Immediately following the conclusion of the World Grand Prix on Sunday night in Cheltenham, this is one of my favourite weeks of the season and one that I will be attending once again for the fourth year in a row.
It's also a favourite with the players, as the entries show with all of the world's best players descending on the Motorpoint Arena with their sights set on the Ray Reardon trophy. The defending champion this week is John Higgins after he overcame Barry Hawkins in last year's final and it will also be a special week on home turf for World Champion Mark Williams.
Williams is one of 13 Welsh players in the field which includes two amateur invites in Alex Taubman and Jackson Page, who made a name for himself in this event two years ago, while those 13 also include German Masters semi-finalist Duane Jones, Scottish Open semi-finalist Daniel Wells and this season's International Championship semi-finalist Matthew Stevens, giving Welsh fans hope of a home player going deep this week.
Last year, the leading Welsh player was Matthew Stevens who exited in the last 16, while Lee Walker was leading Welshman in 2017 making the same stage, while Michael White made the quarter-finals. Mark Williams was a semi-finalist in 2015 and is the only Welsh player to get beyond the quarter-finals of their national open since Dominic Dale in 2004, while Williams was the last Welsh finalist in 2003.
The fact that only the top 16 are seeded in Home Nations events makes for some very tough first round matches and that is the case again here right from the top of the draw.
Quarter 1
Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold)
John Higgins Vs Graeme Dott
Dominic Dale Vs Li Yuan
Soheil Vahedi Vs Chen Feilong
Alfie Burden Vs Craig Steadman
Jack Lisowski Vs Niu Zhuang
Marco Fu Vs Tian Pengfei
Ken Doherty Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Mark King Vs Sam Craigie
Chris Wakelin Vs Hammad Miah
Joe Perry Vs Mark Davis
Fergal O'Brien Vs Oliver Lines
Ding Junhui Vs Chris Totten
Matthew Stevens Vs Jak Jones
Michael White Vs Peter Lines
Joe O'Connor Vs Rhys Clark
Kyren Wilson Vs Andy Lee
Defending champion John Higgins faces a very tough opener against fellow Scot Graeme Dott. Higgins is far from having fun on the table at the moment, which has been clear for a while and will have been added to by a first round exit to Noppon Saengkham in the World Grand Prix. One thing that is certainly worth noting though is his record in Wales though because it is exceptional. Perhaps coming back to a big event that he has a lot of good memories of playing in will help spark a revival, even if recent results make that seem unlikely. If the five-time Welsh Open winner carries on as he has been he will be vulnerable once again here, even though Dott may be having a quiet season as well. The 2006 World champion is hardly in the same form the was around this time last year when he made the final of the German Masters and the Shoot-Out in back-to-back weeks, though those results show he is still more than capable of competing on the big stage and taking down the defending champion.
Jack Lisowski and Marco Fu are two players that many will be looking out for this week. Lisowski however is going through a quiet spell after a consistently good first half to the season. It is highly unlikely that a player is going to play well all the way through a long season, so his first round exit at the Masters to Ding, last 32 exit in Berlin to Duane Jones and first round exit in the World Grand Prix against Ding (again) are hardly anything to panic about and after a week off he could be ready to fire on all cylinders again in Cardiff. However, the twist is a potential last 64 tie against Marco Fu, who showed some signs of a turn up in form by beating Ronnie O'Sullivan in the first round of the World Grand Prix. However, he failed to reach that high again in the next round and his results prior to that do not provide much to write home about. That could still make him vulnerable here, especially in round one against Tian Pengfei, who has won all of their three previous outings and defeated the likes of Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham this season over the best-of-7 frames. In all, Lisowski is the mostly likely one to progress to the last 32 but if he is to win this quarter he'll need to improve on the last three tournaments.
Kyren Wilson is certainly a man in good form at the moment having won the recent German Masters title and then making the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix despite the short turnaround. His exit there to Barry Hawkins allows him a couple of days off before he gets underway in Cardiff which will certainly be beneficial after the last couple of weeks. Looking at the draw, defeat in either of the first two rounds would be a major upset, but then there is a 75% chance of him taking on a home hope in the last 32. Michael White may not be in the best form as he heads in to a tricky first round tie with Peter Lines, but the winner of that would then meet the winner of the all-Welsh tie between Matthew Stevens and Jak Jones. Stevens would certainly be the favourite of those four to meet Wilson in the last 32, which is an interesting dynamic after their last 32 tie in Cheltenham. Wilson was down and out at 3-0 down but fought back hard to make a decider, though his fate was out of his hands as Stevens looked to be clearing the colours for a 4-3 victory, only to leave the final black thinner than he would like - and ultimately leaving it in the jaws for a certain Wilson win. Should the pair meet again in Wales the crowd will certainly be on Stevens side and he will have a point to prove after letting the Grand Prix meeting slip away. Plus over the best-of-7 frames any mental tiredness from a couple of busy weeks for Wilson could well lead to an earlier exit than expected.
That leaves Ding Junhui once again as my opening quarter choice of the week. Every time he has played this year there have been signs to me that he is getting closer and closer to having a really big week. I was impressed at the Masters where he has had a bad record in recent years and then if he would have killed off his match against Duane Jones from 3-1 up in the quarter-finals of the German Masters you would have made him tournament favourite. At the Grand Prix he overcame Lisowski in round one 4-1 and looked really sharp and was scoring well, but then ran into a brick wall as David Gilbert played outstanding snooker to win that last 16 tie 4-0. He may have had a couple of earlier exits here in recent years, but prior to that he had made at least the quarter-finals in the Welsh Open in five of the six years between 2011 and 2016, winning the title in 2012 and making the final again in 2014, as well as making a 147 in a losing quarter-final in 2016. There are certainly some banana skins in the draw, but that is always the case over the best-of-7 frames anyway, but for me he is the player that stands out when you look at this section overall.
Best of the rest: Jack Lisowski
Quarter choice: Ding Junhui
Quarter 2
Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold)
Judd Trump Vs Harvey Chandler
Xiao Guodong Vs Duane Jones
Robbie Williams Vs Rod Lawler
Anthony Hamilton Vs Sam Baird
Stuart Bingham Vs Ali Carter
Matthew Selt Vs Jamie Clarke
Martin O'Donnell Vs Hamza Akbar
Ricky Walden Vs Lee Walker
David Gilbert Vs Jimmy Robertson
Alan McManus Vs Nigel Bond
Zhao Xintong Vs Jackson Page
Stephen Maguire Vs Zhou Yuelong
Zhang Jiankang Vs Fan Zhengyi
Yan Bingtao Vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Yuan Sijun Vs Allan Taylor
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Sanderson Lam
Judd Trump is certainly one of the headliners in this second section. The Masters champion could well be the World Grand Prix champion too when he arrives in Cardiff, as he is currently in the semi-finals of the tournament at the time of writing, gearing up to face Barry Hawkins. It's clear that he is in the form of his life after that Masters win and he is certainly the favourite to go on and win the Grand Prix this weekend, which shows that he is hungry for more success in all shapes and sizes. Whether the short turnaround to this event from Cheltenham will have any effect on him remains to be seen of course, especially if a very tricky potential last 64 tie against Xiao Guodong were to materialise. Xiao has just made it to the semi-finals himself in Cheltenham, losing to Ali Carter and he could prove a major threat to Trump over a short best-of-7 frame format. Also lurking in this section of the draw is Scottish Open quarter-finalist Sam Baird who can certainly cause problems in what sets up as a really tough section of the draw. However, if Trump keeps the ball rolling from the Grand Prix straight to Cardiff then once again he is one of the very top contenders.
Ronnie O'Sullivan being in the same quarter as Trump offers a very interesting dynamic to the draw, given that the pair are the two favourites to win this title. O'Sullivan had been on a sensational run of making the semi-finals in every event he had entered in the 2018/2019 season but that came to an abrupt end as he suffered a 4-2 first round loss to Marco Fu in the Grand Prix. That was the first we had seen of the Rocket since the thrashing handed out to him by Trump in the Masters final and you wonder perhaps if that loss has affected his game a little, but it is hard to judge that until a few more tournaments have passed. Like Trump, he could face a potentially tricky last 64 tie against Yuan Sijun, who reached the Grand Prix quarter-finals after wins over Mark Williams and Stephen Maguire, adding to victories over John Higgins, Mark Allen, Kyren Wilson and Ding Junhui that he has had this season and adding the name of O'Sullivan to that list would be a major feather in the young man's cap. Again there is further potential danger with Yan Bingtao lurking in Ronnie's section, though Yan has not had as many big name victories so far this season. Like Higgins, O'Sullivan has a great record in Wales having won this title four times and the motivation for him to win this week may be the opportunity to level up with Higgins on five Welsh Open titles but there are a lot of guys in this quarter that will have something to say about that.
Stuart Bingham and Ali Carter is a mammoth opening round tie. These two met earlier in the season with Bingham coming out on top at the quarter-final stage of the English Open and Carter at the time of writing is into the final of the World Grand Prix. On the provisional ranking list that means Carter is guaranteed to move up to 18th, while Bingham is 12th showing how little there is between the two and how hard it is to believe that this is a first round tie. If Carter were to win the title he would move right up to 13th, and on the provisional Crucible seeding list Carter is 19th with Bingham 17th, making this a potentially big match for both guys, though obviously less so for Carter if he does triumph in Cheltenham. Despite being English Open champion, Bingham may be feeling the pressure of securing a top 16 place at the World Championship having been whitewashed in the last 16 of the last two tournaments and playing below par in both games. As two former winners of this title, this is the tie of the first round in my view and the winner could well be on course for a deep run this week.
Stephen Maguire is another player with a good record in this event. He may have lost early on in the last three years to scupper that record slightly but in the nine years between 2007 and 2015, he won this title, made a further final, two further semi-finals and three more quarter-finals on top of all that. This season on the whole has been a good one for Maguire, with three semi-finals overall including one recently in Germany, a UK Championship quarter-final and a return to the top 16. The only thing missing from all of that is a final and of course his first big ranking title since he won this title six years ago. Like those already mentioned in this section, Maguire's draw is littered with tough opponents though, opening up against China's Zhou Yuelong before a potential last 64 match against the dangerous Zhao Xintong or indeed young Welshman Jackson Page. Come through all of that and he could be awaiting a last 32 clash with recent German Masters finalist David Gilbert or European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson. A tough draw to say the least for the Scot.
David Gilbert is my second quarter choice for this week. Gilbert is on a rich run of form at the moment having bounced back from the disappointment of last summer's World Open final by making the final in Berlin recently, losing narrowly again though to Kyren Wilson. He bounced back quickly though with 4-0 wins against Yan Bingtao and a sublime display against Ding Junhui to make the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix, before running out of steam against Carter. Like all of the other big names in this section he faces some tough opening fixtures, starting off against Jimmy Robertson. The European Masters winner has not really repeated that form since and recently lost in the opening round of the Grand Prix to Mark Davis, but nonetheless he is a threat to Gilbert here. Then, as mentioned already, Maguire and O'Sullivan stand in between him and the quarter-finals, but the way he is playing and striking the ball right now he has no reason to fear any of these players.
Best of the rest: Ali Carter
Quarter choice: David Gilbert
Quarter 3
Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold)
Mark Selby Vs Anthony McGill
Zhang Yong Vs Adam Duffy
Eden Sharav Vs Xu Si
Noppon Saengkham Vs Stuart Carrington
Ryan Day Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Peter Ebdon Vs Lukas Kleckers
Hossein Vafei Vs Ashley Hugill
Daniel Wells Vs Ross Muir
Scott Donaldson Vs John Astley
Li Hang Vs Joe Swail
Gerard Greene Vs James Cahill
Shaun Murphy Vs Adam Stefanow
Ian Burns Vs Luo Honghao
Liang Wenbo Vs Liam Highfield
Michael Holt Vs Mei Xiwen
Mark Allen Vs Mark Joyce
Quarter three is another incredibly tough quarter to call and it is not helped by more very tough draws for the top players. To make that point I'm actually going to talk about my slightly reluctant quarter choice Mark Selby first as he faces Anthony McGill. Now on paper this would have been a much tougher draw 12 months ago. McGill has struggled badly this season and missed out on World Grand Prix qualification by a wide margin. What this all means is that he has had a lot of time off since Christmas and that break may help him come back fresh and motivated to turn this season around. He's beaten Selby before on the biggest stage of them all so in that respect he should not fear the world number one as much as relishing the opportunity to prove the doubters wrong. Selby meanwhile will just be happy not to see the name Judd Trump in this quarter, having lost to him in both the Grand Prix and Masters quarter-finals. As I have mentioned in previous previews his form over the last couple of months has not been as consistent as he may like but that does not mean he will not go far this week. Further tough ties could be ahead though if he beats McGill with a potential last 32 tie with Noppon Saengkham, Stuart Carrington or even Eden Sharav - all of whom have made ranking event semi-finals this season. In a very uncertain quarter Selby is a solid selection, though this is the section most likely to provide the 'out of nowhere' semi-finalist which usually occurs in every home nations event.
Ryan Day is one of the main home hopes this week, but that tag has not been favourable in the past, having only twice reached a Welsh Open quarter-final, the last of which was in 2010 and he has only gone beyond the last 64 once since the event switched to a completely flat draw back in 2014. Thepchiaya Un-Nooh is his first round opponent this week and a very dangerous player who could help continue that miserable run. Un-Nooh has been a Home Nations quarter-finalist already this season in Northern Ireland and while Day has been a quarter-finalist in each of the Home Nations events this season, it is his record at this event specifically that will worry his supporters.
Another man with a worrying record at this event is Shaun Murphy. In his first four appearances at the Welsh Open he made at least the quarter-final each time, but since 2009 he has only made it beyond the last 32 once, as a semi-finalist back in 2012. The low point in will have been a 4-0 first round loss to Gerard Greene last year and if he can negotiate a round one tie this year against Adam Stefanow, it is Greene that could be waiting for him again in the last 64. Not only that but Murphy's form has headed South this season, as mentioned in previous previews, and that continued at the Grand Prix with a first round exit, albeit he was facing Mark Selby due to his low seeding. If his form picks up like it did in the last Home Nations event in Scotland and he can put his Welsh record behind him then he could get on a real run this week, but there are also a lot of reasons why that will not happen.
Mark Allen would probably have been my quarter choice here right up until the moment he walked out of his last 16 match against Ali Carter in the Grand Prix, at 3-1 down and in the fairly early stages of frame five when he could still easily win. A one off moment it may be, but it is still highly unexpected and definitely not a good sign with this event coming around so quickly afterwards. The interesting dynamic to add to that is his first round draw against Mark Joyce. A pretty innocuous draw on paper given Joyce's poor form but of course there is history between these two. In fact Allen has been very open in his sheer hatred of Joyce, commenting after their last meeting that he was "not a good player" and "not a nice person". Now whatever happened at the Grand Prix may have been a moment of madness never to be repeated, but the passionate hatred he has for Joyce could cause him to boil over again here if his head is not quite in the right place. Before all of this, Allen had been enjoying the best season of his career winning two ranking titles and making the UK final and hopefully for his sake he can get back into that good place as soon as possible.
Best of the rest: Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Quarter choice: Mark Selby
Quarter 4
Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold)
Barry Hawkins Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Ben Woollaston Vs Lu Ning
Michael Georgiou Vs David Lilley
Andrew Higginson Vs Jimmy White
Neil Robertson Vs Jordan Brown
Gary Wilson Vs Robin Hull
Rory McLeod Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Lu Haotian Vs Paul Davison
Robert Milkins Vs Mike Dunn
Chen Zifan Vs James Wattana
Billy Castle Vs Simon Lichtenberg
Luca Brecel Vs Kurt Maflin
Elliot Slessor Vs Alex Taubman
Tom Ford Vs Ashley Carty
Martin Gould Vs Zhang Anda
Mark Williams Vs Kishan Hirani
Neil Robertson was my tournament tip last week at the World Grand Prix and while he was 3-1 up in his first round tie against Xiao Guodong he would go on to lose out 4-3 and join the top players that exited in round one. He also relinquished a 3-1 lead in the quarter-finals of the German Masters against David Gilbert so will hope that is not becoming a trend as he attempts to go deep this week. So far this season, the Home Nations events have not been as kind as other events to the Australian, with a last 16 exit in Crawley followed by a last 32 exit in Belfast and a last 64 loss in Glasgow. He may be a former winner of this title from back in 2007 as well as making the final again in 2016, but he has only gone beyond the last 16 stage in this event two further times from a total of 14 appearances. Both of the last two years have seen him lose in the last 64 despite playing well in both of the those games. With a potentially tough last 64 against last year's semi-finalist and a man that overcame him on the way to the quarters in 2015 in Gary Wilson, there is certainly a danger of history repeating itself again for Robertson.
Mark Williams is the main man in this section. Not only is he the highest ranked Welsh player but he is of course returning to his home event as champion of the world. After a quieter period of tournaments that have seen some earlier exits as mentioned in recent previews he showed some very positive signs despite ultimately heading to a first round exit in the Grand Prix 4-3 against Yuan Sijun. If he plays as he did in that game here in Cardiff then he could well be on for his best run since winning the World Open in the summer. Like so many others this week there are tough ties in the offing for Williams. Last year he lost in the last 32 to Martin Gould and he could face the same opponent a round earlier this year, while UK semi-finalist Tom Ford is also lurking in this section. The one obvious point that stands in the way of Williams and all of the home hopes this week is the expectation and pressure, which is probably the reason behind the stat on Welsh players in this event that I mentioned in the intro.
Luca Brecel is a former semi-finalist at this event back in 2015 and reached the last 16 the following year in Cardiff. After a poor season so far, that has seen him miss out on World Grand Prix qualification, there were positive signs at the Masters as overcame Mark Allen in an excellent tie before falling just short against Ding Junhui at the quarter-final stage. The fact remains though that he has not reached a ranking event quarter-final since the Shanghai Masters in November 2017 and he has failed to produce much form in that period since. This week he faces a tough tie against Kurt Maflin in round one and he will know that if the Norwegian is scoring well then he will need to do the same, which prior to the Masters had been a large contributor to his poor form. Get beyond that early test though and it could sharpen him up for the rest of the tournament and a long overdue deep run in an event.
Luca Brecel is a former semi-finalist at this event back in 2015 and reached the last 16 the following year in Cardiff. After a poor season so far, that has seen him miss out on World Grand Prix qualification, there were positive signs at the Masters as overcame Mark Allen in an excellent tie before falling just short against Ding Junhui at the quarter-final stage. The fact remains though that he has not reached a ranking event quarter-final since the Shanghai Masters in November 2017 and he has failed to produce much form in that period since. This week he faces a tough tie against Kurt Maflin in round one and he will know that if the Norwegian is scoring well then he will need to do the same, which prior to the Masters had been a large contributor to his poor form. Get beyond that early test though and it could sharpen him up for the rest of the tournament and a long overdue deep run in an event.
Last year's runner-up Barry Hawkins is my fourth and final quarter choice for this week in Wales. At the time of writing Hawkins is into the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix and once again it looks like his game could be warming in February. As well as being a runner-up here a year ago, he was a quarter-finalist in 2017 after winning the Grand Prix. He was also a semi-finalist back in 2014 and was a back-to-back Welsh Open semi-finalist in 2005 and 2006 so he certainly has some good memories of this event. Hawkins is having a much better season than he was at the same point last year, having made a good start in the early season Chinese events, before going a little quiet. This week though he has beaten Ryan Day, Marco Fu and Kyren Wilson to make the last four in Cheltenham and the signs are certainly there that this could be the start of Hawkins building his form up for another run at the World Championships. In my view his toughest early round match this week could be an opener with Akani Songsermsawad and if he can win that I can't see anyone else troubling him until at least the last 16.
Best of the rest: Luca Brecel
Quarter choice: Barry Hawkins
Tournament winner selection: Ding Junhui
As with all the home nations events the action this week will be broadcast on Eurosport TV and the Eurosport Player as well as selected sessions being shown on freeview channel Quest. With this being the Welsh Open though there is the added bonus of BBC TV coverage with BBC 2 Wales showing the event as well. The format is the same as all previous home nations series events too along with the prize money, with Sunday's champion taking home £70,000.
Keep an eye on the blog throughout the week though for live blog coverage from Cardiff, with selected non-TV matches being covered on here while further updates will be tweeted @CueActionBlog
Keep an eye on the blog throughout the week though for live blog coverage from Cardiff, with selected non-TV matches being covered on here while further updates will be tweeted @CueActionBlog
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