Pag's Punts: Day 2 of the Shanghai Masters

Day one of my new feature didn't go according to plan, as Andrew Pagett's recommended bets as published on the blog didn't get off to a winning start. The first 5 fold went out in the morning session as Jamie Jones lost in unexpected fashion, 5-1 in the Wildcard round as Fang Xiongman bared his teeth. Meanwhile, the fourfold with two games from this afternoon and another two for tomorrow went down to another surprising score line as Martin Gould took a 4-0 mid-session lead and eventually beat Barry Hawkins 5-1, in a match most would've expected to be close going 5-3 or 5-4 either way.

Tomorrow's another day though, and time for another go at trying to find a winner so Andrew has picked out another 5 fold to put up on the blog. 4 of those games are Last 32 games from tomorrow, with the other featuring in Wednesday's play as Mark Allen takes on Luca Brecel, while he also fancies Maguire, Ding, Trump and Marco Fu. As you can see in the picture, odds were found on Oddschecker who found the best odds at Betfred. With the four games that are played tomorrow all being 12.30pm UK starts you also have slightly more time to get on this one!!

Andrew has also sent me a little treble to have a go at with Stephen Maguire to beat Michael Holt tomorrow afternoon, and then Mark Selby to beat David Grace and Mark Davis at odds against to beat Michael White on Wednesday afternoon. Best odds found on this with Coral at the time it was sent.

If you do get on either of those two bets, all the best of luck and i'd like to thank Andrew again for sending his Punts through to publish. More than likely, the next piece that we have will be a preview in preparation for Thursday's Last 16 action, and whatever happens hopefully we'll have some enjoyable snooker to watch.

Shanghai Masters Preview

After a break of over 2 months since the last, it's time to get back into full ranking event action as the Shanghai Masters begins on Monday. It's been a stop-start beginning to the season but things start to get a little busier from here. If there was a meter for it, i'd say we go from green to spacious to amber for hectic after this week, while it goes red for hectic on the calendar for the International Championships onwards.

The notable man missing out again is Ronnie O'Sullivan who also tweeted that he wouldn't be playing in the Champion of Champions event either (whether that can be believed or not). If you want to see/hear the rocket these days your best bet is to go to an SWSA Pro-Am event which he seems to be a regular at, or pop on Phoenix FM on a Thursday where he has a regular slot.

Otherwise, Ali Carter may have won the Paul Hunter Classic in the most recent snooker that had an effect on the rankings (the non-ranking 6 Reds event has also been going on this week in Thailand of course) but when the qualifiers for this took place over a month ago, Ali lost out in the final qualifying round to David Grace, who now plays Mark Selby in round one.

Before I get on with looking ahead to the week by picking apart the draw, i'd like to point you all in the direction of my new STAT ATTACK feature, which has debuted this week with a statistical look ahead to this week. That can be found here: http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/stat-attack-looking-to-shanghai.html

Otherwise, here's what I think will take place this week.

Quarter 1

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Bingham Vs Jamie Jones/Fang Xiongman
Marco Fu Vs Mike Dunn/Niu Zhuang
John Higgins Vs Liang Wenbo
Barry Hawkins Vs Martin Gould

The top quarter of the draw features World Champion and defending Shanghai Master Stuart Bingham, along with 2012 champion John Higgins. Marco Fu will look to do better than his first round exit to Zhao Xintong in 2013, while Barry Hawkins match with Martin Gould could be a real cracker.

John Higgins has had an interesting season so far. Winning the Australian Open was brilliant for John and he seemed to play relatively consistent snooker, which is where I felt he'd been lacking in the last year. Since then, he's proved that such inconsistency looks like a bleak future for John. A loss in the Last 128 of the Riga Open could so easily have been repeated in Furth and he didn't seem to take the 6 Reds too seriously, begging the question as to why he even turned up. His first round opponent is Liang Wenbo, who John has never lost to, but I think he could well be in trouble early on in the tournament.

Stuart Bingham has been struggling for form since winning the world title, a first round exit in Australia was matched in Furth, with a Last 32 exit in Riga sandwiched in between. Hopefully for Stuart it won't be long before his form picks up, and maybe defending his Shanghai Masters title will spur him in to action. Like Mark Selby last season, it may take a little while to deal with life as a world champion, but he's too good not to respond and play his very best snooker at some stage. If he's on his game this week the draw could well be favourable to him, with other guys that aren't necessarily at the top of their game.

Barry Hawkins was the winner of the Riga Open which was his first event of the season. At the Paul Hunter Classic he lost to an inspired Kyren Wilson so he's by no means in bad form whatsoever. After the second half of the season that Barry endured last season until the Crucible, I really hope he kicks on and makes up for those disappointments. The draw hasn't exactly been kind to Barry this week though playing Martin Gould in round one. You never get an easy game against Martin and Barry could very easily play well and be beaten and head back to the UK scratching his head, but that's just the nature of the game. Get past the first round and the Hawk could well swoop the prize at the end of the week.

Marco Fu has played one tournament with ranking contribution so far and that was at the Paul Hunter Classic where he may have just been coming into it a bit cold on match practice. The 6 Reds will have added to that a little although it's still not perfect preparation. The one thing you would say about Marco is most of the time he plays at his base standard and is very tough to beat unless you play well. It's not often that you would call Marco outstanding, and it's not often that he'll be too far below par. If thinks work out for him in this quarter, Marco could easily get through it at his usual standard of hard to beat snooker.

Quarter Winner: Marco Fu

Quarter 2

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Judd Trump Vs Robert Milkins/Chen Zifan
Ricky Walden Vs Matt Selt
Mark Williams Vs Tom Ford/Wildcard TBC
Neil Robertson Vs Jamie Cope/Lin Shuai

In the other side of the top half of the draw we find 2012 Shanghai finalist Judd Trump and 2011 finalist Mark Williams. Neil Robertson will be playing his first match on tour since June 30th. Most improved player of the last year Matt Selt faces an intriguing match with Ricky Walden which I look forward to.

Ricky Walden came into the Paul Hunter Classic with his wife expecting their first child at any time. A couple of weeks on and i'm actually unsure as to what news there is on that front. Either way you feel that Walden's mind may be away from the table and you certainly wouldn't blame him. I've always said that Ricky is a rhythm player who plays his best when he's able to let loose, although from his manner at the table, these off table matters could de-rail his hopes of a second Shanghai title. Even without this, Walden has an incredibly tough draw as he takes on Matt Selt who I believe is going to make a charge for the top 20 before you know it, and will defiantly give the man from Chester a tough time.

Matt Selt as I say is highly improved and in good form already at the start of the season. A quarter-final appearance at the Australian Open was quickly matched at the Riga Open and he's already added the scalps of Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy so early in the campaign. Even on the different tables and format of the 6 reds, Selt ran deep and he's showing a great level of quality in the sense that whatever the format, whatever the conditions, he can play to a high level and get the results required to be a top player. I actually hope he continues to kick on this week in Shanghai, and continues to show us all what he's got in the locker.

Neil Robertson hasn't played since his early exit at the Australian Open and I personally don't feel like that's a good decision for him. If a lot of players were missing all of the European Tours you'd think this is understandable. You could also understand it if he'd entered the 6 reds to gain some match practice just as Ding Junhui did after a long period without competitive snooker. There's a fine line between coming into a tournament fresh and coming into a tournament rusty and Neil may well find that out the hard way this week. You could go as far to say that he hasn't fully recovered from the 10-2 Masters final loss to Shaun Murphy, and when he was at his best and throughout his 100 centuries season in 2013/2014, he played in almost every tournament on the calendar, as you would have to in order to achieve something so great.

Judd Trump has been in weird form at the start of this campaign also in my opinion. If you take a closer look and analyse some of his results you'll see why I make this point. After two pretty easy games at the Australian Open he lost 5-1 to Stephen Maguire. He'd love to say he was totally outplayed by Stephen, but the fact is he scored nearly as many points as the Scot which is quite something in a loss of that magnitude. On to Riga and again he looked pretty untroubled in getting to the Last 16, but then he lost quite unexpectedly to Alan McManus and by another score that you wouldn't consider close. The same occurred at the Paul Hunter Classic, where he looked good on Saturday, but when Sunday came he struggled past Cope and was soundly beaten by Michael Holt, a man whom he has a magnificent record against. Don't read this the wrong way and think that i'm saying those players weren't worthy of their victories, but it's 3 cases so early in the season where Trump has been thrashed by players that usually he is capable of giving a good seeing to. 9 centuries says there's nothing wrong with his scoring so I think we can expect him to kick on and go deep into this tournament this week.

Mark Williams is obviously on the comeback from shoulder surgery that ruled him out of the Australian Open in July and since then he's played fairly well with last 16 and last 8 finishes in the two ET events. He came into both of those events saying he wasn't going too well in practice and still suffering with some pain and that shows how well Mark could go if he was at full strength as he was at the back end of last season when he went on a fantastic run of consistent tournament results. The only thing that was missing from that run was a proper tournament victory (because he definitely loves being announced as the Senior Champion). Mark's record in Shanghai is very good having been in a final here before, losing a decider to Selby, so he's more than capable of running deep into the draw this week.

Quarter Winner: Mark Williams

Quarter 3

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Ding Junhui Vs Alan McManus/ Yao Pengcheng
Graeme Dott Vs Ryan Day
Stephen Maguire Vs Michael Holt
Joe Perry Vs Kyren Wilson/ Wang Yuchen

This for me looks like the most interesting quarter of the draw. Ding Junhui hasn't played in a ranking event of any kind since the World Championships. Graeme Dott and Ryan Day are very closely matched in my view, as are Stephen Maguire and Michael Holt, while Players Champion Joe Perry has been in great form over the last year or so.

Ding Junhui is going to be an interesting player to watch this week as he comes into an important time in his season and arguably his career. He's just begun working with Terry Griffiths who will certainly help him in the mental side of the game, where he just seems to lack something, particularly when he lapsed back into old habits at the end of last season when he really struggled. It's also an important time for him in terms of his ranking. This time two seasons ago was when Ding clicked into gear and went on a run that saw him win 3 ranking titles in a row, and 5 over the course of the season. Unless he can repeat such spells of brilliance and win some big titles, with so much money to defend, he will fall quite alarmingly down the ranking list. His decision not to play in the European Tour events or Australian Open makes this his first tournament this season with any bearing on his ranking. However, we know that Ding is quite capable of going on a run of playing insane snooker, so maybe this is the week once again when everything will click into place.

Michael Holt is another player that Terry Griffiths is no working with, and it wouldn't be surprising to me if we saw the results of this work very quickly. Already we've been reminded of what Holty has the potential to do, as he made the last 4 in Furth losing out in a tough match to eventual champion Ali Carter. Shanghai is a place where Michael has managed nice results in the past, beating Ricky Walden in round one last year, before losing 5-3 to Mark Selby when Selby needed snookers in the seventh frame to avoid going 4-3 behind. Two seasons ago he made it to the semi-finals before losing out to Xiao Guodong. If there's one player that deserves to kick on and win a major title it's Holt. He's a quality player at his best, and works incredibly hard on his game as well as being a great personality who doesn't hide his feelings and accepts when he hasn't played well and knows how much better he can do. It may not be this week, although I could certainly see him winning his first round game with Stephen Maguire and who knows what he could do. Confidence is a funny thing in snooker like any sport and I personally believe that the run Michael had in Furth will have given him plenty.

Stephen Maguire is Michael's opponent in the first round and he's had a mixed start to the season also. After a semi-final appearance in the Australian Open, Maguire seemed to struggle in the two opening European Tour events losing in the Last 32 and Last 64, and this comes in a stretch of time now that has seen Stephen fail to kick on and left him fighting to stay in the top 16. I believe the problem that Stephen has is still a bit of "Scottish flair". If he misses a few simpler balls early or make a few simple errors, he gets on his own back rather quickly, particularly if he is punished by his opponent. I also believe that if Stephen gets sucked into a battle to stay in the top 16 rather than aiming to kick on, then his game will suffer as such.

Ryan Day is another former finalist at the Shanghai Masters and has already had a reasonable start to this season. He reached the quarter-finals of the Riga Open, though would've been slightly disgruntled to be whitewashed by Graeme Dott in that last 8 tie. Ironically, Graeme is his first round opponent this week and that will surely see Ryan hungry for revenge in what should be an evenly contested match between two players ranked within 3 spots of each other. In fact, the winner out of Graeme and Ryan could well kick on this week as I see this being a particular section of the draw that opens up very early on, and maybe the Welshman is the man to take advantage. The one thing that hinders Ryan is that he's very hit and miss. When he's on his game he can score heavily and is a match for anyone, but when it doesn't click you feel like he's very beatable for a man of such quality. Hopefully for his sake, things will fall into place this week.

Joe Perry is going about his business quietly so far this season. After a run to the quarters in Bendigo he's had two last 64 exits on the European Tour and i'd usually expect a lot better from Joe. Of course Perry won his first ranking title at the Players Championship in Thailand, a victory that you felt had been on the cards for quite some time with his form. He was present at the 6 Reds this week in Thailand, and hopefully that will re-invigorate him with the happy memories from earlier in the year, leaving him raring to get going this week. If the draw were to open up early on, Joe is certainly some that you would say is a candidate to take advantage of that, by doing what he always does and going about his business without too much fuss. Now he's a member of the winners circle, he'll have the confidence to that again and again, and Stuart Bingham is an example of that.

Quarter Winner: Joe Perry

Quarter 4

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Shaun Murphy Vs Peter Ebdon/Yuan Sijun
Michael White Vs Mark Davis
Mark Allen Vs Luca Brecel
Mark Selby Vs David Grace

The very last quarter of the draw sees last year's runner-up from Shanghai in Mark Allen, along with former winner Mark Selby. Shaun Murphy is another to watch out for after his run to the Paul Hunter Classic final a couple of weeks ago. Michael White's match with Mark Davis presents two guys that are separated by only three spots in the rankings so expect a close one there.

Michael White and Mark Davis presents a very tight first round match to call. Only three places separates them in the rankings, with White being the higher ranked of the two. The interesting stat comes on the head to head, as I pointed out in my new Stat Attack feature. Every single time the two have met, Mark has come out the victor, a stat that I was quite surprised to see. Neither has really kicked into top form at the beginning of this season, and I think that if the match goes close that could quickly become apparent as Davis in particular is not afraid to get drawn into a battle (something his marathon decider against Neil Robertson showed in the Grand Prix). I actually believe that Davis may try to make the game a little more tactical in an attempt to shut down the big scoring Welshman, and hopefully frustrate him into mistakes. Personally, I don't see either one of these players coming out on top in this quarter, with so many other quality players lurking that have all done well in this competition previously.

Mark Allen is one of those players as he beat Mark Selby 6-5 to make last years final, before being turned over by Bingham. Mark is another player yet to get going this season or even look like doing so. First round exits in Australia and Furth actually match that of his opponent in last years final, while he looked comfortable early on in the Riga Open, before meeting Graeme Dott in the last 16. In fact it's been a while since Allen has really had a good run in any tournament, possibly going all the way back to the Masters where he lost in the last 4, so you'd say he's due. However, snooker is never that simple and neither is his draw for this week. He could quite easily come unstuck against Luca Brecel if he brings his best scoring form and takes his chances. Even if he does get through Mark Selby is lurking as his possible last 16 opponent and that of course is never easy, as Allen has first hand experience of. This may well be another frustrating week for the Northern Irishman.

Shaun Murphy also finds himself in this difficult section of the draw. The World Championship runner-up was also a runner-up in his last event, the Paul Hunter Classic, losing out 4-3 to Ali Carter. The way Shaun explains the conditions for that week and if you compare them to the sticky, muggy conditions that are usually present in China, then he will be well prepared. He's been scoring well so far this season, and chose to miss the 6 Reds in order to better prepare for Shanghai (seeing no benefit in playing on a different make of table and cloth in an event with a totally different format). Instead Shaun has gone out to Shanghai quite early, with his first round match taking place on Wednesday evening, whilst he flew out on Wednesday of this week. If Shaun is on his game early this week and scoring well then he will be a match for everyone and it could be one of those weeks where the Magician tears up the field.

Mark Selby will have something to say about that, as a man that appears to be the King of Shanghai if you look at his history in this event. He may have only won the title once (though no-one has won it twice in the 8 year history) but he's also lost out in the semi-finals on 4 other occasions, so clearly has a love affair with the event, and of course the conditions that are not always easy to adapt to. His form this season hasn't been magnificent so far with a Last 16 exit in Australia 5-1 to Jamie Jones followed by a Last 32 defeat in Riga to Ken Doherty and a Last 64 loss in Furth to Scott Donaldson. This may be the event that kicks off Mark's season. When you have a good feeling coming to an event every year, knowing it's one where you have competed and played great stuff in the past it's a magnificent feeling, and at the best of times if Mark is anywhere near his best, he's tremendously tough to beat.

Quarter Winner: Mark Selby

Predicted Tournament Runner-Up: Mark Selby

Predicted Tournament Winner: Mark Williams


I'm really looking forward to what this week has in store for us, with the first of this seasons big Chinese ranking events. As always, coverage will be on Eurosport and they were doing so well with the coverage until it gets to the final which won't be shown live unfortunately according to the schedules. Otherwise this is usually a tournament that a lot of the fans and players seem to enjoy and I would certainly include myself with that after some of the brilliant matches we've seen in recent years.

FANTASY SNOOKER LEAGUE: Shanghai Players and points update

After a couple of weeks off after the Paul Hunter Classic, the fantasy snooker league is back for the Shanghai Masters, and with 32 players to chose from who will be your choice?

First off, here's how the table looks after events in Furth, with money leftover/in debt next to each players score also:

1st: Anthony Ward 132 points +0.3 million
2nd: Igor 109 +0.7 million
3rd: Gary 102 +2.5 million
4th: Kjetil 96 +0.4million
5th:  LTD 89 +0.5 million
        Snooker Follower 89 -2 million
7th: Kai 72
8th: Spanish Snooker Blog 67 +0.4 million
9th: John McBride 65 +3.4 million
10th: Gorkem Kurt 59 +0.4 million
11th: Michael Coudray 55 +1.9 million
12th: Ezgi Ulutas 53
13th: Andrew Brooker 50 +7 million
14th: Chris Watts 47 +1.4 million
15th: Phil 41 +0.5 million
16th: Guillermo 29 -0.5 million
17th: Josh Cooper 24 +0.6 million
18th: Sean 20 +1 million
19th: Tungsten Darts 17 +7.5 million
20th: Kellie Barker 14  +0.2 million


Right then, now you know where we're at so far this season, here are the players for the Shanghai Masters. 8 million as usual is given plus any leftover money you may have to spend on two players. Two points to make quickly as we do have a wildcard round this week, you can't pick any of the 8 Chinese Wildcard players, and if you pick any of the 8 tour players involved in those 8 matches, no points will be awarded for Wildcard round performances.

Otherwise the DEADLINE is Monday at 7.30am UK Time, the start of the opening matches.

Happy Tipping:

Stuart Bingham– 6 million
Mark Selby – 5.8 million
Ding Junhui– 5.6 million
Neil Robertson – 5.5 million
Shaun Murphy – 5.4 million
Judd Trump – 5.3 million
Barry Hawkins – 5.2 million
Joe Perry – 5 million
Ricky Walden – 4.9 million
Mark Allen – 4.8 million
John Higgins – 4.6 million
Marco Fu – 4.5 million
Mark Williams – 4.3 million
Stephen Maguire – 4.2 million
Michael White – 4.1 million
Graeme Dott – 4 million

Mark Davis - 3.5 million
Robert Milkins - 3.5 million
Ryan Day - 3.5 million
Michael Holt - 3.5 million
Liang Wenbo - 3.5 million
Martin Gould - 3.5 million
Matt Selt - 3.5 million
Alan McManus - 3.5 million
Jamie Jones - 3.5 million
Peter Ebdon - 3.5 million

Mike Dunn - 3 million
Luca Brecel - 3 million
Kyren Wilson - 2.5 million
Tom Ford - 2.5 million
David Grace - 1 million
Jamie Cope - 1 million


Those are the players but who will you pick? All the best of luck!!

STAT ATTACK: Looking to Shanghai

In my efforts to spice up the blog and bring you a different angle on some of the best snooker events there are, i'm launching a new feature that I would like to call the "Stat Attack". Here I look ahead to, and will also look back on, upcoming and recent tournaments to give all of you statistical fans something to read over. There are all sorts of statistics that you can find on wonderful websites such as Cue Tracker and Snooker.Org but it's incredibly, that it's actually tough to pick out the ones that are going to be relevant to an upcoming tournament, and can either give you that extra insight ahead of an event or that small edge on the punting front.

With the Shanghai Masters, the first full ranking event since the beginning of July, starting on Monday here's some interesting facts and stats that I've picked out from those that can be found on the previously mentioned websites.

With the 8 wildcard matches to be played of course, only 8 last 32 matches are known in full, so that doesn't give me many head to head comparisons to look at.


One Last 32 that will take place on Monday sees John Higgins play Liang Wenbo. The pair have played 6 times previously, the last of which was at the 2015 Welsh Open, a tournament won by Higgins, and John has won every single won of their previous outings. The closest Wenbo has come to beating Higgins was at the 2012 World Championship when Higgins edged him out 10-9.

Another interesting head to head to look at is one between Ryan Day and Graeme Dott. The pair have met 8 times previously between 2004 and just last month at the Riga Open, a match won 4-0 by Dott. The 8 matches have been shared though 4-4, with Ryan's most notable win being in the 2007 Shanghai Masters when he overcame the Scot 6-2 to reach the final.

One head to head that may surprise a few people is that of the one between Mark Davis and Michael White. Despite Michael being the slightly higher ranked player, he's never beaten Mark in 7 professional meetings, something that the Welshman will be looking to put right on Wednesday.


When it comes to the actual tournament itself, the Shanghai Masters has been staged 8 times, with 8 different players winning it, while 3 of those 8 previous winners (Dale, Carter and O'Sullivan) are not in this weeks field.

Mark Selby has the strongest record in those 8 Shanghai Masters having added 4 semi-final losses to his 2011 title, whilst also being knocked out in the first round on two occasions. He's also won the most amount of prize money in the staging's of the Shanghai Masters winning £144,640, while John Higgins comes second with £133,775 and Stuart Bingham in third place with £130,795.

If you follow the statistic that no-one has won the Shanghai Masters twice, then you may be interested in knowing who's won the most money in the event without winning the title. Mark Williams leads this field with £81,070, followed by Ryan Day with £73,750 and Shaun Murphy with £73,625.

Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy has an interesting statistic to look out for, having played in 8 deciding frames at the final stages of the Shanghai Masters, and 12 in total if you include qualifiers, which is the most out of anyone in the events history.

When it comes to whitewashes, Shaun is also up there on that list strangely enough having whitewashed 4 opponents, which only Mark Selby can better having whitewashed 5 of his previous opponents.

Selby is up there once again when it comes to highest match win percentage in the Shanghai Masters where his is 73.08% from 26 played.


If you want an idea of how a player has been playing so far in a stop start season (because results don't tell you everything) here are a few niche stats about certain players.

After reaching the Paul Hunter Classic final, Shaun Murphy has made 14 breaks of between 70 and 79 this season, averaging 1 in every 5 frames he plays, showing that he's certainly picking up from his 2014/2015 form when it comes to heavy scoring.

It's not the same story for Stuart Bingham however, who in 6 knockout matches (excludes round robin matches of the 6 Red World Championships) has only won two of those, both of which came in the Riga Open. Something that the World Champion will be desperate to put right in the coming week.

Despite the quarter-finals being his best finish in an event so far at both the Paul Hunter Classic and Australian Open, Judd Trump has already made 9 century breaks at an average of 7.6 frames per century (excluding the 6 Reds where obviously a century is not possible.

1. That is the number of matches that Neil Robertson has played so far this season in ranking play after his Last 32 exit at his home event in July, meaning he hasn't played on the tour for 2 months.

Ding Junhui may have played in the 6 Reds this week, but in terms of tournaments counting towards his ranking, this of course is Ding's first of the season, so once again it'll be interesting to see how he goes.

Barry Hawkins has played in two European Tour events in his season so far, winning the Riga Open at the start of August. Along the way he's made 12 breaks of between 50 and 69 averaging one of those in every four frames he plays, showing that his scoring form is looking very nice indeed.

Tom Ford starts this week in the wildcard round, but he'll be buoyed by the fact that if that match, or any matches he goes on to play go down to the wire, he has a 100% win ratio in deciders this season so far, having won 4 out of 4.

Once again excluding the 6 reds from the count up, Matt Selt is putting more fuel in the tank of people calling him the "most improved player on the circuit" with runs to the last 8 in both Australia and Latvia leaving him with 10 wins from 13 matches played. Matt starts out this week against Ricky Walden.

Martin Gould will also be a dangerous opponent this week if he gets going like he did in Australia, having so far won 8 of his 10 matches played in the 2015/2016, averaging a break of 50+ in every 2.21 frames played, which is a rather impressive haul.

Michael Holt could well be a dangerous opponent for Stephen Maguire in round one. 9 match wins from 12 is his record in events counting to the money list so far this season. Don't be surprised if Holty matches his run of the 2013 Shanghai semi-finals.

Ricky Walden's form may be deceiving this season. So far he's only won 3 games out of 6 played, but all three of those losses were in final frame deciders, and baring that in mind, he's also made three breaks of 130 or above. The former Shanghai Master could have a big say in this weeks proceedings also.



Has your brain been overloaded yet? Good. In that case i'll be back with some more facts and figures specific to what we've seen, once the event has finished next Sunday. Otherwise, I've still got my main preview to come in the next day or two, and I hope you've all enjoyed my first running of the STAT ATTACK.

Paul Hunter Classic Preview

After another 3 week break following the Shanghai Masters Qualifiers and the opening European Tour event of the season in Latvia, the European Tour continues with a very special event in memory of a much loved player taken from the world far too soon. It of course is the Paul Hunter Classic in Furth. Mark Allen is the holder of the trophy after his victory over Judd Trump in last August's final. Meanwhile, Barry Hawkins is the man that's made the storming start on this years European Tour after he beat Tom Ford in the Riga Open final at the opposite end of August.

It's fantastic that we can continue to honour Paul's memory in this way, and for many of those that knew him best the Paul Hunter Classic is still a very emotional occasion, where I'm sure all of the players discuss their best stories and memories of Paul. However, as with all of these European Tour events it seems, we haven't got a full field of players involved. Despite winning the title two years ago and saying he needed to play more "smaller events" this year, Ronnie O'Sullivan has again given the weekend a miss and is yet to begin his season. Neil Robertson has also surprisingly skipped this event after also missing Riga, along with Ding Junhui who didn't play in any of last season's 6 European Tour events either. Other than that the only other notable absentees are Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Jimmy White who only managed to stay on tour for this season and next by his performances in the European Tour events of last year.


Those are the main stories coming into this week, so here's how the draw lines up this week in Germany:

Quarter 1

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Barry Hawkins Vs Zhang Yong
Kyren Wilson Vs Amateur Qualifier
Gary Wilson Vs Anthony Hamilton
Stuart Bingham Vs John Higgins
Mark King Vs Amateur Qualifier
Jamie Jones Vs Amateur Qualifier
Lee Walker Vs Sydney Wilson
Rory McLeod Vs Kurt Maflin
Mark Allen Vs Sanderson Lam
Ian Burns Vs Amateur Qualifier
Duane Jones Vs Steven Hallworth
Martin O'Donnell Vs Thanwat Thirapongpaiboon
Peter Lines Vs Rod Lawler
Jack Lisowski Vs Lu Chenwei
Thor Chuan Leong Vs Amateur Qualifier
Liang Wenbo Vs Noppon Saengkham

This section is one filled with top quality players including both the champion of the first European Tour event from much earlier this month, and the defending champion from last year's Paul Hunter Classic. Alongside Hawkins and Allen we have tie of the round as Australian Open champion John Higgins takes on World Champion Stuart Bingham in a mouth watering tie. Liang Wenbo also had a good event in Latvia making the quarters and it'd be good to see him back in good form.

Mark Allen of course is the defending champion of the Paul Hunter Classic and always has to be up there in people's minds as a favourite for these European Tour events. He's won 3 ET events in the last two seasons before this one, starting this season with a last 16 exit to Graeme Dott at the Riga Open. His start to the season hasn't really fired much as yet with a Last 32 exit in Australia to add to his showing in Latvia, and I have to think he's more likely to get going once there is a rhythm to the season of regular events, but you can never count him out of a European Tour event.

John Higgins had a good start to the season in the World Cup with Stephen Maguire and winning the Australian Open, yet a loss to an amateur in the first round of ET1 has left him unseeded for this event. What that has now left him is an unfortunate first round draw with Stuart Bingham. It's tough to call between the two, but something tells me that playing Bingham in the first round of an event where he has to play possibly three matches on one day, the third of which has the possibility of being against Barry Hawkins is not going to have a positive outcome for Higgins. The Scot's form in these tour events over the last couple of years has been very hit and miss with early 128 round exits being mixed last 16 and last 8 showings at best.

Stuart Bingham meanwhile I think will thrive on the fact that he is to play Higgins in round one and has a tough section of the draw, because it's time for him to perform you feel after Last 32 exits in Australia and Riga. It's one thing being World Champion in name, but it's another performing like a world champion thereafter, with the weight of expectation on your shoulders. Now that the first couple of events are out of the way, I think Stuart Bingham will have worked off the cobwebs and will be determined to get going with some impressive showings. However, an early exit in this event with a tough section to get through will soon have the same people who doubted Selby's ability to perform as World Champion, will soon be on Stuart's back too.

Barry Hawkins will be full of confidence having qualified for the Players Championship finals already after winning event one of the European Tour, taking the pressure off of him for now. In many ways Hawkins is quite underrated. Many people see him as a bit of a one trick pony who seems to save his best for the Crucible, whilst not really showing much promise through the other 11 months of the year. That's miles away from the truth. The reason Hawkins is able to play so well when it matters is by honing his skills in these smaller events when there isn't quite as much pressure and he can relax playing good snooker. Again Hawkins has that tough section where he will likely face one of Bingham or Higgins in the Last 32, and as has been shown since the Tours inception, it's tough to win back to back ET events.

Liang Wenbo is one player who could well go under the radar this week. He made the quarter-finals of the Riga Open and followed that up with Shanghai qualification in a tough match with Andy Higginson. If Wenbo could get through to the Last 16 on Sunday he would do so without playing anybody ranked higher than himself, and when he's in form that's something he can do without wasting ever so much energy. Bringing as full a tank of energy as possible into the latter stages is incredibly important and those that make a Sunday surge, generally are the ones who can make life as easy for themselves as possible. Don't be surprised if Wenbo puts up a real challenge to win in Germany this weekend.

Quarter Winner: Liang Wenbo

Quarter 2

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Alan McManus Vs Amateur Qualifier
Mark Davis Vs Paul Davison
Eden Sharav Vs Mitchell Mann
David Gilbert Vs Amateur Qualifier
Mike Dunn Vs Ross Muir
Tony Drago Vs Stuart Carrington
Matthew Stevens Vs Amateur Qualifier
Michael White W/O Chris Melling
Shaun Murphy Vs Barry Pinches
Zak Surety Vs Zhang Anda
Craig Steadman Vs Fraser Patrick
Luca Brecel Vs Gareth Allen
Peter Ebdon Vs Rhys Clark
Alfie Burden Vs Amateur Qualfier
Robbie Williams Vs Amateur Qualifier
Ben Woollaston Vs Jamie Burnett

Quarter number 2 doesn't quite have the same names as it's predecessor, but we still have plenty of big guns in this section. Shaun Murphy already has his name on the trophy twice at the Paul Hunter Classic, albeit before the foundation of the European Tour, and of course he won two European Tour events last year. Ben Woollaston made the semi-finals in Riga to get his season going along nicely, while Michael White is always a danger, and was unfortunate to draw eventual champion Hawkins at the Last 16 stage in ET1. Alan McManus made the quarter-finals of the first event, while the likes of Mark Davis, Peter Ebdon, Matthew Stevens and Luca Brecel can all do a lot of damage when in fine form.

Ben Woollaston is a quality player when it comes to these European Tour events, and I found it unsurprising that he started off the season by making the Riga semi-finals. Last year's Tour events saw a minor blip for Ben as he failed to qualify for the PC Finals, and he knows that he can do better than that. The way his section looks I think he would be a strong shout for at least the Last 16 if he's on his usual form, although his first round tie against Jamie Burnett certainly doesn't give him the easiest of opponents. Having said that, Jamie is a lot more hit and miss than Ben and 7 times out of 10 I'd expect Woollaston to come out on top which is a more than fair ratio.

Michael White is another man more than capable of a big run in these European Tour events, and he's already been helped this weekend by a first round walkover. Whether that will help him in round two when his opponent will already have a better grip of the table conditions than he will remains to be seen of course. Having burst through into the winners circle in India last season you expect White to kick on and contend for a lot more of these events in the long run. He was unlucky to meet the form horse and eventual winner Barry Hawkins in the Last 16, and while his section is far from easy, an in form White is one you'd expect to make at least the quarter-finals this weekend.

Shaun Murphy is a massive contender for this weekend in Furth I feel. His record in recent times in the European Tour has seen him win 3 events from his last 8 starts, with a semi-final and last 16 thrown in for good measure. Two of those wins and the semi-final appearance came last season while the last 16 appearance was this season in Riga where he lost out to Matt Selt. Shaun has also got his name on the Paul Hunter Classic trophy (which for this season is made out of beautiful Waterford Crystal). In fact I believe that outside of England, Germany is by far Shaun's favourite place to play, he won the Ruhr Open and made the German Masters final last season and regularly goes out to Germany doing all sorts of exhibitions. Such a playing record in Germany as a whole cannot be ignored, some players often have one area where they play well, and Germany appears to be one for Shaun. There's no doubt that after a start to the season that's not much to write home about, he'll be working very hard to put that right, and he could well do that and more over the weekend.

Quarter Winner: Shaun Murphy

Quarter 3

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Graeme Dott Vs Vinnie Calabrese
Dominic Dale Vs Yu De Lu
Jamie Cope Vs Amateur Qualifier
Robert Milkins Vs Amateur Qualifier
Anthony McGill Vs Daniel Wells
Fergal O'Brien Vs Xiao Guodong
Joe Perry Vs Michael Wasley
Judd Trump Vs Amateur Qualifier
Ken Doherty Vs Tian Pengfei
Michael Georgiou Vs Zhou Yuelong
Michael Leslie Vs Joe Swail
Sean O'Sullivan Vs Allan Taylor
Michael Holt Vs Amateur
Robin Hull Vs Amateur
Andrew Higginson Vs Sam Baird
Matt Selt Vs Lu Ning

As we enter the bottom half the big names just keep on coming at you, as we look at last years finalist Judd Trump, along with Players Champion of 2015 Joe Perry, the two of whom could meet in what would be a brilliant Last 64 tie. Graeme Dott will be hoping for more of the same after his semi-final appearance in Latvia, while Matt Selt keeps moving on up after reaching the last 8 on that weekend. Yet again there are plenty of others who can do damage including Robert Milkins and Michael Holt, while two other players inside of the world's top 32 take on each other as Fergal O'Brien plays Xiao Guodong.

Joe Perry is the players champion and finished inside the qualifying places on both European and Asian Tours last season so clearly likes playing in this format, going on to win the PC Finals. He was also unlucky in the first of the ET events this season to lose out in the Last 64 in a deciding frame, to eventual runner-up Tom Ford. What that has left Joe is a tough possible Last 64 clash this time around as he may face Judd Trump and that will be a tough one for both guys. In fact the whole road through this tournament looks to be paved on a rocky road for Joe, who will need to be on top form to get through it.

Graeme Dott also finds himself in that mini section and again his route is far from easy, though he'll obviously be full of confidence following his appearance in the Riga semi-finals. The one thing for Graeme in recent years is that he's failed to go on a consistent run of having these good results in events which is why he's slipped outside of the top 16, though he's certainly close to getting back in. We all know Graeme is good enough to do so and it would be good for him to go on a run of consistently mixing around the last 16 stage of these European Tours to continue to build his confidence, though that is a tough ask this week with his draw.

Matt Selt however is one man who will be absolutely full of confidence such is his current form. Quarter-finals in Australia and Riga have seen him get a good start to the season and one that he'll be very happy with. Matt also finds himself in the opposite mini section in this quarter to the one where Trump, Perry, Dott and McManus find themselves but that doesn't make his draw easy. He could potentially face Andy Higginson in the Last 64 and he looked in decent touch at the Shanghai Masters qualifiers, while Michael Holt or Robin Hull could be waiting in the Last 32 and we all know what they're capable of also, but I fancy it to be either Holt or Selt to come through and make the quarter-final.

Judd Trump made the final here last year and actually came out on top at the Paul Hunter Classic in 2010 before he really broke through and became the force he is now. He'll be disappointed with his season so far losing in the Last 16 of the Riga and quarter-finals of the Australian Open without challenging for titles. Trump comes across to me who is one of those sportsmen with the true winners mentality. Reminiscent to that shown by Jordan Spieth on the Golf tour this year, Trump isn't satisfied making quarter and semi-finals and seeing that as a good weeks work. He sees that as something to build from as he wants to win every tournament he plays in and works hard to do so. Some players on tour are there to make up the numbers, others are consistent at having good runs, but I believe Trump is a born with a winning mentality and we'll see those characteristics this weekend.

Quarter Winner: Judd Trump

Quarter 4

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Ryan Day Vs Liam Highfield
David Morris Vs Marco Fu
Gerard Greene Vs Jimmy Robertson
Stephen Maguire Vs Amateur Qualifier
Ali Carter Vs Amateur Qualifier
Aditya Mehta Vs Ian Glover
Cao Yupeng W/O Jason Weston
Oliver Lines Vs Li Hang
Mark Williams Vs Amateur Qualifier
Chris Wakelin Vs David Grace
Joel Walker W/O Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Ricky Walden Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng
Mark Selby Vs Amateur Qualifier
Scott Donaldson Vs Amateur Qualifier
Darryl Hill Vs Martin Gould
Tom Ford Vs James Cahill

The final quarter sees yet more of the games best and in form players. Mark Selby is a former champion in Furth and will be looking to get his season going at last, along with Ricky Walden who has an interesting stat of losing two matches this season having made 142 breaks in them. Tom Ford of course was the runner-up to Hawkins in Latvia, while Mark Williams still made the Last 16 despite still suffering, following recent shoulder surgery. Ryan Day also had a good run to the quarter-finals of the first Euro Tour event to get going so he could be a danger, as will Martin Gould who missed out on event 1 through illness.

Mark Williams is going to be an interesting prospect to follow this weekend. He is still recovering from shoulder surgery that he underwent in July and that is obviously massive for a snooker player. Despite saying he didn't feel comfortable at the Riga Open he still made the last 16. He's also been having a word on Twitter this week saying in one practice session he was struggling to make a 50 break and plays better on no practice. We all know MJ and that's more likely to be tongue in cheek than anything else, so it'll be a case of waiting and seeing how he goes, but it's very tough to see him challenging for the title and coming through a very tough section without feeling 100%.

Mark Selby will be looking to get his own season going this weekend after some poor performances by his high standards so far. In the World Cup he was under par, and that continued in his Last 16 exit in Bendigo to Jamie Jones, along with his Last 32 exit in Latvia to Ken Doherty. Mark usually goes well in Germany though and is a player much like Shaun Murphy who seems to always do well in front of the German fans, having previously won the Paul Hunter Classic, and beating Shaun in February's German Masters final. He'll be working hard coming into this event to make sure he can get himself going and if he feels at home on the table in front of the Furth crowd I doubt he'll be planning an early flight home.

Stephen Maguire has had a decent start to the season without really pressing on. A world cup final and Australian Open semi  are good results, but then to follow with a Last 32 exit in Riga will annoy him. Maguire constantly puts himself in positions to kick forward and possibly win titles but in my view he doesn't convert enough and it's tough to know what that's down to. He hasn't got the easiest section as his possible last 32 opponent could be Ryan Day or Marco Fu and plenty of other tough players await elsewhere in this quarter, so it could easily be another week of frustration for Stephen.

Ricky Walden has had a couple of tough defeats so far in his two early season events, losing in the last 16 in Australia in a tight decider to Stephen Maguire and in the Last 32 of Riga to Ben Woollaston, despite making a 142 break in both of those matches so that shows he's striking the ball fairly well, without producing his best. If he could produce his best snooker where he finds that fluency in the balls where he follows in the heavy 140+ plus breaks with even more centuries and 80+ contributions. I don't think that fluency is ever very far away from Walden's game and the consistency he needs to achieve to go from a regular in the Last 16 to tournament winner, and when he puts that together like he did in Chengdu last year he can be unstoppable. In my view his chances in Furth are going to be very good, as he doesn't seem to be very far away from some more stunning snooker.

Quarter Winner: Ricky Walden

Predicted Tournament Runner-Up: Ricky Walden

Predicted Tournament Winner: Shaun Murphy

So then, it looks set to be another fantastic event in Furth and I'm sure all of the players competing both professionals and amateurs will do proud the memory of the great Paul Hunter. As always the whole event through will be live on Eurosport. 

Cue Action Blog FANTASY SNOOKER LEAGUE: Paul Hunter Classic

After a long period in August without any snooker it's time for the next event in the Fantasy Snooker League for 2015/2016 which is the Paul Hunter Classic.

 

As usual you will have 8 million allocated to spend on a maximum of two players, and you can't choose any Amateur players as these are not yet known and will not be priced up.

 

The players will be priced on ranking NOT the European order of Merit Top avoid confusion. So here's how the table looks after the Riga Open and furthermore the players for the Paul Hunter Classic with a deadline of Friday morning for picks.

 

Fantasy League Table (with leftover money)

 

1st: Anthony Ward 125 +1.5 million

2nd: SnookerFollower 84 -1.5 million

3rd: Igor 81 +0.7 million

4th: Kjetil 77 - 2.6 million

5th: Gary 67 +2 million

6th: Spanish Snooker Blog 53 +1 million

7th: Andrew Brooker 50 +7 million

8th: LTD 47 +0.2 million

9th: Gorkem Kurt 44 +0.4 million

10th: Ezgi Ulutas 43

11th: Chris Watts 42 +0.2 million

12th: Michael Coudray 27 - 0.6 million

13th: Guillermo 24

14th: Kai 22 +0.4 million

15th: Sean 20 +1 million

15th: John 20 +1 million

17th: Josh Cooper 19 +0.6 million

18th: TungstenDarts 17 +4.5 million

19th: Phil 11 +0.3 million

 

Players for the Paul Hunter Classic (By first pro matches on Friday 28th)

 

Mark Selby – 6 million

Stuart Bingham – 5.8 million
Shaun Murphy – 5.6 million
Judd Trump – 5.5 million
Barry Hawkins – 5.4 million
Joe Perry– 5.3 million
Ricky Walden – 5.2 million
Mark Allen – 5 million
Marco Fu – 4.9 million
John Higgins – 4.8 million
Mark Williams – 4.6 million 
Stephen Maguire – 4.5 million
Michael White – 4.3 million
Graeme Dott – 4.2 million
Mark Davis– 4.1 million
Robert Milkins – 4 million

Any Player seeded 17-32: 3.5 million
Any Player seeded 33-48: 3 million
Any Player seeded 49-64: 2.5 million
Any Player seeded 65-80: 2 million
Any Player seeded 81 or below: 1 million

 

If there are any further questions feel free to ask, just tweet your picks as always to me @CueActionBlog. Otherwise, happy tipping!!!

Riga Open Preview

The Snooker tour is all set and ready to go again this weekend in Latvia for the first European Tour event of the season. This follows the best part of four weeks since John Higgins was victorious in Australia at the first ranking event of the season, and with the majority of the tour back in action, despite the absences of Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui and Ronnie O'Sullivan amongst many others.

The defending champion in Riga is Mark Selby who came from 3-0 down to beat Mark Allen 4-3 in last years final, and i'm sure the pair will be looking for runs of similar depth through the draw one year on as well, although there are a lot of players that are going to have a say about that. The interesting one for the top guys will be how they view this event. For members of the top 16 that aren't a part of next weeks Shanghai Masters Qualifiers, they will have around another 4 weeks off after this event ahead of the Paul Hunter Classic, which makes it a very stop start beginning to the new season with little to gain, including early season rhythm and form. It all comes back to how sharp some of the main guys will be, and if Australia is anything to go by, then some may still show signs of a tan (or at the least a Golfers tan).

However, it all comes down to opinion on such a matter. Golfers and Tennis players often choose to take 2 or 3 weeks off after a major competition but only in the heat of the season, and never as many as the top ranked snooker boys have had since Australia and will have again before heading to Furth in late August. I also have to admit to struggling to get into this season. With the Golf in the height of it's major season, and Cricket's Ashes well and truly heating up, that offers a healthy distraction to the lack of snooker and a busy period for me during the World Cup along with more unsociable timings and poorer weekend coverage of the Australian Open mean I have watched little snooker since the World Championships.

Enough of that debate though and back to the action this week in Latvia, with the draw and my thoughts upon it.

Quarter 1

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Mark Selby Vs Sanderson Lam
Joel Walker Vs Paul Davison
Ken Doherty Vs Amateur Qualifier
Gary Wilson Vs Amateur Qualifier
Jamie Jones W/O Hamza Akbar
Luca Brecel Vs Amateur Qualifier
Michael Georgiou Vs Amateur Qualifier
Ryan Day Vs Allan Taylor
Graeme Dott Vs Amateur Qualifier
Andrew Higginson W/O Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Mike Dunn Vs Amateur Qualifier
Matthew Stevens Vs Steven Hallworth
Rod Lawler Vs Amateur Qualifier
Peter Lines Vs Amateur Qualifier
Scott Donaldson Vs Michael Leslie
Mark Allen Vs Gareth Allen

The top quarter of the draw is where we find last years Riga finalists Mark Selby and Mark Allen, along with Australian Open semi-finalist Jamie Jones and Graeme Dott who is presently hovering just outside of the top 16 in the world.

Jamie Jones started to show more of what we know he's capable of in Australia on the way to the semi-finals, beating Mark Selby, Mark Davis and his good friend Michael White along the way. Those results just prove what he can do at this level and that will increase his confidence even more than his run to the World quarter-finals in 2012, because it had been such a long time coming. However, his loss to John Higgins 6-4 from 4-0 ahead in the semi-finals would've hurt, but he's had long enough to deal with that and get that out of his system, to turn up here and play good snooker in a little section of the draw that I feel could open up to see him get to at least Sunday's Last 16.

Graeme Dott is someone we haven't really had to speak about in tournaments for a long time as a serious contender, but in this quarter there is every chance for him to shine. This will be his first event of the season so there could be some early cobwebs to work off, but the beauty of the European Tour events for all these players coming in a little short on match practice is that they can easily work into a rhythm with matches coming thick and fast, and that will help the likes of Dotty. Again, like Jones, I believe that if Graeme plays well enough that for him a last 16 spot and a good start to the season are both easily achievable.

Mark Selby hasn't as yet had the best start to the season being knocked out of the World Cup with Stuart Bingham in the group stages and receiving a last 16 thrashing in Bendigo at the hands of Jamie Jones. However, it is on these European Tour weekends that Mark will often do well, with his ability to take control of some matches early on and make light of the early fixtures to save energy, and then grinding out results when he needs to. His record speaks for itself and he is the defending Riga Open champion as well, a special title as his first after his World Championship triumph, so he won't want to give it up without a fight. Mark is unlikely to peak at such an early stage of the season and will not be set up to do so this week either, and I believe that opens for others to have a good week, though you can never write off the Jester.

Mark Allen is one of my tips to do very well this weekend in Latvia. His record in European Tour events over the last two seasons speaks for itself, putting him within the top 3 on the Order of Merit in both of those campaigns. Consecutive titles for Mark in 2013 and a win at the Paul Hunter Classic in 2014 following a runners up finish in the inaugural running of this event shows that his early season form is usually right up there and that he thrives on these best-of-7 sprints if he can get some momentum and rhythm going early on in the piece. He may have exited early in Australia but that's not really a guide for Allen who, by his own admitting, plays poorly year after year in Bendigo, possibly due to the long flight over. The things in Mark's favour for this weekend are that he has all of the tools and "knowhow" to win these European Tour events and that he will have good memories of playing in the venue last year.

Quarter Winner: Mark Allen

Quarter 2

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Barry Hawkins Vs Amateur Qualifier
Robbie Williams Vs Ian Glover
Craig Steadman Vs Amateur Qualifier
Anthony McGill Vs Amateur Qualifier
Mark King Vs Amateur Qualifier
Sam Baird Vs Jason Weston
Mitchell Mann Vs Lee Walker
Michael White Vs Amateur Qualifier
Stephen Maguire Vs Amateur Qualifier
Anthony Hamilton Vs Amateur Qualifier
Jimmy Robertson Vs Eden Sharav
Alan McManus Vs David Grace
Kurt Maflin Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Robin Hull Vs Tony Drago
Mark Joyce Vs Chris Wakelin
Judd Trump Vs Sydney Wilson

Here in quarter two we have the Players Champion for 2013 Barry Hawkins, and Australian Open semi-finalist Stephen Maguire along with Judd Trump who has a superb record on the European Tour, as well as young Michael White and Anthony McGill.

Michael White will be pleased with how his game is shaping up at the moment making the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, despite losing 5-4 from 4-2 ahead against Jamie Jones in that last 8 tie, and a semi-final place in the World Cup alongside Mark Williams. Young Michael is really starting to perform now with a little more consistency which his maiden ranking win in March would've given him the confidence to do. The draw that White has in front of him should see him get to the Last 16 if he's relatively on his game, though we know that things don't always go to plan in these European Tour events.

Judd Trump started off his campaign with an annoying 5-1 loss in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open after two easy games. That loss saw him have many of the frames stolen on the colours by Maguire and the lack of killer instinct would worry Judd ahead of long season, so he'll hope to be back stronger this week without any further issues. It may not be too long before Judd gets the opportunity to exercise such demons either with a possible last 16 meeting with Stephen Maguire lurking in the future. That may not necessarily please Judd either given a poorer record against Maguire that he has compared to his record against most other top players. However, if he could get past that Judd does have the ability to breeze through the draw if he's on his game, as his record in these weekend long European Tour events shows.

Stephen Maguire has had a very well polished start to the season, even at this early stage. With a new cue in his hand Stephen should be well practiced as he attempts to get used to the new equipment, and that showed as he teamed up well with John Higgins to reach the World Cup final and then reach the last 4 down under. It would be good to see Stephen playing with renewed confidence and good early showings with a new cue is enough to boost any players self-belief. The Scot is also a winner on the European Tour from last season where he shone through in Lisbon, and all of the signs point to him being a serious contender, despite his very tough section.

Barry Hawkins is turning out for the first time this season when he steps out in Latvia. This is an incredibly important season for Barry with much to defend in the rankings after winning the £100,000 top prize as Players Champion two years ago and that means he needs an impressive start in these ET events to push him high up on the Order of Merit. Obviously, if Barry failed to qualify that would be a disaster for his ranking. A lot could be said about the way Barry's season tailed off in the middle, but he did start the season well and does usually seem well prepared to start the season strong and end it even stronger, and if he's thinking ahead like he should be, he'll be well aware of the strong start he needs to make this weekend, which could ultimately spur him on.

Quarter Winner: Barry Hawkins

Quarter 3

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Shaun Murphy Vs Amateur Qualifier
Aditya Mehta Vs Duane Jones
Jack Lisowski Vs Rhys Clark
Peter Ebdon Vs Nigel Bond
Matt Selt Vs Amateur Qualifier
Joe Swail Vs Alfie Burden
Liam Highfield Vs Amateur Qualifier
Robert Milkins Vs Fraser Patrick
Mark Davis Vs Amateur Qualifier
Stuart Carrington Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Rory McLeod Vs Amateur Qualifier
Fergal O'Brien Vs Amateur Qualifier
Michael Holt Vs Jimmy White
Kyren Wilson Vs Ross Muir
Tom Ford Vs Amateur Qualifier
Joe Perry Vs Amateur Qualifier

Onto the bottom half of the draw where we find last years European order of merit leader and two time winner on the Euro Tour Shaun Murphy accompanying the eventual Players Champion Joe Perry. Matt Selt and Robert Milkins can also be found here and will want to go one better than the runners-up finishes they had in ET events in 2014.

Robert Milkins started off his season in Australia with a last 16 exit to Joe Perry is about average for Milkins who does struggle to kick on in events, especially when up against the top players like Joe. In the European Tour events he's had slightly more success as his run to the Bulgarian Open final last season demonstrated, and the format of these events suits his game quite nicely. As a player that appears to be reliant most of the time on getting into a rhythm early on, games coming thick and fast over the course of a weekend won't upset him too much, although we also know that if he doesn't get off to a good start he can fold quickly with the lack of recovery time that the best-of-7 frames matches offer. His draw doesn't look like a bed of roses with a possible last 32 clash against Matt Selt who is on the rise to better things as a player and well capable of toppling Milkins.

Matt Selt will have even more confidence after an appearance in the Australian Open quarter-finals to start his season, especially after beating home favourite Neil Robertson in the first round. Matt is continually growing in confidence and growing his ranking along with that, and he has plenty of bottle and nerve to match. A final on the European Tour last season gives him something to build from, and has built from a semi-final from the Gdynia Open of February 2014 and I think these short formats seem to be favouring him as much as the long format that saw him qualify for the Crucible and nearly come back from 9-4 down to beat Barry Hawkins in round one. If certain players come in cold this weekend i'd say that Selt won't be one of those as he's working incredibly hard on his game to get right to the very top and I could see him going far in Latvia this weekend too.

Shaun Murphy is last years European order of merit winner, after really coming into his own on the working weekend. After struggling in the Riga Open exiting in the Last 64, he went out to Selby in the Last 32 of the Paul Hunter Classic prior to winning in Bulgaria and making that back to back titles with the Ruhr Open. A Last 128 exit to Craig Steadman in Lisbon was a minor pre Christmas blemish, but he responded in the final event to make the Gdynia Open semi-finals as defending champion. A winner of nearly £50,000 just on the European Tour last season, Shaun will look to match that again this year and improve on a start to the season that saw him lose out in the first round of the Australian Open to Ali Carter. In fact that now means Shaun has lost his first match of the season in 3 of the last 4 years and that will annoy him, so he'll be working hard to put that right, and as I've detailed above he is clearly a threat for this weekend.

Joe Perry in fact went one better than Shaun last season by going on to win the Tour Championship finals in Thailand so he will want a strong start here in Riga, to boost his chances of defending that title. Joe was superb in these tour events last season finishing in the qualifying positions for the finals via both of the Asian Tour and European Tour order of merits, following his second Asian Tour title. It could be said that with Asian Tour events and a full ranking event title under his belt now, all that is missing for Joe is a Triple Crown event, and a European Tour title, but he's certainly displayed the credentials to compete over this shorter format. In fact, such are the results of Perry in recent years, he can now be counted as a major contender for every event he enters, and I expect this week to be no different.

Quarter Winner: Joe Perry

Quarter 4

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Ricky Walden Vs Zak Surety
Darryl Hill W/O Jamie Burnett
Ian Burns Vs Jamie Cope
Ben Woollaston Vs Vinnie Calabrese
Martin O'Donnell W/O Martin Gould
Michael Wasley Vs Amateur Qualifier
Gerard Greene Vs James Cahill
Mark Williams Vs Barry Pinches
John Higgins Vs Amateur Qualifier
Oli Lines Vs Daniel Wells
Dominic Dale Vs Chris Melling
Ali Carter Vs Amateur Qualifier
Liang Wenbo Vs Amateur Qualifier
David Morris Vs Amateur Qualifier
David Gilbert Vs Amateur Qualifier
Stuart Bingham Vs Amateur Qualifier

The World Champion and second seed for this week can be found here in the final quarter with Stuart Bingham finding company at the bottom end of the draw with Australian champion John Higgins. Also here we have a recovering Mark Williams on the comeback from shoulder surgery, while Ben Woollaston, Ali Carter and Ricky Walden will all be looking to go big this weekend too.

Ricky Walden is a player that I can't seem to get away from the view of being very hit and miss. Even though his consistency has improved in the past few seasons, he still has patches where his game is shaky and he can go from very good performances to shocking ones without any real warning. He has won on the European Tour before but he's never up there amongst the titles as much as say a Trump, Selby or Murphy has been in the last couple of seasons, thriving on these best-of-7 weekends. Often Walden will get to the Last 32 or Last 16 and then perish to any player ranked around him, and I could very easily see that occurring again this weekend with plenty of those players lurking like Ben Woollaston, who could be seen as someone more likely to have a good run in these European Tour events, thriving on the format.

It will also be interesting to see how our World Champion Stuart Bingham gets on after his first round exit to Fergal O'Brien at the Australian Open, and an early exit in the group stages of the World Cup alongside Mark Selby. Stuart has every right to enjoy his summer with family and friends, along with completing a lot more corporate and sponsors events than he would be used to before now. The key is not to neglect the hours of practice that got you to where you are now, and let the odd day of hard practice slide but i'm sure he won't. However, it's a tough draw early on for Stuart Bingham who could face John Higgins or Ali Carter in the last 16, both of which seem to be cueing nicely in the early season, so Stuart will certainly need to show more of the form that got him to World Champion, than he has since starting the season with that title.

John Higgins is the shining star at the beginning of this new snooker campaign. On the baize, John led the Scots to the final of the World Cup alongside his good friend Maguire, before travelling down under to take his second ranking event title of 2014 by beating Martin Gould in the Australian Open final. I will be the first to admit that I doubted John over the last year or so, questioning his consistency throughout matches and tournaments, and I still wasn't convinced by his win in Cardiff a few months ago. However, the fact that he has performed consistently well at the start of the season, demonstrates that he can still pick up results and trophies, and is still working hard on his game. The season opening Euro Tour event of two years ago in Bulgaria saw Higgins go far, so will this weekend see a repeat performance? He's certainly playing well enough to make that a reality.

Ali Carter in my opinion can class his start to the season as a success. His only event so far came at the Australian Open, and after his ranking was unfrozen, Ali dropped out of the top 16 and had to play a match to qualify for Bendigo which he came through with the professionalism we come to expect from a top player like Carter. His first round performance to beat arguably the best player of last season in Murphy 5-4 with some high class breaks, was incredibly impressive and i'm sure he would've beaten Michael White in the Last 16 had the odd break gone his way in that narrow 5-4 loss. Having seen off what he's had to see off in the last couple of years, Ali will now be determined to get back to where he belongs in the world rankings and the winners circle. As we know Ali is a very determined character and I think this along with continued results will translate into a great season for Carter and some brilliant results, very possibly starting with this weekend if he's playing well enough.

Quarter Winner: Ali Carter

Predicted Tournament Runner-Up: Joe Perry
Predicted Tournament Winner: Mark Allen

Despite what I may have said and suggested earlier on, this should be a nice short sharp burst of snooker action, all of which will be found on Eurosport as usual and there should be yet more chances to see some new guys in action as well as all of your firm favourites for the first or second time in the early stages of Kreativ Dental (yes they're still sponsoring the show) European Tour 2015/2016. I hope you all enjoy, wherever you are!!!