The UK Championship also takes on added importance with the race for the Masters, and getting into the top 16 to qualify. We also have an interesting first round draw for the battle to make the top 64 at the end of the season and stay on tour. The nature of the draw with seed 64 playing seed 65 in the first round, while 63 plays 66 and so on, makes for some very nervy battles between guys that all have an eye on keeping their tour cards.
When matters kick off in York on Tuesday for the first round, that round (Last 128) will be covered on World Snookers online streaming service and the usual betting streams, as TV coverage begins on the first Saturday as the BBC cover their first event since Stuart Bingham left the Crucible with the World Championship trophy in hand. The first two rounds at the York Barbican see an eight table set up, with 16 games over two sessions on the Tuesday, 24 over three sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is then used as a rest day before the BBC gets going on Saturday afternoon with 2 sessions of eight matches on Saturday and Sunday to complete the Last 64 games.
The other news to bring of course is that Ronnie O'Sullivan will not defend his UK title and it's anyone's guess as to when we'll see him back on the baize again in proper tournament play. That shouldn't take away from what will be a fantastic tournament with the best in the world battling for a big prize.
I'm sure we can expect the same faces on the BBC coverage, including Willie Thorne who has confirmed he will be there after his recent health troubles and we wish Willie all the best and I can't wait to hear his voice on the coverage once again. Meanwhile on Eurosport, they are going for a similar sort of line-up that brought us the German Masters in February where Ronnie O'Sullivan was on part-time punditry duty when not playing, but this time without that to worry about, he is relishing the opportunity to accompany his good friend Jimmy White in the studio (who himself is in the tournament and playing Stephen Maguire in the opening round before coverage begins and a surprise win there might dent Eurosport's plans). I've also been told that Neal Foulds will be on the Eurosport coverage in some form and that is always good news.
The Last 128 stages are best-of-11 frames and this continues up to and including the semi-finals on Saturday 5th after they were scaled down from best-of-17 frames for the 2014 tournament, while the final remains best-of-19 frames.
That is the background information ready for York, meaning it is time to take an in-depth look through the draw at some of the key clashes, while I attempt to predict the winners of each quarter of the draw and pluck out the eventual winner from the 128 players that start out.
Quarter 1
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Stuart Bingham Vs Jordan Brown (a)
Anthony Hamilton Vs Peter Lines
Dominic Dale Vs Michael Wild
Peter Ebdon Vs Lu Chenwei
Robert Milkins Vs Vinnie Calabrese
Andrew Higginson Vs David Grace
Graeme Dott Vs Nigel Bond
Jack Lisowski Vs Zak Surety
Gary Wilson Vs Martin O'Donnell
Martin Gould Vs Allan Taylor
David Morris Vs Michael Georgiou
Mark Allen Vs Zhao Xintong (a)
Matthew Stevens Vs Chris Wakelin
Michael Holt Vs Fraser Patrick
Joe Swail Vs Joel Walker
Ding Junhui Vs Adam Duffy (a)
The top quarter of the draw not only features the likes of world champion Stuart Bingham, former UK Champion Ding Junhui and 2011 UK finalist and recent Champion of Champions finalist Mark Allen amongst plenty of other potential challengers. However, there are also some important battles in the race to get into the top 64 at the end of the season as Peter Lines takes on Anthony Hamilton and David Morris plays Michael Georgiou. Morris is just over £2,000 clear of 65th place, while Georgiou is £11,000 adrift (according to the provisional end of season seedings) but with £4,000 guaranteed for first round winners such gaps can fluctuate greatly during the opening round. On the end of season seedings both Peter Lines and Anthony Hamilton are struggling to the extent that the loser of that first round game will be a big favourite to drop off of the tour.
Graeme Dott should be seen as a contender for this quarter with the draw he has and his pedigree. Last year he was a quarter-finalist at the UK Championships before losing to Stuart Bingham and Bingham was again his conqueror in the Last 16 of the World Championships. Dotty loves these big events as much as anyone and his fantastic match-play means that he can beat anyone. On the European Tour he has had a semi-final this season, and I don't think that anyone in his section standing between him and a Last 16 place is in particularly good form making Graeme a big threat. Dott is often underestimated in a draw and if the struggling Bingham continues on his poor run he could easily run riot through the draw.
Stuart Bingham as I say has struggled adapting to life as a world champion. I think it may be an even bigger struggle for someone like Bingham who had probably gotten to the stage of his career where world champion aspirations were fading and he would never be prepared for something like that happening to him. Other than a semi-final appearance at the Shanghai Masters his season has offered very little, with early exits in all of the European Tour events, the Australian Open, International Championship and the Champion of Champions. On the plus side for Stuart, he has a good record in York, making the quarter-finals in 2012 before consecutive semi-finals in 2013 and 2014, and perhaps this tournament could offer a turning point in Ballrun's season if he can keep his recent UK run going. Looking at his draw there is a decent chance that Stuart has a couple of rounds to play himself into the tournament and if he can do that he might be able to pick up a bit of form along the way.
Mark Allen is in fantastic form of late and has been going along pretty nicely all season. He had already reached the Last 16 of the Riga Open and the Ruhr Open as well as the Shanghai Masters semi-finals before winning in Bulgaria. That title got him though to the Champion of Champions where he breezed past Barry Hawkins, Stephen Maguire and Kyren Wilson to reach the final where he lost to Neil Robertson. In terms of his record at recent additions of the UK Championships is relatively good. When the event came back to the York Barbican in 2011 he lost out in the final to Judd Trump. In 2013 he made the quarter-finals before losing out to Ricky Walden. However, he has not necessarily got the easiest first round draw in the world. Having to play Zhao Xintong is not easy as we all know how talented the young Chinese player is, and the fact that he is doing so well out in the World Amateur Championships in Egypt (heading towards the final at the time of writing) is testament to that. If he can get past Zhao his draw does not get that much easier either with a possible Last 32 meeting with Martin Gould who has re-discovered some form over the course of 2015, while Ding Junhui is a potential Last 16 opponent. To progress in York over the next week or so he will have to continue playing as well as he has done recently.
Ding Junhui has been one of the missing men this season, playing very little main tour snooker. Although, when he has played he has looked in better shape than in the disappointing season he had last season. His Last 32 exit in surprise fashion to James Cahill is evidence towards that case, as he did in the 2012 edition of the UK Championships to Ryan Day. His record in York since the tournament came back to the Barbican in 2011 is pretty poor with 2011 being the only year he has achieved much of note reaching the quarter-finals, while in 2013 Ricky Walden ended his amazing winning run (having come to York off of the back of three straight ranking titles) in the Last 16. This year though he'll come to the UK Championships refreshed after skipping all four European Tour events so far, and failing to qualify for the Champion of Champions. He has not been playing badly though as I mentioned, winning the Asian Tour event in October, and reaching the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals before losing a deciding frame to eventual champion Kyren Wilson. His draw looks tasty without being too difficult if he plays well, the possibility of playing the unlucky Michael Holt in the Last 32. (Holt has lost to the eventual champion in two out of the four European Tour events and two out of the three ranking titles, while the Ruhr Open was the only event he did not lose to an eventual finalist). In the section he is in though, it is very difficult not to see Ding as a major contender.
Quarter Winner: Ding Junhui
Quarter 2
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Judd Trump Vs Hammad Miah (a)
Stuart Carrington Vs Liam Highfield
Liang Wenbo Vs Gareth Allen
Jimmy Robertson Vs Lu Ning
Mark Williams Vs Hamza Akbar
Tom Ford Vs Scott Donaldson
Kyren Wilson Vs Paul Davison
Mike Dunn Vs Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Gerard Greene Vs Michael Leslie
David Gilbert Vs Jason Weston
Yu De Lu Vs Michael Wasley
Marco Fu Vs Hatem Yassin
Mark King Vs Ross Muir
Ben Woollaston Vs Steven Hallworth
Zhou Yuelong Vs Craig Steadman
Shaun Murphy Vs Ashley Hugill
In terms of the race for the top 64, there is another huge match between Stuart Carrington and Liam Highfield. Liam is 64th on the provisional end of season seedings only £1,000 clear of 65th place, while Stuart Carrington is 68th with a £3,000 deficit to make up and the two players are very closely matched and I expect quite a nervy game there. Yu De Lu can take a huge step towards safety by beating Michael Wasley. Yu currently sits £3,800 clear of 65th place and with £4,000 for first round winners he would be practically safe from tour relegation. Craig Steadman has a very tough game with Zhou Yuelong and as he is only in 61st place £4,000 clear and if he were to lose that game he could be thrown into a real battle. Gerard Greene also has a big game against Michael Leslie as he is presently 67th on the provisional end of season list £2,000 away from safety, so the pressure will be on as he will certainly be favourite to win that game.
As for the main contenders to win this quarter, Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, Mark Williams and Marco Fu will all be in the hunt, and the prospect of Last 16 de ja vu for Murphy and Fu after Marco's 6-5 win in the 2014 edition. Kyren Wilson, Liang Wenbo and Ben Woollaston are all reasonable outsiders to win the quarter.
Marco Fu has had a bit of a nothing season so far, entering very few events and doing averagely across those events. A quarter-final at the International Championship is his best effort, but he'll be disappointed not to have gone on further there, whilst he did not qualify for the Champion of Champions but he did show signs of improvement in Daqing and the Asian Tour event beforehand where he was knocking good breaks in for fun. Fu made the quarter-finals of the UK Championship last year, but a year on i'm still unsure as to how he managed to beat Shaun Murphy 6-5 in the Last 16 with how poorly he played and how much better Murphy seemed to be. I don't see anyone seeing Fu off before the Last 16 so there is potential for the pair to meet again which will be particularly interesting.
Mark Williams consistent form is continuing but he has still to that into a tour title. All year he has been playing well with good performances at the back end of last season, and that has continued this term. In the European Tour he boasts a semi-final appearance, as well as two quarter-finals and a last 16 showing. In the ranking events his Last 32 Daqing exit to Un-Nooh was unlucky, while he made the quarter-finals again in Shanghai. Mark has recently been playing in the General Cup concluding tomorrow and he has reached the final there so he will be match sharp for York and if he can get over the travelling he shouldn't have any problems in the opening round. His potential Last 32 opponent could cause him problems but if he can get through that Judd Trump could await in the Last 16 who he doesn't have a bad recent record against and Judd himself has had a shaky season so there could be another quarter-final on the cards for the Welshman if not more in the next week or so.
Judd Trump has been what I would describe as very "hit and miss" so far this season. There have been several examples of this throughout the first half of this season. In Bendigo he lost 5-1 in the quarter-finals to Stephen Maguire but was by no means outplayed, as he could easily have won 5-0 himself. There was also the embarrassing 6-0 loss to low ranked Michael Wild in the International Championship qualifying round just after he'd lost in the final of the Shanghai Masters. He then followed that up a week later with a Last 128 exit in the Ruhr Open to amateur Hammad Miah. At the Champion of Champions he looked like the "old Judd Trump" before he matured and built a useful safety game, particularly with his hit and hope shot from a snooker at 3-2 down which ultimately cost him the match. Even when he has looked good getting to the quarter-finals of ET's 2 and 4 he lost in surprising fashion each time after playing very well to get that far. Even his record at the UK Championships since 2011 could be described as mixed. After taking the trophy home in 2011, he lost from 5-1 up 6-5 to Mark Joyce in the first round defending his title in 2012, while in his 2014 Last 16 exit to Mark Allen he played pretty ordinarily after three brilliant performances in the early rounds on the new Last 128 structure, before losing 10-9 in last year's final to Ronnie O'Sullivan. In terms of his draw, he plays Miah in the first round and he'll be seeking revenge for that Ruhr Open loss, while a possible Last 32 meeting with either of Liang Wenbo or Jimmy Robertson is not too desirable. Therefore, it is not totally inconceivable that the man going into the tournament as the favourite could suffer an early exit just as easily as he could contend for that title as many seem to expect.
Shaun Murphy is somebody that anybody who reads this blog will gather by now that I think highly of. I also have a huge sense that something big is to come from Shaun this season after a little bit of a quiet start. He certainly has not played badly, winning his first three matches on the opening day of his European Tour campaigns for fun to reach Sunday's Last 16, progressing on to the final in Furth and the quarter-finals in Bulgaria where he was unlucky losing out in a decider to Mark Williams. As for the main ranking events he has had a slower start to the season. He would say himself he was underprepared for the Australian Open where he lost in the Last 32 5-4 to Carter and he was disappointed to lose in the Last 16 of the Shanghai Masters after losing four frames in a row from 3-1 ahead. In the International Championships Last 16 there was little he could do being totally outplayed by John Higgins in a 6-0 whitewash. He has been working hard and cueing well as always, without necessarily knocking in as many long pots as he did on the way to winning the Masters in January, or reaching the finals of the German Masters in February and the World Championships. He has been performing well in the big events for some time really, reaching at least the semi-finals of all of the last four Masters, and at least the quarter-finals in the last three World Championships. As for the UK Championships he was a semi-finalist in 2010 before the event came to York in 2011 where he reached the quarter-finals that year, the final in 2012 and has lost out in deciders in the Last 16 in both of the last two editions. If he can get past the local lad Ashley Hugill in round one, then he will either play young Chinese Zhou Yuelong or good friend Craig Steadman in the Last 64 both of which would be tough games. Mark King or Ben Woollaston are possible Last 32 tests, while a Last 16 meeting with Marco Fu is the most likely if Shaun can make it that far. He'll be fired up and determined to play well and win when he turns up in York, of that there is no doubt and after losing to 15 year old Yan Bingtao he'll be fired up even more in my opinion and very much ready to go.
Quarter Winner: Shaun Murphy
Quarter 3
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Neil Robertson Vs Alex Taubman (a)
Aditya Mehta Vs Sam Baird
Fergal O'Brien Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Darryl Hill
Stephen Maguire Vs Jimmy White
Rory McLeod Vs Jamie Cope
Mark Davis Vs Rhys Clark
Ken Doherty Vs Tony Drago
Jamie Burnett Vs Sanderson Lam
Alan McManus Vs Eden Sharav
Li Hang Vs Lee Walker
Ricky Walden Vs Itaro Santos
Rod Lawler Vs Daniel Wells
Ali Carter Vs Alfie Burden
Tian Pengfei Vs Ian Burns
John Higgins Vs Leo Fernandez (a)
Not as many players in the third section of the draw feature in the battle for top 64 places, but both Aditya Mehta and Ian Burns face tough games in their fight for survival. Burns is provisionally 66th at the end of the season, just £2,000 away from 64th with £4,000 guaranteed if he can beat an in form Tian Pengfei. Meanwhile Aditya Mehta is 70th £6,500 away from safety as he takes on recent Bulgarian Open semi-finalist Sam Baird in the first round. Meanwhile, it is a big quarter in terms of the contenders to both win the section and the title. Neil Robertson is recent Champion of Champions, while John Higgins won the International Championships just before that. Stephen Maguire was a semi-finalist last year, while Ricky Walden has twice been a semi-finalist in York in the last 4 years. Mark Davis and Ali Carter could also cause problems in this quarter, as both were losing semi-finalists in the 2012 edition, whilst Davis made the quarter-finals again last year.
Stephen Maguire has had a strange season so far. He started it off by making the world cup final alongside John Higgins, before reaching the semi-finals in Australia a week later. Since then it has been a struggle with a first round (Last 32) exit in Shanghai before also losing in the Last 128 qualifier for the International Championship. With missing the Bulgarian Open, that gave him a month off after his Last 32 exit at the Ruhr Open, ahead of the Champion of Champions. He looked much better in Coventry and scored very heavily in his win against Mark Selby in round one, and did not have a bad game later that evening when he lost 6-2 to eventual runner-up Mark Allen, making a 107 in one of the two frames he won. Last year he made the semi-finals in York before losing out to Judd Trump. The other carrot dangling for Maguire is that he cannot afford an early exit as he currently sits in 16th on the provisional seedings with Ryan Day £10,000 behind him looking to come in and steal the final spot in January's Masters. That could push Maguire into playing some great snooker over the next week or so.
John Higgins has been playing some stunning snooker over the course of this season so far. Winning in Bendigo and Daqing and that has played him back inside the top 8 in the world rankings. Even at the Champion of Champions he was unlucky not to make it into the semi-finals losing a quarter-final decider to Joe Perry. However, at the UK Championships the last time he made it past the Last 16 was when he won the competition in 2010 (the last time it was held outside of York) which is quite an unsuccessful run by Higgins' standards. His draw this year is far from easy with the potential to play in form Chinese Tian Pengfei in the Last 64, while even his first round opponent Leo Fernandez beat several pro's in making the quarter-finals of the Asian Tour event in October, and he could meet Ali Carter again (after their Last 16 meeting at the Champion of Champions) in the Last 32.
Neil Robertson comes into the UK Championships on a good run after bagging the £100,000 first prize by winning the Champion of Champions. He also reached the quarter-finals before losing out to Mark Selby but other than that Neil has played very little and not been at his best when he was playing at the beginning of the season. He opted not to enter European Tour events 1, 2 and 4, while in the third in Mulheim at the Ruhr Open he lost in the first round to James Cahill. He also lost in the first round of the Shanghai Masters 5-4 to Jamie Cope, and previously in Australia 5-4 to Matt Selt. In the really big events is when Neil brings his best snooker, just as I mentioned earlier with Shaun Murphy, and that shows from the fact that he has played in 3 of the last four Masters finals, as well as winning the UK Championship in 2013 after reaching the semi-finals in 2011. His 2012 quarter-final exit came after losing six consecutive frames from 4-0 ahead against eventual champion Mark Selby. Last year he lost surprisingly to Graeme Dott in the last 16 6-5 (although Dott led 5-0 at one stage). In terms of his draw, I think he will not have too many problems getting through the opening couple of rounds. In the Last 32 he could face Fergal O'Brien who is always tough to beat, or another possible opponent at this stage is Thepchaiya Un-Nooh with his incredible heavy scoring presenting it's own dangers so the Australian might not have it all his own way.
Ricky Walden I feel is a big contender turning up at the Barbican this year, even if his season so far has been a little mix and match. At the Australian Open he suffered a deciding frame Last 16 exit to Stephen Maguire, while he withdrew from Shanghai due to the birth of his first child which has had an effect on his form also in my view. Even though he made the final of the Asian Tour event before losing 4-3 from 3-1 ahead against Ding Junhui, he still lost in his held-over Last 128 match 6-4 to Tian Pengfei despite playing very well in portions of the match. I have a very high opinion of Walden and believe that his career will be a little disappointing if he doesn't win a major event in the UK, having won three ranking titles in China. He has much more talent than certain players that have won World and UK titles in the past in my view, although I often believe that Walden suffers issues with concentration and appears to "switch off" for portions of matches. This is something I witnessed up close when watching the first session of his World Championship match with Graeme Dott this year. He looked like a world beater early on as he went 3-1 ahead only to lose four of the next five frames and trail 5-4 at the end of that session. Then when watching the second session on a combination of my phone on the way home, and the TV when I got back I was encouraged to see Ricky playing better again coming from 6-4 behind to lead 7-6 but once again he lost three frames in a row to trail 9-7 and eventually lost 10-8. At times he looked like a world beater, while at others it looked like anyone on the world tour could have beaten him. I have spoken often on the blog about Ricky's inconsistencies, but when he puts it altogether like he did in the 2014 International Championship he is seriously unstoppable. His record at the UK Championships has been good in recent years reaching the semi-finals twice in York in 2011 and 2013, whilst losing in 2014 in the Last 16 to Stuart Bingham after he seemed to completely run out of steam after a busy period of snooker. This year he will be refreshed having played little snooker this season (well as refreshed as you can be as a new Dad) and I think there is certainly a big run in him over the next week or so.
Quarter Winner: Ricky Walden
Quarter 4
Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Barry Hawkins Vs Andy Hicks (a)
Robin Hull Vs Zhang Anda
Anthony McGill Vs James Cahill
Luca Brecel Vs Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Joe Perry Vs James Wattana
Robbie Williams Vs Mitchell Mann
Matt Selt Vs Zhang Yong
Kurt Maflin Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Chris Melling
Ryan Day Vs Duane Jones
Mark Joyce Vs Barry Pinches
Michael White Vs Sydney Wilson
Xiao Guodong Vs Noppon Saengkham
Jamie Jones Vs Ian Glover
Cao Yupeng Vs Oliver Lines
Mark Selby Vs Joe O'Connor (a)
The race for the top 64 continues in the bottom quarter of the draw. Zhang Anda is still out in Hong Kong having just lost in the semi-finals of the non-ranking General Cup, before he takes on Robin Hull in the opening round of York. He currently trails 64th on the provisional end of season seedings by just over £5,000. Meanwhile Cao Yupeng has a massive game with Oliver Lines. Yupeng is 65th on the provisional end of season seedings only £1,000 adrift, but he'll certainly have his work cut out against Lines, who himself is 60th on the list, but is £7,000 clear already and should be safe. The bottom quarter of the draw is also full of contenders, with Mark Selby being a recent semi-finalist in Daqing, while Joe Perry made the semi-finals of the Champion of Champions and Ryan Day reached the final of ET4 in Bulgaria.
Michael White has not had the best of seasons at all so far and has not quite showed the same form that got him to his Indian Open title, since winning that competition. Last 16 exits in Daqing to Selby and at the Champion of Champions to Joe Perry always looked likely. In fact he has failed to get past the last 16 since an Australian Open quarter-final at the very start of the season in any event of ranking importance (including the European Tour). At the UK Championships his record does not look much better, losing in the Last 64 round in both 2013 and 2014 since the event started being played according to the Flat 128 structure. It will not be any easier for him this week, despite two relatively easy looking matches to begin with, his potential Last 32 opponent is the in form Ryan Day who of course is looking for a good run in York to try and get himself into January's Masters.
Ryan Day has been playing well over the course of this season and finally looks ready to get himself back into the world's top 16. This season he has made the Last 16 of both the Chinese ranking events, losing to Ding 5-4 in Shanghai before beating him 6-5 in Daqing before losing to eventual finalist David Gilbert. At the Bulgarian Open he stormed into the final, most notably whitewashing Mark Selby in the quarter-finals. He also made the quarter-finals of the Riga Open and has really looked in fine form since then. His draw for the first round or two should not trouble him if he continues to play as he is, and then it all comes back to that potential Last 32 meeting with fellow Welshman Michael White. Right now, I believe Day is the stronger of these two guys and has the potential to go on and contend in the latter stages at the Barbican this year.
Barry Hawkins had a good start to his season when he won the opening European Tour event of the year in Riga and this has given him the leeway to pick and choose his events since then, missing the recent Bulgarian Open, although he did make the last 8 of the Ruhr Open. In the major events though Hawkins has struggled. He lost in the Last 32 of the Shanghai Masters by quite a surprising scoreline 5-1 to Martin Gould before losing at the same stage of the International 6-4 to Jimmy Robertson. He was unlucky to draw Mark Allen at the Champion of Champions under a week after his opponents Bulgarian success and he hardly played badly in losing that match 4-2. As far as the UK Championships goes, Barry has a point to prove after the events of last year. For those that do not remember (though Hawkins certainly will not be one of those) Barry was calmly going about his business and cruising to victory in the Last 64 leading Nigel Bond 5-0 planning both an early night and probably thinking about the Last 32. A few hours later and Hawkins had totally lost his game and the match itself 6-5 after 6 consecutive frames from Bond. That result seemed to haunt him for a while afterwards as he lost 6-1 in the first round of the Masters, and to Mark King in both the Last 32 of the German Masters and Players Championship finals without ever looking like victory was a possibility. A Last 64 exit to Aditya Mehta in the Welsh Open and being knocked out in the group stages of the Championship League winners group hit him hard, as he withdrew from the Indian Open qualifier as he simply was not interested. With all of that in mind Barry will want to put some of those demons to bed when he returns to York this year, but with a very tough looking draw beyond the first round that certainly will not be a simple task.
Mark Selby has had a decent season so far reaching the semi-finals of the International Championship and the quarters in Bulgaria, after an unlucky Last 16 exit in the Ruhr Open to Mark Williams. He's been going very well without yet getting a major title, although there have only been three major ranking tournaments this year and Selby had to withdraw from one. Marks record in York is particularly good as he won the title in 2012 and nearly defended it the next year. He'll also want to put right his early exit against David Morris last year just after the birth of his first child. His draw could be tricky after the opening round, but that's how Mark seems to prefer playing the game and that may spur him on to a good run this week.
Joe Perry has been in good form already this season and losing to eventual champions for fun it would seem. At the Champion of Champions he reached the semi-finals before losing narrowly to good friend Neil Robertson, while in both the Australian Open and International Championships he lost to John Higgins in the quarter-finals with John going on to win both events. His first round exit to Kyren Wilson at the Shanghai Masters came to another eventual winner so it is not as if he has played badly at all and has been very unlucky. He has not been in quite such good form on the European Tour with early exits but again to good opponents. His losses came to eventual runner-up Tom Ford at the Riga Open, top players like Judd Trump in the Last 64 of the Paul Hunter Classic, and Mark Allen in a Last 32 decider in Mulheim before losing to Michael Holt at the Bulgarian Open in the Last 32. Talking to someone the other day about Joe Perry we discussed that if Joe didn't win a Triple Crown event he perhaps would not be remembered in snooker history as such a good player is he clearly is. With the form he is in now I believe that he could go on and win this week, even though his record in the UK Championships may not suggest this. In the 2011-2014 York editions he actually failed to qualify in 2011 and 2012 on the old tiered structure before reaching the Last 16 and losing to eventual champion Neil Robertson in 2013, and losing in the Last 32 to Mark Davis in a deciding frame. His draw for this years event doesn't look too bad until the Last 32 where he could possibly Matt Selt or Kurt Maflin, though neither has been at their best in the last couple of months. If Joe can play himself into the tournament his form is certainly good enough to make him a title contender at the Barbican over the next couple of weeks.
Quarter Winner: Joe Perry
Predicted Tournament Runner-up: Ricky Walden
Predicted UK Champion: Ding Junhui
That is very much that for the information for the UK Championships, both fact and opinion, but as the UK Championship is a massive event you can expect updates throughout the event, starting with an updated preview for the TV stages with this content repeated with a look at all 32 second round fixtures, along with my round-by-round updates and previews. Now it's time to watch the players put the hard yards in and start our 2015 York story.
