The Scottish Open has returned to the calendar as the third event in the new home series, as the players will battle it out at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow for the £70,000 top prize and the Stephen Hendry Trophy.
After winning the title in York, Mark Selby will not be at this event having opted not to play, as has Ding Junhui who was the winner the last time snooker came to Scotland four years ago. Other than there is a full field of top quality players going for glory in Glasgow, but that is not to say that a proven winner will come out on top. Liang Wenbo won the first home nations event in Manchester for his first ranking title, while Mark King was an emotional first time ranking winner at the Northern Irish Open in Belfast.
Once again the tournament will be covered by Eurosport who have been doing a brilliant job of covering the home nations events, and on top of that it will be simulcast on freeview channel Quest in the afternoons throughout the week. The format is the same as usual with matches in the first four rounds being best-of-7 frames, quarter-finals of best-of-9 frames, best-of-11 frame semi-finals prior to a best-of-17 frame final.
This is how the draw shapes up for one final week of snooker in 2016:
Quarter 1
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Stuart Bingham Vs Mark Joyce
Yu De Lu Vs Josh Boileau
Daniel Wells Vs Jamie Barrett
Kurt Maflin Vs Sam Craigie
Anthony McGill Vs John Astley
Sam Baird Vs Mitchell Mann
Robbie Williams Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Mark King Vs Kurt Dunham
Ian Burns W/O Martin Gould
Alfie Burden Vs Zhang Anda
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Sydney Wilson
Liang Wenbo Vs Darryl Hill
Mike Dunn Vs Jason Weston
Ross Muir Vs Gareth Allen
Matthew Stevens Vs Ken Doherty
Barry Hawkins Vs Hammad Miah
In the top quarter of the draw we have both of the first two home nations champions in Liang Wenbo who has since not quite found his form losing in the Last 64 in Belfast and in the UK Championships before withdrawing from the German Masters qualifiers. The second home nations champion was Mark King who surprised everyone that week by winning his first ever professional ranking title. Anthony McGill was also a first time ranking winner earlier in the season but in recent weeks his form has also dipped, playing in his home tournament could help to spark him back to his best. Stuart Bingham is the very top seed for this week due to the non-entry of world number one Mark Selby and he will be looking to get back to the form he showed in October and the start of November. Bingham reached semi-finals at the English Open and International Championships before making the China Championship, and after taking the week of the Northern Irish Open off I fancied him heavily to do well in the UK Championships. However, he lost in the Last 64 there with a disappointing showing and Bingham is still looking for his first title since becoming a World Champion in May 2015. In terms of dark horses Ross Muir will want to go well in his home tournament while Kurt Maflin will want to build on a Last 16 showing in the Northern Irish Open.
My opening quarter choice is a man who has come close already in this season's home nations and that is Barry Hawkins. Hawkins was a semi-finallist in the English Open before losing to Judd Trump, who at that stage was going for consecutive tournament victories. Then in Belfast he lost out in a deciding frame in the final against Mark King. He completed victories in the early rounds in Belfast with the minimum of fuss, only dropping three frames on the way to the semi-finals that week. He opened up his campaign in the UK Championships with a 6-0 victory, and has just won 5-0 to qualify for the German Masters which shows his form is still good. It is not worth looking into his Last 64 exit at the UK Championships, when you see that Fergal O'Brien made five centuries in that match to beat him, which is an extraordinary effort that you just do not see everyday. The draw for Hawkins in the early rounds in Glasgow looks like one that he could get through with similar ease to that of Belfast if he keeps up his home nations form. A tough early draw can flag up problems over the best-of-7 frames, but a Barry Hawkins who is playing well should be confident of getting to the quarter-finals when the format lengthens slightly and he could come into his own, given his matchplay qualty and heavy scoring.
My opening quarter choice is a man who has come close already in this season's home nations and that is Barry Hawkins. Hawkins was a semi-finallist in the English Open before losing to Judd Trump, who at that stage was going for consecutive tournament victories. Then in Belfast he lost out in a deciding frame in the final against Mark King. He completed victories in the early rounds in Belfast with the minimum of fuss, only dropping three frames on the way to the semi-finals that week. He opened up his campaign in the UK Championships with a 6-0 victory, and has just won 5-0 to qualify for the German Masters which shows his form is still good. It is not worth looking into his Last 64 exit at the UK Championships, when you see that Fergal O'Brien made five centuries in that match to beat him, which is an extraordinary effort that you just do not see everyday. The draw for Hawkins in the early rounds in Glasgow looks like one that he could get through with similar ease to that of Belfast if he keeps up his home nations form. A tough early draw can flag up problems over the best-of-7 frames, but a Barry Hawkins who is playing well should be confident of getting to the quarter-finals when the format lengthens slightly and he could come into his own, given his matchplay qualty and heavy scoring.
Quarter Choice: Barry Hawkins
Quarter 2
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Neil Robertson Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Gary Wilson Vs Allan Taylor
Joe Swail Vs Lee Walker
Stuart Carrington Vs Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn
Marco Fu Vs Sanderson Lam
Tom Ford Vs Liam Highfield
Robin Hull Vs Boonyarit Kaettikun
Michael White Vs Cao Yupeng
Fergal O'Brien Vs Brandon Sargeant
Stephen Maguire Vs Zhou Yuelong
Michael Holt Vs David Grace
Mark Williams Vs Rod Lawler
Mark Davis Vs Rory McLeod
Graeme Dott Vs Jak Jones
Xiao Guodong Vs Wang Yuchen
Shaun Murphy Vs Zhao Xintong
This section of the draw is jam packed with plenty of talented players who could all go well and end up winning the entire event. Michael White made the quarter-finals in the Northern Irish Open and he will be hoping to end 2016 on a brighter note here in Glasgow. Graeme Dott has had very little form at all this season, and is yet to win a frame in the home nations but with a home tournament as inspiration he will hope to get some wins under his belt and stop the rot. Michael Holt has been in brilliant form in parts this season and as previous home nations events have showed, there is no reason why this couldn't be the week he wins his first ranking title. He could face Mark Williams in the Last 64 though, and Williams has had consecutive quarter-finals after disappointing results in September and October. Shaun Murphy made the semi-finals of the UK Championships but continues to find players when they are at the top of their game. York was the fourth time this season that Murphy had lost to a tournament winner, with only Bingham suffering that fate more with five (or six if you include the Six Reds in Thailand). Neil Robertson managed to win his two qualifiers for Germany this week, but that did follow first round exits in the UK Championships, Champion of Champions and China Championship which is very poor for somebody of his class and he seems to have gone backwards since losing 6-0 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the European Masters semi-finals. Stephen Magurie is probably the best home favourite hope besides the in-form John Higgins, and it seems as though Maguire has played very well at times this season without kicking on. For someone of his class he is well overdue a full ranking title given that his last was the Welsh Open in February 2013.
Despite all of those great contenders, my choice for this quarter is Marco Fu. Fu has not had the greatest season so far, failing to make it past the Last 32 of a full ranking event until he broke that duck at the UK Championships. He showed his class in York by winning two of his matches 6-0 on the way to the semi-finals where he was incredibly unlucky to lose to Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-5 and it was at this time last year that Fu found form, winning the Gibraltar Open after a run to the UK quarter-finals. It was tough to pick any one player out of this section, but when Fu gathers form he is a tough match player and scores very heavily, but when he is out of form he does not have the consistency required to run deep into events. Hopefully York will have come as a relief and by qualifying for Berlin in the last week he has backed that up and could be a force here.
Despite all of those great contenders, my choice for this quarter is Marco Fu. Fu has not had the greatest season so far, failing to make it past the Last 32 of a full ranking event until he broke that duck at the UK Championships. He showed his class in York by winning two of his matches 6-0 on the way to the semi-finals where he was incredibly unlucky to lose to Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-5 and it was at this time last year that Fu found form, winning the Gibraltar Open after a run to the UK quarter-finals. It was tough to pick any one player out of this section, but when Fu gathers form he is a tough match player and scores very heavily, but when he is out of form he does not have the consistency required to run deep into events. Hopefully York will have come as a relief and by qualifying for Berlin in the last week he has backed that up and could be a force here.
Quarter Choice: Marco Fu
Quarter 3
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Judd Trump Vs Zhang Yong
Jimmy Robertson Vs Igor Figueiredo
Noppon Saengkham Vs Craig Steadman
Yan Bingtao Vs Aditya Mehta
Kyren Wilson Vs Jamie Jones
Ben Woollaston Vs Ross Vallance
Rhys Clark Vs Eden Sharav
Oliver Lines Vs Chen Zhe
Anthony Hamilton Vs Fraser Patrick
Michael Georgiou Vs Peter Lines
Chris Wakelin Vs Nigel Bond
Ali Carter Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Michael Wild Vs Ian Preece
David Gilbert Vs Robert Milkins
Jack Lisowski Vs Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Joe Perry Vs Adam Duffy
The third quarter was a very tough one for me to call given the obstacles that a number of the top players face. Ali Carter faces Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in round one baring in mind this pair played out a ranking semi-final in July. Either one of those two could go far in Glasgow. Joe Perry has not been in the best of form for most of the season with a number of early exits, but a good run here could give him a lot of confidence going into the second half of the season. Kyren Wilson followed up his semi-final appearance in the Northern Irish Open with a first round exit in the UK Championships when many would have fancied him for a good run. Add to that a loss from 4-0 up in his second German Masters qualifier and he could easily lose in round one here to in-form Jamie Jones. Jones had no problem qualifying for Berlin and was very close to making the semi-finals in the UK Championships as he lost from 5-2 ahead in the last eight. Anthony Hamilton is a potential dark horse here in Glasgow having reached the quarter-finals of the English Open and coming very close to the Northern Irish Open final. Yan Bingtao is another dark horse coming into this event having reached the Last 16 of the first two home nations events and beating Shaun Murphy in German Masters qualifying to put him 29th on the provisional World Grand Prix list. Judd Trump will have been disappointed to receive two recent Last 64 thrashings, firstly by Oliver Lines in the UK Championships and then by Tom Ford in German Masters qualifying. After his great run through October it was always going to be tough for him to keep that form going forever.
Amongst all of these players I have gone for a dark horse in David Gilbert as my third quarter choice. Gilbert has obviously played well at certain stages since his major moment at the International Championships in 2015 where he reached the final. Just recently at the UK Championships he played superb snooker to beat Ali Carter in the Last 32, but some of his inconsistencies showed in a very poor performance that saw him fall in the Last 16 to Jamie Jones. The one thing that has stopped him otherwise is coming up against top 16 players that were just a little too good for him, but in this section there are a few top 16 players that have not been in the best of form this season. The same category is where you would place Gilbert's first round opponent Robert Milkins who is going in the other direction to Gilbert in the world rankings. Should the "Angry Farmer" win that one I could certainly see him growing into this event, and if the top players in this section do not find their form a route could start to open up to the latter stages in Glasgow for him if he is good enough.
Quarter Choice: David Gilbert
Quarter 4
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Mark Allen Vs Christopher Keogan
Martin O'Donnell Vs Fang Xiongman
Andrew Higginson Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Li Hang Vs James Wattana
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Matthew Selt
James Cahill Vs Adam Stefanow
Ryan Day Vs Elliot Slessor
Jimmy White Vs David John
Dominic Dale Vs Chris Totten
Luca Brecel Vs Duane Jones
Alex Borg Vs Daniel Womersley
Ricky Walden Vs Tian Pengfei
Mei Xiwen Vs Paul Davison
Peter Ebdon Vs Jamie Cope
Scott Donaldson Vs Itaro Santos
John Higgins Vs Alan McManus
In the very last section of the draw we find the tie of the round, particularly for all of the home Scottish fans going to watch. John Higgins and Alan McManus will face off in what is sure to be a brilliant match. McManus has beaten Higgins in all of their last three meetings. With Higgins form, he could easily go on and win the tournament should he get through this round one banana skin. Ricky Walden gets into this event as a top 16 seed with the non-entries of Mark Selby and Ding Junhui having fallen out of the top 16. Walden has been in poor form for most of the last season and a half, barring the two weeks in March when he made consecutive ranking finals. His best effort this season so far is a quarter-final at the English Open and he had to battle hard to make it that far. Mark Allen has been in great form this season without landing a big title. He made the semi-finals in both the China Championship and Champion and Champions, and under the overwhelming pressure of being home favourite at the Northern Irish Open he battled to the quarter-finals before making his first professional 147 break on the way to the UK Championship Last 16 stages. Luca Brecel could be an outsider after a run to the UK Championship quarter-finals, and the 4-0 thrashing he gave Shaun Murphy in the first round in Belfast.
However, for my final quarter choice I found it tough to see past Ronnie O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan has been a runner-up three times this season at the European Masters, Champion of Champions and UK Championship. He's played very well in those events but lost out in close finals to very good opposition on each occassion and it would not surprise me if went on to win this event at a canter. It is very tough to see O'Sullivan losing to anyone of a lower standard at the moment, so someone will have to step up if he is to fall before the latter stages in Glagsow. His opening round fixture with Matt Selt could be tough but Selt has had a poor run of results lately. If he gets through that tie I would expect him to make the Last 16 comfortably and more than likely the quarter-finals and beyond.
However, for my final quarter choice I found it tough to see past Ronnie O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan has been a runner-up three times this season at the European Masters, Champion of Champions and UK Championship. He's played very well in those events but lost out in close finals to very good opposition on each occassion and it would not surprise me if went on to win this event at a canter. It is very tough to see O'Sullivan losing to anyone of a lower standard at the moment, so someone will have to step up if he is to fall before the latter stages in Glagsow. His opening round fixture with Matt Selt could be tough but Selt has had a poor run of results lately. If he gets through that tie I would expect him to make the Last 16 comfortably and more than likely the quarter-finals and beyond.
Quarter Choice: Ronnie O'Sullivan
Overall Winner Selection: Barry Hawkins
Don't forget you can still see my Stat Attack blog here: http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/stat-attack-scottish-open.html
Or my earlier Tournament Top Ten Blog:
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/scottish-open-tournament-top-ten.html
http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/scottish-open-tournament-top-ten.html
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