The format is the same as the old European Tour with one half of the draw playing the opening three rounds on Friday and the other half doing the same. Then the remaining 16 players will play down to the conclusion on Sunday with all matches being best-of-7 frames.
It is a bit of a shame to see so many big names not being involved over the weekend, but that may be a symptom of it being so close to the conclusion of the China Championship. While the likes of John Higgins, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen may not be here, world number 1 Mark Selby, China Championship winner Luca Brecel and runner-up Shaun Murphy and guys like Kyren Wilson, Mark Williams and Stuart Bingham are all in the draw.
With mainland Europe having its first ranking winner after Luca Brecel took the China Championship title back to Belgium, and Lukas Kleckers giving the German fans a talented young home star to cheer on this shapes up as a very special week, exactly what you would associate with the great Paul Hunter.
Quarter 1
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Gary Wilson Vs Jimmy White
Rod Lawler Vs Zhang Yong
David Grace Vs Matthew Glasby
Christopher Keogan Vs Andy Symons
Fergal O'Brien Vs Steven Hallworth
Michael Georgiou Vs Josh Boileau
Noppon Saengkham Vs Ashley Hugill
Chris Wakelin Vs Kishan Hirani
Jak Jones Vs Saqib Nasir
Peter Lines Vs Umut Dikme
Fang Xiongman Vs Sanderson Lam
Rhys Clark Vs Paul Davison
Dominic Dale Vs Daniel Ward
John Astley Vs Daniel Holoyda
Martin O'Donnell Vs Zack Richardson
Jamie Jones Vs Billy Castle
If ever there was a perfect example of a wide open quarter in a draw this is it. At world number 32, Dominic Dale is the highest ranked player in the section while fellow Welshman Jamie Jones is just behind. Fergal O'Brien comes into this tournament off of a quarter-final in the China Championship and could have another good run again this week. David Grace had a good run to the quarter-finals in Furth last year in a similar field that had many top players missing, so perhaps he could be the one to take the opportunity that is presented in this section. If you are looking for a young player to break through and impress in a similar fashion to Brecel then Noppon Saengkham could be that man. Each time I have seen him recently he has impressed me and looked pretty good. His fluency when scoring is great to watch, and this was in evidence when I saw one of his Preston qualifiers against Hu Hao up close. Qualifying for the Crucible will have given him quite a lot of confidence and he should continue to move forward.
My opening quarter choice though in this section that could throw anything up, is Gary Wilson. I have gone with a choice outside the box here but I am often impressed by Wilson and with the draw as it is I think he is one of the stronger players in this section. His run to qualify for the World Championships in April was massive in the clutch situation of needing victories to guarantee his tour survival. To then go and take the game to Ronnie O'Sullivan on his Crucible was equally as good. From the players outside of the top 32 or top 40 he is one of the heavier scorers and it is his comfort in this area of the game that creates the potential to achieve more. His run to the quarter-finals of the 2015 Welsh Open and the final of the China Open in the same year saw him beat stronger players than he will face up to this week (with no disrespect to the good names I have already mentioned), and those runs showed the potential he has and that he could climb back up the rankings and go further, starting with this week.
My opening quarter choice though in this section that could throw anything up, is Gary Wilson. I have gone with a choice outside the box here but I am often impressed by Wilson and with the draw as it is I think he is one of the stronger players in this section. His run to qualify for the World Championships in April was massive in the clutch situation of needing victories to guarantee his tour survival. To then go and take the game to Ronnie O'Sullivan on his Crucible was equally as good. From the players outside of the top 32 or top 40 he is one of the heavier scorers and it is his comfort in this area of the game that creates the potential to achieve more. His run to the quarter-finals of the 2015 Welsh Open and the final of the China Open in the same year saw him beat stronger players than he will face up to this week (with no disrespect to the good names I have already mentioned), and those runs showed the potential he has and that he could climb back up the rankings and go further, starting with this week.
Best of the Rest: Noppon Saengkham
Quarter Choice: Gary Wilson
Quarter 2
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Ricky Walden Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Stuart Carrington Vs Wang Yuchen
Robert Milkins Vs Brian Cini
Ben Woollaston Vs Robin Hull
Rory McLeod Vs Aditya Mehta
David John Vs Jamie Cope
Tom Ford Vs Robert Read
Alexander Ursenbacher Vs Jamie Clarke
Shaun Murphy Vs Adam Stefanow
Jimmy Robertson Vs Sam Baird
Ian Preece W/O Darren Morgan
Ken Doherty Vs Ross Muir
Zhao Xintong Vs Reanne Evans
Kuldesh Johal W/O Hamza Akbar
Craig Steadman Vs Gerard Greene
Stuart Bingham Vs Yu De Lu
The second section does see quite a few stronger players. Ricky Walden is one who will be eyeing this week to start his comeback on the ranking list after injuries have disrupted his game somewhat. However, if he is still suffering in any way he could have easier draws than Sean O'Sullivan who has shown he is not afraid of the top players. Robert Milkins is one to keep an eye on but he is in a tough mini section of the draw that also features Ben Woollaston who seemed to be in good touch in the Preston qualifiers a couple of weeks ago. Woollaston himself faces a tough test in Robin Hull who is far better than his low ranking and could easily go on a big run himself if he finds top form. Beyond that it is always worth pulling out the name of Ken Doherty given the start to the season he had in a similar style event at the Riga Masters, where he marched into the semi-finals. Since then he has had qualifying round victories against Ali Carter and Barry Hawkins as well as running eventual China Championship runner-up Shaun Murphy very close in the last 64 stage and he had his chances to win that one.
Stuart Bingham will want to put an early exit in Guangzhou behind him and hit top gear in Germany, though his form on the whole has been patchy in recent times. Tom Ford is one to watch after making the final of this tournament a year ago and beating John Higgins comfortably last week in China on the way to the last 16. There are not many players that Ford has not beaten over the years and he has the potential to win ranking events, but as yet he has not put everything together in one week to get the job done. Another player who is heavily on my radar is Stuart Carrington. Carrington made two centuries in a losing first round cause against David Gilbert in China, but his run to the Crucible this year and the performance he gave in the first session against Liang Wenbo on that occasion suggest that he is capable of making a big break through and achieving much more.
For my second quarter choice I am looking for Shaun Murphy to carry on from Guangzhou and have another fine run. My opinion on Murphy is always that slight bit biased (as my Twitter followers and those that know me are well aware) but after a good run that he had last week in Guangzhou I always fancy him to follow it up. He seems to play pretty well in this event on the whole, reaching the final two years ago when he last played in Furth. By his own admission he was struggling with his game in some of the early season Preston qualifiers, but he certainly found something at the China Championship. I was impressed with how hard he battled in the tactical frames of which there were quite a few in playing conditions that were not too easy. Murphy's game seems to be suited well to these European Tour style weekends having claimed the Gibraltar Open earlier this year, and claiming three European Tour victories in 2014 (two of those back-to-back). All in all with not many top players here this week I think Murphy is the one of the better picks.
Best of the Rest: Tom Ford and Stuart Carrington
Quarter Choice: Shaun Murphy
Quarter 3
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Alan McManus Vs Allan Taylor
Kurt Maflin Vs Brandon Sargeant
Kyren Wilson Vs Kurt Dunham
Jamie Barrett Vs Chris Totten
Ian Burns Vs Andy Hicks
Alfie Burden Vs Scott Donaldson
Lukas Kleckers Vs Joe O'Connor
Li Yuan Vs Harvey Chandler
Eden Sharav Vs Alex Borg
Mike Dunn Vs Lee Mein
Matthew Selt Vs Robbie Williams
Michael White Vs Adam Duffy
Joe Swail Vs Louis Heathcote
Adam Edge W/O Chen Zhe
WILDCARD PLAYER Vs Michael Williams
Mark Selby Vs Michael Holt
The bottom half of the draw is where we find world champion Mark Selby who fell at the last 32 stage in Guangzhou, but has a good record in this event and is of course the defending champion this week. He may not have things all his own way in round one where he faces up to Michael Holt who has provided tough tests for many top players in recent times.
Holt has again this week been mentioned in the "best player not to win a ranking event" debate, something he himself got involved in on Twitter saying it was "the worst title ever...Who's the best loser?". In many ways he has a point that it is not too flattering to debate the best underachievers and even less flattering to ask them about it. It is much like some of the treatment British Golfers Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood have received in the past with regards to winning Golf majors, despite glittering careers on the European Tour.
Alfie Burden could prove a threat in his mini section of the draw and would probably be my pick to come through that little area and make the last 16 on Sunday. Lukas Kleckers also finds himself in that mini section and he will be under a lot of pressure to perform, with all eyes on him as he plays on home turf for the first time as a tour professional. Although, his result against Neil Robertson in the Riga Masters showed that he could handle it and he may be a dark horse in the draw this weekend. Michael White is someone in the draw who I would probably say is due a big run in a tournament. The former Indian Open champion has not reached a ranking quarter-final since the Northern Irish Open last November (by my reckoning) and on the provisional seedings he is set to drop to 30th, despite being a seeded player at the World Championships in 2016.
My third quarter pick for this weekend though is Kyren Wilson. Wilson had last week off after not making it to Guangzhou so he will be fresh as those Chinese trips often take a lot out of the players. His last tournament outing saw him capture the gold medal at the World Games so that should give him plenty of confidence because to have something like that on your CV is a good feeling. While everyone else was at the China Championship, Wilson was actually helping promote the European Masters which is coming up in just over a month. Doing something like that should make him eager to get back out and competing and in a section the draw that again is not littered with top players he is one of the stand out names, and certainly the best player in the top half of this section which is one of the reasons he gets my pick.
Holt has again this week been mentioned in the "best player not to win a ranking event" debate, something he himself got involved in on Twitter saying it was "the worst title ever...Who's the best loser?". In many ways he has a point that it is not too flattering to debate the best underachievers and even less flattering to ask them about it. It is much like some of the treatment British Golfers Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood have received in the past with regards to winning Golf majors, despite glittering careers on the European Tour.
Alfie Burden could prove a threat in his mini section of the draw and would probably be my pick to come through that little area and make the last 16 on Sunday. Lukas Kleckers also finds himself in that mini section and he will be under a lot of pressure to perform, with all eyes on him as he plays on home turf for the first time as a tour professional. Although, his result against Neil Robertson in the Riga Masters showed that he could handle it and he may be a dark horse in the draw this weekend. Michael White is someone in the draw who I would probably say is due a big run in a tournament. The former Indian Open champion has not reached a ranking quarter-final since the Northern Irish Open last November (by my reckoning) and on the provisional seedings he is set to drop to 30th, despite being a seeded player at the World Championships in 2016.
My third quarter pick for this weekend though is Kyren Wilson. Wilson had last week off after not making it to Guangzhou so he will be fresh as those Chinese trips often take a lot out of the players. His last tournament outing saw him capture the gold medal at the World Games so that should give him plenty of confidence because to have something like that on your CV is a good feeling. While everyone else was at the China Championship, Wilson was actually helping promote the European Masters which is coming up in just over a month. Doing something like that should make him eager to get back out and competing and in a section the draw that again is not littered with top players he is one of the stand out names, and certainly the best player in the top half of this section which is one of the reasons he gets my pick.
Best of the Rest: Lukas Kleckers
Quarter Choice: Kyren Wilson
Quarter 4
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
David Gilbert W/O Soheil Vahedi
Nigel Bond Vs Joshua Thomond
George Pragnall W/O Mark Williams
Matthew Bolton Vs Barry Pinches
Daniel Wells Vs Mitchell Mann
Xu Si Vs Rob James
Liam Highfield Vs Lee Walker
Oliver Lines Vs Oliver Brown
Matthew Stevens Vs Kacper Filipiak
Sam Craigie W/O Yuan Sijun
Mark Joyce Vs Marc Davis
Andrew Higginson Vs Hammad Miah
Martin Gould Vs Peter Ebdon
Jack Lisowski Vs Roman Dietzel
Luca Brecel Vs Ashley Carty
Mark King Vs Elliot Slessor
The fourth and final quarter is home to China Championship winner Luca Brecel who will certainly get a lot of attention on his return to Europe. With such a little turnaround from his win on Tuesday to starting this event on Saturday, it is hard to expect him to hit the ground running straight away because he has every right to still be celebrating his maiden triumph. Andrew Higginson often seems to play well in these European Tour style events, with evidence of that being his opening event of the season where he made the Riga Masters quarter-finals. In fact in four of the six years that the Players Championship was held in conjunction with the European Tour and PTC events, Higginson was one of those that qualified, having also been a PTC winner. For me the Widnes Warrior is never one to count out on a week like this and is so much better than his provisional seeding of 54 given the talent and results he has shown in the past.
Jack Lisowski is another that falls into the bracket with Higginson as being better than his ranking in the 50's and the bracket of potentially being a form horse for these style of events. He started the season with a run to the last 16 of the Riga Masters and made the Gibraltar Open quarter-finals in March showing much better form than he had done for a while. In Preston at the beginning of the month he looked in decent form too and won each of his three matches there which is always a nice effort. The likes of Martin Gould and David Gilbert can never be ruled out, and Gilbert starts the week in the last 64 after a first round walkover. Both are very heavy scoring players who can blitz through a draw when they are on their game.
Best of the Rest: Jack Lisowski and Andrew Higginson
Quarter Choice: David Gilbert
Winner Selection: Shaun Murphy
The tournament will not be covered this week on Eurosport TV but will be available to watch from the start of the professional stages on Friday on Eurosport Player and it should be a good one. Looking at the field you certainly would not bet against there being another first time ranking event winner either.
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