After a busy few weeks on tour that has seen John Higgins win in India and Ding Junhui storm to victory in Yushan as well as the majority of top players qualify last week for the International Championships, plenty of top guns will have their eyes on the prize.
A few top names missed out in the qualifiers for this event that were played nearly two months ago. Shaun Murphy fell to John Astley, while Barry Hawkins lost out to Ken Doherty and guys like Ali Carter, Ricky Walden, Michael White and Stephen Maguire all missed out. It's also a shame to see that Li Hang did not qualify given some of the form he has shown since by making the semi's in Guangzhou and the quarters in Yushan.
Last weeks winner Ding Junhui was one of a handful of players that decided not to enter the qualifying, while Marco Fu, Liang Wenbo and last year's runner-up Ronnie O'Sullivan have also chosen to sit this week out. Despite the absence of some of the top Chinese names and the failure of guys like Li Hang, Xiao Guodong, Tian Pengfei, Yu De Lu and Zhang Anda to qualify, 12 Chinese players make up the 61 that came through Preston qualifying. That shows a great strength in depth that there now is with the Chinese players on tour and the talent that is clearly out there.
Of the guys that are present, there are some real headline acts. First off the defending champion from Romania last year is back in the shape of Judd Trump. His last 128 match was held over to the venue along with that of world champion Mark Selby. Luca Brecel is obviously the player that all of the eyes are on this week. When it was announced that this event would take place in Belgium, little did we all know that they would have a ranking event winner, but Brecel has achieved that and now made himself a top 16 player because of it.
With all that in mind it makes for a very exciting week.
Quarter 1
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Judd Trump or Chris Totten Vs Adam Duffy
Jamie Jones Vs Martin O'Donnell
David Gilbert Vs Sam Baird
Mark King Vs Chen Zifan
Ben Woollaston Vs Zhang Yong
Kyren Wilson Vs Gerard Greene
Alan McManus Vs Yuan Sijun
Mark Allen Vs Hossein Vafei
Defending champion Judd Trump is the first person to come to in this top quarter of the draw. We have not seen much of Trump in recent times, having only played four matches since the Hong Kong Masters in mid-July, while his International qualifier last week was his first match since a last 32 exit at the China Championship. He should therefore be fresh and raring to defend his title and I think he will negotiate his way to the last 16 easily enough. From there, looking at the possible opposition, he will need to be on top form to progress. David Gilbert is in good form at the moment having made back-to-back quarter-finals in India and at the World Open. He has scored pretty well in those events and beaten some good players on the way so perhaps he will be able to kick on from there.
A mention is also needed for Mark Allen who has found some form in recent weeks also. In India he started the week with some strong results but fell at the last 16 stage. That was a starting point for what was to come in Yushan where he played very well and scored heavily and consistently on the way to a narrow semi-final loss against an equally in-form Kyren Wilson. If he can keep that form up in Belgium then you have to say that another victory cannot be far away from the Northern Irishman's grasp.
My opening quarter choice though is the World Open runner-up Kyren Wilson. Wilson was on fire in Yushan with some big wins and brilliant performances there. Starting off against Holt he finished that game in style and then beat players in Un-Nooh, Mark Williams and Allen who were all playing really well that week. Wilson is a good all-round player so when he is scoring heavily as he was in the World Open then he is going to be very hot to handle and if he keeps that going this week it could be a very similar story. His draw is not necessarily straightforward, but if he continues playing well he should progress nicely and his two main threats would then be the likes of Allen, who he saw off in Yushan, and Trump who he has a decent head to head with. Overall, I think Wilson is a strong pick this week.
Best of the Rest: David Gilbert, Mark Allen
Quarter Choice: Kyren Wilson
Quarter 2
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Neil Robertson Vs Fang Xiongman
Dominic Dale Vs Peter Ebdon
Mark Williams Vs Yan Bingtao
Ross Muir W/O Anthony Hamilton
Michael Holt Vs Aditya Mehta
Martin Gould Vs Billy Castle
Noppon Saengkham Vs Cao Yupeng
Ken Doherty Vs Jak Jones
In the second quarter we have someone who has performed consistently this season in the shape of Mark Williams. The Welshman has already found himself in a semi-final at the Riga Masters and quarter-finals at the China Championship and World Open the latter of which saw him lose to Kyren Wilson, who made three centuries in a 5-1 win. He looks to be playing nicely on the whole and there is no reason why, looking at the draw, he could not go all the way this week.
Meanwhile, watch out for the likes of Ken Doherty and Cao Yupeng who may be outside of the top 64, but have both had good starts to the season and are ones to watch out for this week. Cao particularly has re-discovered his form after a poor couple of seasons but only just missed out on making the quarter-finals of the World Open, losing a decider to Luca Brecel. I like the look of the draw again this week for Michael Holt. He has had a few tough draws this season and the last two weeks have seen him lose in the last 16 in India to eventual champion Higgins, and at the last 32 stage in Yushan to runner-up Wilson. If he is in good form this week I could see him making the quarter-finals and maybe beyond. I certainly still think that Holt can make the breakthrough and win a full ranking title within the next season or so.
My overall pick in this section is Neil Robertson. Robertson looks in very good touch at the moment and for me is well overdue winning a ranking title, with his last coming in the 2016 Riga Masters. The Australian did seal victory in the invitational Hong Kong Masters in July, beating big names in Selby and O'Sullivan to do so. He looked good at the World Open which was his first event for a while, having missed India and the Paul Hunter Classic, and who knows how far he would have gone but for Allen's blistering comeback in the last 16 there. The good sign for me is that his scoring looked good in the World Open, because that is the area of the game where he is so good and coupled with strong long potting can make him unbeatable at times. This section looks like quite an open one with just a couple of top 16 players, but plenty of other quality players are lurking just behind. If Robertson is close to his best though, he is the best player in this section for me and it I think it is time to see him back in the winners circle.
Best of the Rest: Michael Holt
Quarter Choice: Neil Robertson
Quarter 3
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
John Higgins Vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Mark Davis Vs Matthew Selt
Anthony McGill Vs Joe Swail
Alfie Burden Vs Eden Sharav
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Chen Zhe
Ryan Day Vs Peter Lines
Zhou Yuelong Vs Oliver Lines
John Astley Vs Michael Georgiou
The third quarter here features plenty of guys who have shown form in the early parts of this season. Ryan Day was a winner in Riga and could certainly do well again this week looking at the draw in the bottom half of this section. Anthony McGill was a runner-up at the Indian Open to John Higgins and there are good odds that the two will meet again this week in the last 16 stage, as both would expect to make it that far at least. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is always a dangerous player in a draw and was going well in Yushan before he fell in the last 16 to the in-form Kyren Wilson. The Thai also made the final of the 6-Reds championship a few weeks ago so he may be building up to something big once again.
Zhou Yuelong was a quarter-finalist at the China Championship recently and seems to be getting results more consistently now having beaten Selby and Gould that week. He made the highest break of the tournament in India but lost in the opening round to Kurt Maflin, before making the semi-finals of the men's snooker event at the Asian Indoor games. His draw looks like one he could navigate for the first couple of rounds at least.
For my quarter pick though I am going for a form man in John Higgins. This is about the time of year last season that Higgins form was really building up with a series of quarter-finals in October that led to back to back titles in November. He has already delivered his first title of this season at the Indian Open and I am sure he will have enjoyed a week off last week after two away from home, so he should be ready to get back out on the table. In the first couple of rounds he could face opposition that he overcame in the World Open if Selt were to beat Mark Davis, while a possible last 16 test could then await with Anthony McGill who he saw off in India. Age is very much just a number and Higgins is showing that with the level of snooker he has produced in the last year, winning two major invitationals, making another World final and starting this season with a ranking event win. If he can keep up these levels then there could be plenty more trophies in his cabinet before this season is done with.
Best of the Rest: Zhou Yuelong, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Quarter Choice: John Higgins
Quarter 4
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Stuart Bingham Vs Mitchell Mann
Graeme Dott Vs Jamie Clarke
Chris Wakelin Vs Mei Xiwen
Luca Brecel or Sam Craigie Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Joe Perry Vs Soheil Vahedi
Jack Lisowski Vs Li Yuan
Ian Preece Vs Lu Haotian
Mark Selby or Mark Joyce Vs Zhao Xintong
Once more the final quarter is one filled with top quality players and there is no greater place to start dissecting it than by talking about world champion Mark Selby. I really think he faces a tough draw if he can get past Mark Joyce as he faces Zhao Xintong. Zhao will be confident having won the gold medal at the Asian indoor games and he has looked very sharp at the start of the season. He came very close to beating John Higgins in the last 64 of the Indian Open, and he made the last 16 of the Paul Hunter Classic before losing to an in-form Shaun Murphy. He is very close with the likes of Zhou Yuelong and Yan Bingtao who have both already beaten Selby in 2017, so he will be determined to join them and know he has the ability to do it, as he is just as good as any young Chinese player.
Elsewhere we have Joe Perry, who put together an impressive whitewash of Ryan Day at the World Open before losing in the last 16 to Ding Junhui, and for me Perry is someone who is more than overdue a strong run at an event. He has tough first round opposition in Soheil Vahedi who has already shown some of his quality on a couple of occasions that I have seen him. It will also be interesting to see how things go with Stuart Bingham and Graeme Dott. The pair are due to meet in the last 32 and Bingham has not been in the greatest of form with a few early exits in events so far this season. Dott has also been a little hit and miss, with a couple of good results in the China Championship not being backed up in the tournaments since then.
The final quarter choice this week is the home favourite Luca Brecel. Call this is a sentimental pick, but Brecel will have all of the support this week and is likely to play each of his matches on the main TV table for as long as he is in the tournament, and that is a massive advantage. Having won his first career ranking title at the China Championship he will be full of confidence, and this showed as he made the World Open semi-finals before losing out to Ding in a tight match there. He dug in well in Yushan to win three deciders in a row as well, and that for me shows how much his game has developed into that of a top player now. After a maiden big win you fear that a player may struggle to adjust to the increased attention and expectation, but the World Open is a sign that Brecel is handling it pretty well so far. In many ways the pressure should also be off for Brecel, having proven that he is a winner and also getting into the top 16 and securing this for the season along with appearances in tournaments like the Masters and Players Championship. Sam Craigie is a very tough opponent to face in the last 128 of any event however, and if he is not at his best or feeling the pressure to perform on home turf then he could easily be sent packing emphatically. Should he get through that test then I could see him going from strength to strength and making a big run for the title again this week.
Best of the Rest: Joe Perry
Quarter Choice: Luca Brecel
Tournament Winner Selection: Neil Robertson
As you would expect, the event will be covered in full on Eurosport TV and Eurosport Player. The format sees matches of best-of-7 frames up until best-of-11 frame semi-finals and a best-of-17 frame final on Sunday, with the winner taking home £75,000.
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