not normally see as early as the Last 128 stages of a tournament. Unfortunately though, this tournament will be lacking the winners of the last three World Championships as Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham have chosen not to enter, while Neil Robertson is another top 16 player who has decided not to take part this week and focus his energy on the defence of his UK title starting next week. Judd Trump and Ali Carter have pulled out since the draw which leaves only two top 16 seeds in the top quarter of the draw.
Let's take a look then at who is in the draw this week and what we can expect:
Quarter 1
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Peter Ebdon W/O Judd Trump
Michael Wild Vs Adam Duffy
Christopher Keogan Vs Kurt Dunham
Robert Milkins Vs Scott Donaldson
Stephen Maguire Vs Alan McManus
Sanderson Lam Vs Wang Yuchen
Darryl Hill Vs Zak Surety
Rod Lawler Vs Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Kurt Maflin Vs Zhang Yong
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Alex Borg
Mike Dunn Vs Josh Boileau
Hamza Akbar W/O Ali Carter
Tian Pengfei Vs Fergal O'Brien
Thor Chuan Leong Vs Mitchell Mann
Mark King Vs Igor Figueredo
Liang Wenbo Vs Nigel Bond
In the very first quarter the eye is naturally drawn to English Open champion Liang Wenbo who is the only man left chasing the one million pound dream after that victory in October. He will have to improve his form though after two crushing first round exits in the Champion of Champions and China Championship invitationals in the last two weeks. Withdrawals this week of Judd Trump and Ali Carter mean that only he and Stephen Maguire are the top 16 seeds in this section. It's hard to pick a dark horse out in the draw, but after a fairly quiet start to the season Kurt Maflin could be due a good run this week, as he usually has a couple of good runs a season, with his best this year coming with a Last 16 at the World Open way back in July, and he has lost in the Last 32 three times since then. Meanwhile with a walkover in round one who knows how far Peter Ebdon could end up going in that section if he finds his form.
Non entries mean that my quarter choice Stephen Maguire became the sixteenth seed for this week. That did not see him avoid a tough draw though as he faces his fellow Scotsman Alan McManus in round one and that could be a tough test for him early on but if he can get through that there is a real chance for him here. With the withdrawals of Judd Trump and Ali Carter it really does leave a significant gap in the draw and I think that Maguire could be the man to come through it and make the semi-finals. His run to the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters was fantastic but he has not quite replicated that since, losing from 2-5 up to Ali Carter in the International Championship and probably losing at the English Open to Ryan Day when he was much the better player. When going through my statistics I was impressed by how well Maguire shapes up on all fronts and if he can replicate that this week there's no reason why he could not go very far.
Non entries mean that my quarter choice Stephen Maguire became the sixteenth seed for this week. That did not see him avoid a tough draw though as he faces his fellow Scotsman Alan McManus in round one and that could be a tough test for him early on but if he can get through that there is a real chance for him here. With the withdrawals of Judd Trump and Ali Carter it really does leave a significant gap in the draw and I think that Maguire could be the man to come through it and make the semi-finals. His run to the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters was fantastic but he has not quite replicated that since, losing from 2-5 up to Ali Carter in the International Championship and probably losing at the English Open to Ryan Day when he was much the better player. When going through my statistics I was impressed by how well Maguire shapes up on all fronts and if he can replicate that this week there's no reason why he could not go very far.
Quarter Choice: Stephen Maguire
Quarter 2
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs David John
Jimmy White Vs Gareth Allen
Zhang Anda Vs Ian Preece
Chris Wakelin Vs James Wattana
Kyren Wilson Vs Hammad Miah
Ben Woollaston Vs Jordan Brown
Akani Songsermsawad Vs Cao Yupeng
Mark Davis Vs Jason Weston
Matt Selt Vs Jamie Barrett
David Gilbert Vs Zhao Xintong
Alfie Burden Vs Craig Steadman
Mark Williams Vs David Grace
Matthew Stevens Vs Zhou Yuelong
Li Hang Vs Allan Taylor
Jamie Jones Vs Sam Craigie
John Higgins Vs Paul Davison
The remaining section of the draws top half is where we find last weeks Champion of Champions finalist Ronnie O'Sullivan who reached his second final of the season. However, in his three other events he lost twice in the Last 16 to Michael Holt, along with a Last 32 exit in the English Open. His draw looks very easy for the early rounds this week prior to the Last 16. There he could meet someone like Kyren Wilson who we have not seen since his Last 32 loss in the first home nations series event. Wilson did not qualify for the last two weeks of invite events and did not enter the International Championship for whatever reason. Wilson in fact suffered a number of early exits following his loss in the Indian Open final. Ben Woollaston could be a dark horse in this section as he seems to suit these home nation style events. He made the last 16 in Manchester and in the last two years of the Welsh Open he made the quarter-finals after his run to the 2015 final. Matt Selt and David Gilbert could also be dark horses though more recent form would suggest not. Mark Williams has struggled this season on the whole. Losses in his first match of the Shanghai Masters and European Masters saw poor performances, while he was embarrassed by a Chinese wildcard player in the Last 64 of the International Championship.
My second quarter choice has to be the man of the hour John Higgins. Higgins comes into the event having won the last two events in Guangzhou and Coventry and collecting £300,000 for doing so. With a couple of out of form players in this section of the top 16 seeds, I viewed this as another possible tussle between Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan and my belief is that as long as Higgins does not start to tire too much he is going to be a huge threat once again here. It is hard to see him losing too early and if he does win his first two or three matches easily he could be quickly back into full stride and a major threat. He will come to Belfast with supreme confidence and playing very close to his best, so there is no reason why he cannot threaten the latter stages once again.
Quarter Choice: John Higgins
Quarter 3
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Shaun Murphy Vs Luca Brecel
Jamie Cope Vs Adam Stefanow
Michael White Vs Graeme Dott
Ross Muir Vs Chen Zhe
Ricky Walden Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Rory McLeod Vs Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn
Tom Ford Vs Ian Burns
Dominic Dale Vs Joe Swail
Mei Xiwen Vs Duane Jones
Fraser Patrick Vs Marc Davis
Michael Holt Vs Stuart Carrington
Barry Hawkins Vs Martin O'Donnell
Jack Lisowski Vs David Lilley
Xiao Guodong Vs John Astley
Jimmy Robertson Vs Elliot Slessor
Joe Perry Vs Itaro Santos
As we enter the bottom half of the draw we find one of the ties of the first round as Luca Brecel takes on this weeks third seed Shaun Murphy. Murphy has had an up and down season making the quarter-finals of the World Open and semi's in India early on in the summer, before a run of earlier exits. A 5-0 loss in the Last 32 of the Shanghai Masters, was followed up with another Last 32 loss in Romania. He was unfortunate to lose out 4-3 to eventual champion Liang Wenbo as early as the last 64 of the English Open. Despite his "Annual day out to Coventry" losing in the first round of the Champion of Champions for the fourth year running his form has improved recently with a black ball decider loss to Judd Trump in a magnificent International Championship quarter-final, before making the China Championship semi's and losing out in another decider to Stuart Bingham in another high quality contest. Ricky Walden will be hoping to march on from his English Open quarter-final here where he is the fourteenth seed despite dropping out of the top 16. Walden therefore has work to do in Belfast and at the UK Championships coming up to get into the Masters in January. Other than that quarter-final in Manchester and a narrow last 16 exit at the International to Ding Junhui, Walden has little to look back fondly on this season with a number of earlier exits. After first round exits in the last two weeks of 16-man invitational action Joe Perry has now lost his first match in five of his last six events, with his only recent success being a quarter-final at the International Championship where he was lucky not to lose in the Last 64. July's World Open final must seem like a long time ago for Perry now. Michael Holt has been improving a lot over the course of the last year. Beating O'Sullivan to make the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters was a big win but to then do ait again a month later to reach the same stage of the International Championship shows greater consistency from Holt. On top of that he showed great bottle to beat Neil Robertson in the China Championship before losing 6-5 to Stuart Bingham (just as he had done in Daqing). Holt has a couple of potential tricky starters in this event but if he continues to beat top players with the regularity that he has been he could go far. Another harsh first round match sees Michael White taking on Graeme Dott where either player could potentially go on to have a good run in Belfast if they are playing well. Joe Swail may be a major dark horse to have a good week but as one of only two Northern Irish tour players in this event he will be hoping to get a couple of wins in front of his home fans and is more than capable of doing so.
The man I think will come through all of these stars this week is Barry Hawkins. Hawkins was a semi-finalist in the first of the home series events in Manchester, with a couple of Last 16 exits in the events prior to that and he will be hoping to re-create that in Belfast. After failing to qualify for the International Championship, China Championship and the Champion of Champions he has had plenty of time to relax and work on his game ahead of this tournament and the UK Championships which will follow. For someone of Hawkins often underrated qualities the ability to come in fresh and hopefully well tuned with his practice, should he play some expected rust off in the first couple of rounds then it would be easy to see him going from strength to strength in this section. A lot of players in this quarter face tough matches early on, so if Hawkins can come through his the question will be as to how many others do and that could work in his favour.
Quarter Choice: Barry Hawkins
Quarter 4
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Mark Allen Vs Mark Joyce
Michael Georgiou Vs Patrick Wallace
Robin Hull Vs James Cahill
Rhys Clark Vs Lee Walker
Marco Fu Vs Ryan Day
Sam Baird Vs Noppon Saengkham
Andrew Higginson Vs Daniel Wells
Gary Wilson Vs Peter Lines
Ken Doherty Vs Ashley Hugill
Anthony Hamilton Vs Boonyarit Kaettikun
Aditya Mehta Vs Sydney Wilson
Anthony McGill Vs Fang Xiongman
Oliver Lines Vs Eden Sharav
Yan Bingtao Vs Steven Hallworth
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Robbie Williams
Ding Junhui Vs Yu De Lu
Home favourite Mark Allen is found in the very bottom quarter here but we will come back to him in more detail later. Meanwhile, Ding Junhui will have to pick himself up quickly after a semi-final loss to John Higgins 6-5 in the Champion of Champions despite the Chinese player making four centuries. Ding also impressed by making the International Championship final a couple of weeks ago, and already has a trophy in his cabinet for the 2016/2017 season having won the Shanghai Masters. On UK soil he is not always quite as strong, despite what his recent Coventry performance may suggest. Let's not forget that he lost in the last 32 of the English Open to Jak Jones completely out of nowhere, in what could go down as one of the surprise results of the season. Anthony McGill will be hoping to get back to form after losses in Last 64 of the International Championships in Daqing and the first home nations event in Manchester, before first round defeats in both of the recent invitational events. Marco Fu faces a very harsh first round tie against Ryan Day here in Belfast. Fu has not gotten past the Last 32 of a ranking event this season, which by the standards of a top 16 player is utterly shocking form. His only high point would have been a win over Ding Junhui to reach the quarter-finals of the China Championship though he was thrashed in that last eight tie against Shaun Murphy. Day has looked decent again this season without kicking on into the real latter stages of an event. So far he has had Last 16 exits in the English Open and World Open as well as a Shanghai Masters quarter-final, but by equal measure he has lost in the Last 64 of five events including a 6-2 thrashing against Aditya Mehta in Daqing (which is one of only two wins for Mehta on his return to tour). Watch out for dark horses in young Chinese Yan Bingtao who reached the Last 16 of the first home nations event in Manchester as well as narrowly losing in the Last 32 of the International Championship, on top of runs to the Last 16 of the Riga Masters and Paul Hunter Classic earlier in what has been a brilliant start to the season for the 16 year old. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh could also be a dark horse, though he has lost his first match in each of his three events (Shanghai Masters, English Open and International Championships) since consecutive semi-finals early in the season at the World Open and Paul Hunter Classic.
My final quarter choice is the home favourite Mark Allen. My thoughts on Allen coming into what is a major event for him were always going to be determined by his form coming in. If his form was poor I would have found it much easier to write him off if a lack of confidence combined with the pressure that comes with playing in your home Open getting too much. As he has had semi-finals in both of the China Championship and Champion of Champions in the last two weeks, and coming into those events fresh after a week or so off coming in and taking all of the summer off too he should still be fairly fresh coming here. Therefore he should be really fired up and inspired to do well in front of his home fans, that should also contain a lot of his friends and family. Looking at his draw, he faces his bogey player in round one but nothing will fire him up more than playing Mark Joyce given the fact that he will want for revenge for those defeats and has publicly expressed his dislike of Joyce. Beyond that the only players in his section that are anywhere near the top 32 are Ryan Day and Marco Fu who play each other in round one and neither has been in good form. It is foreseeable that Allen could cruise through the early rounds and then have plenty left in the tank for the latter stages.
Quarter Choice: Mark Allen
Overall Winner Selection: Mark Allen
That is all of my Pre-tournament analysis but don't forget you can see the view from a statistical side in my previous blogs here:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/northern-irish-open-stat-attack-and.html
The format for the week is the same as the English Open (Last 128 Monday and Tuesday, Last 64 Wednesday, Last 32 and Last 16 Thursday all best-of-7 frames, quarter-finals on Friday over the best-of-9 frames, semi-finals on Saturday over the best-of-11 frames before Sunday's best-of-17 frames final).
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/northern-irish-open-stat-attack-and.html
The format for the week is the same as the English Open (Last 128 Monday and Tuesday, Last 64 Wednesday, Last 32 and Last 16 Thursday all best-of-7 frames, quarter-finals on Friday over the best-of-9 frames, semi-finals on Saturday over the best-of-11 frames before Sunday's best-of-17 frames final).
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