Riga Masters Qualifying Preview

The opening of the snooker season is finally upon us. After a longer off-season than in recent years, the majority of players will be back in action this week at the Preston Guildhall, starting with the last 128 round of the Riga Masters. 

Ryan Day is the defending champion after winning his first ranking title in Latvia last year, and as a result his first round match has been heldover to the final stages later this month. World champion Mark Williams will also have to wait until the final stages to get his campaign under way, while a number of other top players have chosen to give this opening event a miss.

Despite the draw for this event being completely unseeded, the top players that are in the field have largely managed to avoid each other. However, there are still some tasty ties including Yan Bingtao vs Martin Gould and Xiao Guodong vs Tom Ford, all of whom are more than good enough to go on and win the event should they qualify.

Here is how the draw looks in full for the Riga Masters qualifier this week:

Last 128 Draw: 

Jamie Jones Vs Simon Lichtenberg
Martin O'Donnell Vs Rod Lawler
Chris Wakelin Vs Kuldesh Johal
Sam Craigie Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Robbie Williams Vs Alan McManus
Alexander Ursenbacher Vs Lukas Kleckers
Matthew Selt Vs Xu Si
Mark King Vs Peter Ebdon
Soheil Vahedi Vs Mei Xiwen
Joe Swail Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng
Stuart Carrington Vs Mitchell Mann
Fergal O'Brien Vs Eden Sharav
Hammad Miah Vs David Lilley
Shaun Murphy Vs Sanderson Lam
Mark Joyce Vs Nigel Bond
Jimmy Robertson Vs Zhao Xintong

Noppon Saengkham Vs Scott Donaldson
Robin Hull Vs James Cahill
Zhou Yuelong Vs Michael Georgiou
Yuan Sijun Vs Craig Steadman
Kurt Maflin Vs Lu Haotian
Liang Wenbo Vs Adam Duffy
Li Yuan Vs Paul Davison
Neil Robertson Vs Luo Honghao
Barry Hawkins Vs Andy Lee
Li Hang Vs Duane Jones
Ricky Walden Vs John Astley
Jimmy White Vs Wildcard Player (Heldover to main venue)
Mark Allen Vs Daniel Wells
Peter Lines Vs Shane Castle
Ali Carter Vs Billy Castle
Ryan Day Vs Jamie Cope (Heldover to main venue)

Michael White Vs Gary Wilson
David Gilbert Vs Farakh Ajaib
Joe Perry Vs Lu Ning
Robert Milkins Vs Jak Jones
Stephen Maguire Vs Michael Judge
Gerard Greene Vs Chen Feilong
Basem Eltahhan Vs Lee Walker
Jordan Brown Vs Joe O'Connor
Zhang Jiankang Vs Luke Simmonds
Kyren Wilson Vs Dominic Dale
Stuart Bingham Vs Niu Zhuang
Mike Dunn Vs Simon Bedford
Yan Bingtao Vs Martin Gould
Anthony Hamilton Vs Chris Totten
Liam Highfield Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Michael Holt Vs Matthew Stevens

Zhang Anda Vs Tian Pengfei
Graeme Dott Vs Wildcard Player (Heldover to main venue)
Harvey Chandler Vs Ashley Carty
Anthony McGill Vs Kishan Hirani
Xiao Guodong Vs Tom Ford
Marco Fu Vs Elliot Slessor
Mark Davis Vs Andrew Higginson
Luca Brecel Vs Allan Taylor
Rory McLeod Vs Adam Stefanow
Zhang Yong Vs Ross Muir
Mark Williams Vs Rhys Clark (Heldover to main venue)
Ben Woollaston Vs Sam Baird
Oliver Lines Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Chen Zifan Vs Alfie Burden
Ian Burns Vs Jamie Clarke
Jack Lisowski Vs Fan Zhengyi

Despite the absence of top players like Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, Judd Trump and Ding Junhui there are still plenty of top players in action. Former champion Neil Robertson will open up against tour rookie and WSF Champion Luo Honghao, while runner-up to Robertson in 2016 Michael Holt faces a tough clash against Matthew Stevens. Barry Hawkins will take on Andy Lee in Lee's first match back on tour, while Stuart Bingham takes on China's Niu Zhuang and Mark Allen faces a tricky tie against Daniel Wells. Last year's runner-up Stephen Maguire is in action against Q School top-up Michael Judge, as Liang Wenbo also faces a top-up in recently relegated Adam Duffy. 

The runner-up of the first Challenge Tour event Luke Simmonds is also in the field as a Q School top-up player, and he should prove a stern test for Chinese rookie Zhang Jiankang, while another of the Chinese rookies Fan Zhengyi faces a very tough ask against one of the rising stars of last season in Jack Lisowski. It certainly would not be a surprise to anyone who watched Lisowski last year if he had a big run at winning this title, should he qualify for the final stages of course. It's still too early in the season to make many bold predictions, and a lot of these matches look tough calls on paper as we don't know which players will come in the sharpest and or the pros that have put in the most hard work over the long off-season. 

One man that should be raring to go is Jamie Clarke who has waited a long time for his chance on the professional tour and will be hoping to make the most of every frame. He will not mind waiting a few more days to start in the final set of matches on Thursday where he faces the Preston local Ian Burns. Meanwhile, the players that were able to earn an immediate tour return at Q School will now be looking to kick on. Those players include young talent Zhao Xintong who faces a tough opener here against the ever-improving Jimmy Robertson, Jak Jones will open his 2018/2019 campaign against Robert Milkins, who himself will be one of the players looking to take inspiration from Ryan Day's victory last and break through to win a first ranking title. Craig Steadman's tour return will be against young Yuan Sijun, who is one of a number of players in the second year of a two-year tour card and looking to break into the top 64. Hammad Miah faces a tough return as well as he faces Q School top-up David Lilley, who was one of the players who came incredibly close to earning his own tour card. 

As I mentioned earlier with Milkins, there are a number of players who will be hoping they can make a major breakthrough this year. David Gilbert is near the top of many people's list of players who could win a maiden ranking title, and he faces top-up player Farakh Ajaib to qualify for the venue in Riga. It's nearly been three years since Kyren Wilson broke through to win the 2015 Shanghai Masters from nowhere, and after a number of close calls since he will be hoping to add to his title tally in this campaign and start brightly in Preston with a win over Dominic Dale. Zhou Yuelong made his maiden ranking semi-final last year but has a tough opener here in Preston against Shoot-Out champion Michael Georgiou, while two former Welsh Open semi-finalists face off in young stars Noppon Saengkham and Scott Donaldson, both of whom have the talent to make a rankings rise. 

The matches I'm looking to live blog from Preston in the three days I'm there are the likes of Germany's Simon Lichtenberg in his first tour match, where he faces Jamie Jones. Another stand out match on the Monday is the European clash between Lukas Kleckers of Germany and Switzerland's Alexander Ursenbacher. Also on Monday I will have a very keen eye on Shaun Murphy's season opener against Sanderson Lam.

Finnish readers of the blog will be pleased to know that Robin Hull and James Cahill is likely to be a feature match on Tuesday morning, while Kurt Maflin against Lu Haotian is another mouth-watering clash, along with a clash between Jordan Brown and Joe O'Connor that evening, both of whom earned their tour cards in the spring.

Wednesday's order of play looks just as good with blog favourite Liam Highfield in action against Sean O'Sullivan while young Shane Castle is in action as a Q School top-up against Peter Lines, providing a good chance to see Castle up close and look at the development of a young English talent. Another all-rookie clash between Harvey Chandler and Ashley Carty features on Wednesday afternoon, while Adam Stefanow makes his tour debut against Rory McLeod, Sam Baird returns to the tour with a tough tie against Ben Woollaston and Dechawat Poomjaeng competes as a top-up against Joe Swail. Closing out the week of live blogs is likely to be the evening game between Oliver Lines and Akani Songsermsawad.

Hopefully you can follow along with my live commentary during the qualifiers or catch up at a later date on what should be a really intriguing start to the new snooker season, where we may learn a little something about what to expect over the next 10 months.