Scottish Open Preview

The countdown to Christmas has very much begun as the snooker tour heads to Glasgow for round three of the home nations series. When the Scottish Open begins on Monday it will signal the start of the final full tournament of 2017.

Marco Fu is the defending champion after he denied John Higgins the chance to win his national title with victory against him in last year's final. As Fu comes here with his final chance to lift silverware before turning 40 in January, this season's home nations results show that age is no barrier.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the champion in Barnsley at the English Open and he celebrated his 42nd birthday in York last week, while Mark Williams took home the Alex Higgins trophy from Belfast recently, also at the age of 42.

With a big name in Mark Selby deciding not to play this week, while Luca Brecel has withdrawn to rest a shoulder injury, it will be interesting to see who has enough left in the tank after a gruelling schedule in recent weeks.

Quarter 1

Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Marco Fu Vs Duane Jones

David Gilbert Vs Fang Xiongman

Zhou Yuelong Vs Ian Preece

Yu De Lu Vs Lee Walker

Martin Gould Vs Noppon Saengkham

Fergal O'Brien Vs Zhang Yong

Gary Wilson Vs Lu Haotian

Xiao Guodong Vs Li Yuan

Sam Baird Vs Chris Totten

Hossein Vafei Vs Mitchell Mann

John Astley Vs Liam Highfield 

Neil Robertson Vs Rod Lawler 

David Grace Vs Alexander Ursenbacher

Alan McManus Vs Matthew Selt

Mark King Vs Zhang Anda

Mark Allen Vs Ben Woollaston 

Defending champion Marco Fu has not had the start to this season that he would have been looking for at all. In York he was beaten at the last 32 stage, and he has only reached the last 16 of a ranking event once this season at the Shanghai Masters. With good memories from last year, Fu will be hoping that this is the week when he finds his form. Martin Gould has certainly found his form in recent weeks. Given that he skipped the Northern Ireland Open, he has reached at least the quarter-finals of his last three events played - the International Championship, Shanghai Masters and UK Championship. Looking at this section, I think he has a good chance to carry on that form and potentially have another good run here.

Neil Robertson will be looking to bounce back quickly from another early exit at the UK Championships and one that has seen him lose his place in the top 16 and fail to qualify for the 2018 Masters. A common theme with Robertson this year is that he seems to score well, win or lose, which has made many think he is coming back to form just before another unexpected defeat. In nine ranking events played this season, the Australian has only reached one quarter-final and has now gone 14 months since last ranking event semi-final which helps to explain his drop down the rankings. Hossein Vafei continues to produce nice results, beating Anthony McGill in York and he has a good record in the home nations series reaching a couple of quarter-finals in them over the last year and with his draw not being too bad, he will be hoping for more good performances. Mark King had some good wins to make the quarter-finals of the UK Championship and will be hoping to keep that form going in Glasgow but is in a slightly tougher part of the quarter.

My first quarter choice is someone who has shown good form all season and is determined to get back in the winners circle and that is Mark Allen. Allen only just lost out in the last 16 at the UK Championships and has been playing well for much of the season so far, scoring as heavily as anyone on the circuit. A final at the International Championship was long overdue for a player of his class and built on from the semi-final at the World Open. I think this tournament may present a good opportunity for Allen to get on a good run, given that there are not too many other big form horses in this section, and as a few other top players have chosen to give Scotland a miss or are looking tired after gruelling schedules. Allen should still be fairly fresh and I think he is a good selection both for the quarter and for the title as he has really been knocking on the door this season, and I would be surprised if did not pick up a trophy before the campaign is over. 

Best of the rest: Martin Gould, Hossein Vafei

Quarter choice: Mark Allen

Quarter 2

Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold) 

John Higgins Vs Jack Lisowski

Christopher Keogan Vs Nigel Bond

Mike Dunn Vs Adam Duffy

Zhao Xintong Vs Gerard Greene

Ali Carter Vs Anthony Hamilton

Ashley Hugill Vs Ross Vallance or Robert Carlisle

Tian Pengfei Vs Kurt Dunham

Yuan Sijun Vs Peter Lines

Michael White Vs James Wattana

Scott Donaldson Vs Josh Boileau

Dominic Dale Vs Basem Eltahhan

Kyren Wilson Vs Chen Zhe

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Jamie Barrett

Li Hang Vs Sean O'Sullivan 

Robert Milkins Vs Oliver Lines

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Michael Georgiou

The second quarter is where we find Scotland's number 1 John Higgins. However, any ideas of an easy ride have gone out of the window as he faces an in-form Jack Lisowski in round one. Lisowski has been dangerous all year, making a maiden semi-final a few weeks ago in Shanghai and will be looking to turn up the heat again after a couple of last 64 losses in his last two tournaments. Higgins meanwhile looked very tired in the UK Championships and given the amount of tournaments he has played over the last few months that is hardly a surprise. He should be able to find some extra inspiration in his home event, and a tournament that he reached the final of a year ago, but he will have to be at his absolute best here and it would not surprise me to see Lisowski come through and then have another impressive run through the draw.

Ali Carter has not been in any kind of form in recent weeks. He looked poor in losing in the first round of the UK Championships and other than a couple of good weeks out in China, he has not had the best of seasons, though has also not played in every event either. With his draw this week though he does have an opportunity to make it into the latter stages. As the time of this blog being published, Ronnie O'Sullivan is in yet another final at the UK Championships. He is due to play in Glasgow on Tuesday afternoon which gives him plenty of time to get up and play, but you have to question how much O'Sullivan has left in the tank after a gruelling stretch. After making the final in Coventry, he had to get straight on a plane and travel to Shanghai where he won the title, meaning another race against time to play in Northern Ireland. An early exit there gave him a bit of extra time to prepare for York, but as the latter stages have been in progress there he has looked a little tired and it would not be surprising to see him bow out early here in Glasgow, as all of this must eventually begin to take it's toll on O'Sullivan.

My second quarter selection though is Kyren Wilson who has already reached two finals this season. With some of the top players in this section looking tired, and others perhaps not at their best I have opted for Wilson here as he is another player that has been knocking on the door this season. Finals at the World Open and the English Open saw him play excellently and it has taken some brilliant performances to knock him out of the tournaments since then. He was totally outplayed in the first round in Belfast by a heavy scoring Sam Craigie, and Wilson's only frame there was a century break. It also took a very steady performance from Ricky Walden to knock him out in York and he was defeated by an in-form Martin Gould in the last 32 of the International Championship despite making a 147 break in that match. Not qualifying for the Champion of Champions or the Shanghai Masters in November should mean that Wilson is one of the fresher players in Glasgow and I fancy his chances of a good run this week.

Best of the rest: Jack Lisowski

Quarter choice: Kyren Wilson

Quarter 3

Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Ding Junhui Vs Jak Jones

Chris Wakelin Vs Thor Chuan Leong

Graeme Dott Vs Rory McLeod 

Wang Yuchen Vs Niu Zhuang

Liang Wenbo Vs Sanderson Lam 

Mark Joyce Vs Martin O'Donnell

Ricky Walden Vs Billy Castle 

Joe Swail Vs Lukas Kleckers

Tom Ford Vs Ian Burns

Matthew Stevens Vs Hammad Miah

Joe Perry Vs Chen Zifan 

Stuart Carrington Vs Jackson Page

Allan Taylor Vs Soheil Vahedi 

Andrew Higginson Vs Cao Yupeng

Akani Songsermsawad Vs Jimmy White

Shaun Murphy Vs Daniel Wells

Given his recent eye trouble it was slightly surprising to see the name of Ding Junhui in the draw this week. His exit in the UK Championships is one of the biggest surprises in snooker history given Leo Fernandez's circumstances and the fact that Ding was 5-1 ahead. Aside from his win at the World Open in September, Ding has had a mixed start to the season and it is difficult to know what to expect from him this week. Someone that could take advantage of an early exit for Ding in that mini section is another home favourite in Graeme Dott. The 2006 world champion has looked in good form this season and reached a few last 16's but will be looking to go on and get back to the real business end of a tournament. Victory against Judd Trump in the last 32 of the UK Championships showed that he is still very capable but his consistency is perhaps the one thing letting him down.

Liang Wenbo will come to Glasgow a relieved man, taking the 16th and final spot in January's Masters despite a last 32 exit in York. It has been a quiet first half of the season for Liang and he is yet to really show much form and in a tricky section I would not be surprised to see another early exit on the cards for Liang. Ricky Walden is someone who I think is starting to come back closer to his best after a long and difficult battle with a back injury. Last 16 appearances in the Northern Ireland Open and the UK Championships should boost his confidence as he had some nice victories against Kyren Wilson and the form man Jack Lisowski in those events. His scoring looks to be much better in those last couple of weeks and if he can keep that up then there is no reason why he cannot have a good finish to a difficult calendar year. At the time of writing, Shaun Murphy is in the final of the UK Championships and whichever way that final goes, the short turnaround to get himself up to play in Glasgow may well play a part. If he carries on playing like he is in York then the Magician could storm through the draw here as well, but after a long tournament in York you would also not be surprised if he fell to one of the tricky little players in his section. In that regard, Akani Songsermsawad could be one to watch after his great run in York.

My third quarter choice is another player who has looked in recent weeks like coming back closer to his best after a slide outside of the top 16 and that is Joe Perry. The gentleman comes to Glasgow off the back of two decent weeks that have seen him play much better than the months prior to that. In Northern Ireland he looked to be scoring heavily in the early rounds and was nearly a maximum man in the last 64, on the way to an eventual last 16 defeat. Then in York he shot down Lisowski, Maflin and Allen on the way to his first quarter-final of the season, and but for a couple of early steals in that match from Maguire he could have gone even further. His mini-section of the draw looks a lot less dangerous with the withdrawal of potential last 64 opponent Luca Brecel, and every time I have watched Perry over the last couple of weeks he really has looked like returning to some of his best form and it would not surprise me to see his name in the draw when Friday and Saturday come around. 

Best of the rest: Ricky Walden, Graeme Dott

Quarter choice: Joe Perry

Quarter 4

Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Barry Hawkins Vs Jamie Jones

Yan Bingtao Vs Matthew Bolton

Leo Fernandez Vs Hamza Akbar

Stephen Maguire Vs Alex Borg

Mark Williams Vs Xu Si

Jimmy Robertson Vs Paul Davison

Ken Doherty Vs Craig Steadman 

Alfie Burden Vs Ross Muir

Kurt Maflin Vs Mei Xiwen 

Elliot Slessor Vs Rhys Clark

Peter Ebdon Vs Aditya Mehta

Anthony McGill Vs Ryan Day

Mark Davis Vs Eden Sharav

Michael Holt Vs Robbie Williams 

Sam Craigie Vs Boonyarit Kaettikun 

Judd Trump Vs Robin Hull 

There are a couple of strong home hopes for the title in this section, including Stephen Maguire. After a run to the semi-finals of the UK Championships where he looked in very good touch he has a nice couple of games to ease himself into this tournament looking at the draw. With the form he showed in York, there is no reason why Maguire could not go all the way despite not winning a ranking title for nearly five years. Another of those Scots is Anthony McGill though he has been handed an incredibly tough last 128 draw against Ryan Day. McGill has had a quiet couple of weeks after strong start to the season and a victory here against Day would give him plenty of confidence to go on and have a strong run through the draw.

Judd Trump is someone who will be tough to read ahead of this week. He stormed to the final in Shanghai, but in Northern Ireland jet lag perhaps got the better of him and he did not look at all interested as he fell to a last 128 defeat. In the UK Championships he suffered another early exit and although there is a good chance he may storm through the draw like in Shanghai, it would not surprise me if he fell in the first couple of rounds either. Barry Hawkins has really been struggling badly this season and needs a good run this week to end the first half of the season on some sort of positive note. A 6-0 loss in the last 32 of the UK Championships will have left him low on confidence and with the draw he has he is going to have to work hard to turn it around.

My final quarter selection though is the man that very nearly overcame Mark Williams to win his first ranking title in Belfast and that is Yan Bingtao. The young Chinese star has been a revelation ever since earning his tour place and after just a year and a half he is in the top 32 and has been to a ranking event final, which is simply phenomenal. That run in Northern Ireland came just after another excellent run in Daqing where he was a semi-finalist. He has already beaten a number of top 16 players and has thrashed some very established members of the tour too. His response to an agonising defeat in Belfast was to get straight back on the practice table on Monday morning, and by the Tuesday he looked to have forgotten about it all and it was business as usual when he thrashed Zhang Yong in the first round in York. Another heavy win followed before John Higgins got the better of him in the last 32 in a match where Higgins showed his class and experience. If he carries his form on, and there is no reason why he cannot do this, it will take a big performance to stop him this week in Scotland. 

Best of the rest: Ryan Day

Quarter winner: Yan Bingtao 

Tournament winner choice: Mark Allen 

The format of play this week mirrors that of the two home nations events from earlier in this season and the whole tournament will again be covered by Eurosport and on freeview TV in the UK on Quest. Northern Ireland showed how much of a lottery the best-of-7 matches can be, and I think they will throw up plenty more surprises this week and an exciting line-up for the latter stages. 

Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O'Sullivan to meet again in UK Championship final

Shaun Murphy will face off once again with Ronnie O'Sullivan in the UK Championship final, just four weeks after overcoming O'Sullivan to lift the Champion of Champions title in Coventry.

O'Sullivan was the first man through to the final after surviving a mini-fightback from Stephen Maguire to come through 6-4, before Murphy overcame Ryan Day 6-3 in the second semi-final.

Now the pair will face off again over the best-of-19 frames and O'Sullivan will be hoping to avenge his 10-8 defeat in the Champion of Champions, while Murphy looks to win his second UK title nine years after claiming his only one to date.

A fantastic 61 clearance got the ball rolling for O'Sullivan against Maguire and that signalled how the first four frames would go with the Scotsman having plenty of opportunities but failing to put any pressure on the Rocket. The second frame went to O'Sullivan on the final black, before runs of 54 and 64 saw him cruise to the mid-session 4-0 in front.

Maguire started to put up a fight after the break getting back to 2-4 with a run of 91. The game looked over when O'Sullivan waded back in with an excellent 111 break to move a frame away from victory, but a run of 51 in the eight helped Maguire to extend the match and allow him to make the high break of the match with a 129 in frame nine. The game would soon come to an end though as Maguire left O'Sullivan an opportunity that he was never going to pass up. The contribution of 63 that followed put O'Sullivan into his seventh UK Championship final.

Murphy meanwhile was in sublime form as he dispatched Day. He started as he meant to go on taking the opening frame with a quick fire break of 104 and even though Day levelled at 1-1, Murphy was straight back into his stride in frames three and four with runs of 73 and 89 helping him into a 3-1 mid-session interval lead. The best break of the match came straight after that break when Murphy was in immediately with a bruising long red and went on to make a sublime 135 total clearance and move 4-1 in front.

Day pegged the Magician back with a 61 in the sixth, but could not make the most of an early chance in the seventh frame and when Murphy came in with another good run of 70 he was one away from victory at 5-2. With his back to the wall, Day came out firing and made his own fine century in the eighth, notching up a 128 break but he could not delay the inevitable any longer and Murphy ran out a 6-3 victor.


Semi-Final results: 

Shaun Murphy 6-3 Ryan Day
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-4 Stephen Maguire

The Final: (Best-of-19 frames) 

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Shaun Murphy


You have to say the two best players in the first half of this season are meeting again here in the final. For both players it is their fourth big final of the season. To go with Murphy's 10-8 win over O'Sullivan in the Champion of Champions final, the Magician had back to back finals in August losing out on both occasions in the China Championship and Paul Hunter Classic. As for O'Sullivan he had wins either side of that Coventry defeat, taking down Kyren Wilson 9-2 to take the English Open, before a dominant display again in Shanghai saw him defeat Judd Trump 10-3.

Looking at the nature of those wins for O'Sullivan you have to say that it is key for Murphy to get off to a good start in York tomorrow. Despite falling 2-0 behind he had that good start in Coventry, winning the first session 5-4 and he will be hoping for a repeat of that on Sunday afternoon. That win was a big one for Murphy with many people dismissing his chances going into that final, given a couple of big wins that O'Sullivan had over Murphy in recent World Championships.

Both players have played well in their own ways this week. Murphy has really been on top form since surviving a scare against Liam Highfield in the last 64, with both his long potting and scoring looking good. When those two key components of his game are firing then you always expect to see him in the latter stages. As for O'Sullivan he had an easy ride into the last 16 before his own scare against Akani Songsermsawad. That may have taken something out of him as he looked a little tired at times when Martin Gould and Stephen Maguire were coming back at him in the quarter and semi-finals, but make no mistake - O'Sullivan will be right up for this final.


They have been the two best players by far this week, and if both players are in good form again tomorrow it will be a cracking final to complete the 2017 UK Championships.

Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O'Sullivan cruise into UK semi-finals

Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O'Sullivan both booked their places in the last four of the UK Championships with comfortable wins in Friday's quarter-finals.

Murphy was the most impressive performer, with sublime long potting and a pot success of 94% helping him on the way to a 6-1 victory over Mark King who could not keep his run of great results going.

King had already overcome Luca Brecel and John Higgins to reach the last eight but has a very poor record against Murphy and lost their last meeting just a few weeks ago in Coventry. Murphy chalked up the first frame with a run of 71 before King bagged his only frame of the night thanks to a 53 break in the second frame.

From there, Murphy was dominant and King could not live up to his previous performances. Contributions of 56 and 78 had the 2008 UK Champion ahead 3-1 at the interval and he continued moving towards the line at some pace after that break. A 75 in frame five was followed by a nice 60 in the sixth to put him one away from victory at 5-1. The seventh was not taken in one visit, but Murphy was able to take his foot off the gas and cruise over the line in the end.

In the opposite half of the draw, Ronnie O'Sullivan was not troubled by his shorter turnaround as he saw off a mini revival from Martin Gould to eventually come through 6-3. Gould did not make O'Sullivan work as hard for his chances as he would have liked in the opening three frames, as the Rocket started with superb breaks of 107 and 106 and also took the third frame comfortably to race out in front. Gould had chances in the fourth frame but O'Sullivan won the battle on the final red ad was able to take that one too to move 4-0 in front. It looked all but over when a break of 55 saw O'Sullivan steal the fifth as well to move a frame from the semi's at 5-0.

However, Gould battled on and made his own century, a 101 in the sixth ensuring that he was not whitewashed. Contributions of 61 and 70 helped him to the next two as well as he started to put a little bit of pressure on the front runner for this title in York. When O'Sullivan's opportunity presented itself though in frame nine, he was able to take it with both hands. A nice break of 94 clinched a 6-3 victory.

The match between Stephen Maguire and Joe Perry told a similar tale with Maguire the one that came through 6-3. After stealing the first couple of frames from Perry, the Scotsman surged ahead and came from behind again to take the fifth and lead 5-0. Runs of 57 and 61 helped Perry get back into the contest and at 3-5 Maguire may have been starting to feel the pressure. If he was, it did not show with a convincing break of 75 sealing his date with O'Sullivan in the first semi-final.

The final match of the round saw Ryan Day come through in a late night finish 6-5 over Mark Joyce. Joyce came back well from an early 2-0 deficit to lead 3-2 after breaks of 54, 106 and 71. Day was able to level the scores at 3-3 despite only having a highest break of 38 at this stage of the match. That did not improve in the seventh when Joyce regained the lead with a run of 62. A new high break for the Welshman did come in frame eight as he compiled 55 on the way to levelling again at 4-4 and his best spell of the match followed with a superb 111 putting him in front again at 5-4. In search of his first full ranking event semi-final, Joyce kept fighting and dominated the tenth frame to force a decider. He had his chance halfway through the decider, but missed a red along the cushion and left Day the chance he needed to leave Joyce needing snookers and ultimately book his place in the last four.

Quarter-Final results: 

Ryan Day 6-5 Mark Joyce
Shaun Murphy 6-1 Mark King
Stephen Maguire 6-3 Joe Perry
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-3 Martin Gould

Semi-Final draw: 

Shaun Murphy Vs Ryan Day
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Stephen Maguire


The afternoon semi-final sees O'Sullivan face Maguire in a match-up that has produced some excellent play down the years. Outside of the Championship League they have met 18 times, but it is O'Sullivan with the huge head-to-head advantage having won 14 of those games. They have not faced off though for nearly four years, since O'Sullivan won 6-2 against Maguire in the 2014 Masters semi-finals. You have to go back nearly ten years for Maguire's last win against O'Sullivan in a major event on British soil at the 2008 Masters, so it certainly seems as though the Rocket has the edge though.

One thing I would say is that Maguire really looks to have come back to form this year, and has played really well this week to reach the last four. O'Sullivan meanwhile has suggested he might not have a lot left in the tank after a busy schedule in recent weeks and following a very tough last 16 match with Akani Songsermsawad. Despite all of that he still played well against Gould and Maguire has to block out the added carrot of a win in this match getting him back in the top 16, just in time to qualify for the Masters as that puts a lot of added pressure on the match. It is still nearly five years since Maguire last won a full ranking title and he has only been to one final in that period, in a more minor event in Riga this June.


Meanwhile, there is not much in the head to head between Shaun Murphy and Ryan Day in the second semi-final as the pair have only faced each other once outside of the Championship League since the 2011 German Masters. That meeting came in February of this year when Day saw off Murphy 4-2 in the World Grand Prix on the way to making the final.

This week though, Day has had to fight hard and has now officially booked his place in the Masters but has won deciders in each of the last three rounds to make the semi-finals. He could easily have been beaten in any of those three matches against Joyce, Li Hang and Mark Williams and you have to wonder how much he has left in the tank after those three gruelling matches as he was far from his best against Joyce in the last eight. Shaun Murphy meanwhile has only dropped five frames since coming through a last 64 decider against Liam Highfield. King and Ricky Walden have been dispatched for the loss of just two frames and Murphy has looked strong. His scoring has been good and his long potting against King and earlier in the last 32 against Jimmy Robertson was sublime. Inevitably, when Murphy is potting well from long range he goes far in tournaments, because of the sheer number of chances he is able to carve out for himself. If both play to their capabilities then this will be a good battle, but up to press it is certainly Murphy who looks the most in-form of the two.


Semi-final matches again take place over the best-of-11 frames to set up Sunday's best-of-19 frame showpiece final. 

Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O'Sullivan lead the pack at the UK Championship

Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O'Sullivan are the leading players remaining at the UK Championships as the tournament enters the quarter-final stage, despite O'Sullivan being given a huge scare by Akani Songsermsawad.

Had it not been for an unfortunate shot on the green in frame ten where he potted it but also cannoned the blue and saw it fall into the pocket as well, Akani would more than likely have gone on to defeat O'Sullivan 6-4. The Thai had led 2-0 early on in the match before fantastic breaks of 121 and 98 pulled O'Sullivan level. That did not stop Akani though and he potted a superb black to move 3-2 in front and then went back two ahead at 4-2.

Again O'Sullivan took the next two to square the contest at 4-4, but the unorthodox youngster remained unfazed. His response was to pile on a magnificent 128 break and win the ninth to put himself one away from the quarter-finals at 5-4. Then came the misfortune for Akani on the green in frame ten after potting some superb balls earlier on in the frame. When the decider came O'Sullivan built up a big early lead but had not killed the frame and match off by the time Akani came back to the table. A couple of chances came and went and his snooker escape with two reds left, stuck a red for O'Sullivan who was able to complete a hard fought win.

Two days of last 16 action have seen another two top 16 seeds bow out of the competition though, most notably that of former champion John Higgins.

The Scotsman was taken down 6-5 by Mark King, who has already beaten Luca Brecel this week and will now face Murphy in the quarter-finals. King fought hard throughout the match and came back well from 4-2 and 5-4 down, especially after losing frame five from a point where Higgins needed multiple snookers. A break of 69 in the decider was King's highest of the match as he marches on.

Number six seed Mark Allen was the other top player to fall in round four, but it was an exceptional performance from Joe Perry that has sent the Northern Irishman home. Perry opened up with a nice clearance of 83 in the opening frame, and then backed that up with a fantastic 114 break to double his lead. Allen took a tight third frame, but a run of 63 from Perry in the fourth sent him into the break 3-1 in front.

Allen found his stride in the fifth with a match high break of 135 pulling a frame and he looked like levelling the match until Perry cleared with 64 to steal the sixth and lead 4-2. A cool 87 in the seventh put him one frame from victory at 5-2. However, Perry started to wobble a little and Allen took full advantage with a 134 in the eight and then 75 in the ninth to get him right back in things at 4-5. Perry had a little bit of fortune in the tenth but it helped him finally cross the line and avoid a decider as he overcame Allen 6-4.

Murphy was a comfortable winner however against Ricky Walden. Runs of 51, 55 and 114 saw the Magician take the opening three frames of the contest and surge ahead. Walden came back well in the fourth to make a break of 80 and get a frame on the board before the interval, despite the extension of his cue breaking and causing a delay halfway through the break. Walden had chances in the next couple of frames but when both went to Murphy and saw him move 5-1 in front there was really no way back for his fellow Englishman and the 2008 UK champion was soon over the line.

Seventeenth seed Ryan Day managed to fight back from 4-2 behind and put a disappointing miss in frame ten out of his mind, making a superb deciding frame break of 138 to see off the challenge of Li Hang 6-5.

Stephen Maguire had a high break of 116 as his fellow Scotsman Graeme Dott failed to live up to the heroics of the previous round and fell to a 6-2 defeat. Maguire marches on then in a week that has also seen him overcome Liang Wenbo to reach the quarter-finals.

Martin Gould finished off his match well with three straight frames to beat Xiao Guodong 6-4, featuring breaks of 66 and 69 in the final two frames to book his place in the last eight.

Mark Joyce kept his nice run going and has gone one better than at the recent International Championships to make it into the quarter-finals. He overcame Brecel and Anthony McGill that week in the best-of-11 frame matches and this week he has already taken care of David Gilbert and Neil Robertson. On this occasion he put an end to Lu Haotian's good run of form, and it was actually the Chinese youngster who was favourite with the bookies after his run in Northern Ireland a superb win over Marco Fu on Monday. Joyce though had breaks of 71, 62, 59, 59 and 55 on the way to a 6-4 triumph.

Last 16 results: 

Ryan Day 6-5 Li Hang
Mark Joyce 6-4 Lu Haotian
Shaun Murphy 6-1 Ricky Walden
Mark King 6-5 John Higgins
Stephen Maguire 6-2 Graeme Dott
Joe Perry 6-4 Mark Allen
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-5 Akani Songsermsawad
Martin Gould 6-4 Xiao Guodong


Quarter-Final draw: (Picks in bold) 

Ryan Day Vs Mark Joyce
Shaun Murphy Vs Mark King
Stephen Maguire Vs Joe Perry
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Martin Gould


Despite a late finish on Thursday night, Ronnie O'Sullivan faces Martin Gould in the afternoon session on quarter-finals Friday. O'Sullivan struggled against Akani and missed many more easy balls than you would expect. He could easily have lost that, but against Gould I think he will get a style of match that he will enjoy much more. Gould has faced O'Sullivan on three occasions and is yet to pick up a win, with their latest meeting coming in the 2016 Champion of Champions quarter-finals where the Rocket ran out a 6-2 winner. Gould has played well this week and dug deep to win the final three frames against Xiao Guodong and has looked good throughout the week, so should provide another good test for O'Sullivan.

The other afternoon semi-final will see Stephen Maguire take on Joe Perry. With Championship League and the 6 Reds tournament taken out of the equation, Perry has only beaten Maguire twice in 12 previous encounters. However, only one of those 12 meetings has come inside of the last five years in which Perry has played some of his best snooker. After a quiet 2017 since making the Masters final, Perry looks to be right back to his best and has played well not just to beat Allen in the previous round but throughout the week against some in-form opposition. Maguire has also beaten some top players including Liang Wenbo and Graeme Dott, but he has not been in the latter stages of tournaments as much in recent years as he has perhaps been used to. For me, Perry's results, scoring and how confident he has looked around the table this week are hard to ignore.

Then in the evening comes Shaun Murphy against Mark King. Murphy has looked good this week as he has all season having made three finals already and winning one at the Champion of Champions in November. He played King in the first round that week in Coventry and despite an unconvincing start and some good play from King, he managed to get over the line 4-2. Aside from the Championship League that was their ninth meeting in all, and produced Murphy's eighth win so the head to head between the two is rather one sided. The 2008 champion will be taking nothing for granted though as King has already beaten Brecel and Higgins and will not be afraid of taking a third big name out of the draw here so a tight match could well be in prospect.

Finally, Ryan Day takes on Mark Joyce in what will be their eighth meeting, with Day winning six of the previous seven. Two of those have come in the best-of-11 format, in successive years at the International Championship (2014 and 2015). Day has had to come through a couple of deciders this week and has performed well under the pressure, considering as well that the "Race to the Masters" has probably been on his mind. He should be safe on that score now, and that may allow him to relax a bit more, although he has already been playing decent stuff and scoring nicely. Joyce though has taken out David Gilbert quite comfortably, overcame a heavy scoring Neil Robertson and saw off Lu Haotian who had been in great form, all results that were against the bookmakers odds. However, this will be Joyce's sixth ranking quarter-final in all and his third of the season but has failed to get beyond that stage in his career and that may have an influence on the outcome of this one.


All matches on Friday are over the best-of-11 frames format and there is still plenty of quality left in the competition despite all of the early round upsets.

Top seeds continue to tumble at the UK Championships

Only four of the top 16 seeds have made it through to round four after eight of the top 16 fell during the last 32 of the UK Championships.

Judd Trump, Barry Hawkins, Marco Fu, Neil Robertson, Luca Brecel, Kyren Wilson, Liang Wenbo and Mark Williams were all defeated over the course of Monday and Tuesday's action with only John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Allen remaining to fly the flag for the top boys.

Victory for Ryan Day 6-5 over Mark Williams and a deciding frame loss for Robertson against Mark Joyce on Monday meant that the Australian will not be in the draw for the 2018 Masters.

The highest seed coming into the round was Trump but Graeme Dott saw to the end of him, winning all of the last six frames in a 6-2 victory. The 2006 world champion had high breaks of 93, 86, 72, 67 and 64 on the way to another good victory against Trump and his second of this season against the left-hander.

Lu Haotian had four breaks of 80+ as he continued his fine form by beating Marco Fu 6-4. Lu had already shown Anthony Hamilton and Peter Ebdon the exit this week off the back of his semi-final in Northern Ireland and set down a marker with a 121 to take the opener. Two further breaks of 85 and a run of 80 in the final frame helped him over the line.

Mark King meanwhile won each of the last three frames and won a frame needing four snookers earlier in a 6-3 triumph over Luca Brecel. Stephen Maguire kept his nice start to the tournament going with a deciding frame defeat of Liang Wenbo which may well leave Liang in Masters jeopardy depending on how results go in the coming days.

Shaun Murphy though performed very nicely as he saw off Jimmy Robertson 6-3 with breaks of 88 and 93 along the way and finishing the match at over 90% in pot success, long pot success and safety success according to the BBC's statistics.

John Higgins brought an end to the run of Yan Bingtao. Yan had been in fine form but looked shaky as he fell 3-0 behind. He clawed his way back into things and levelled at 3-3 but Higgins was dominant tactically and that certainly helped him over the line here.

One of the major shocks of the round was the whitewash win for Akani Songsermsawad against Barry Hawkins. That added to victories against Fergal O'Brien and Michael Holt already in York.

The Thai will now face Ronnie O'Sullivan who has no trouble in seeing off a below par Michael White 6-1.


Last 32 Results: 

Li Hang 6-1 Scott Donaldson
Ryan Day 6-5 Mark Williams
Mark Joyce 6-5 Neil Robertson
Lu Haotian 6-4 Marco Fu
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Jimmy Robertson
Ricky Walden 6-2 Kyren Wilson
Mark King 6-3 Luca Brecel
John Higgins 6-3 Yan Bingtao
Graeme Dott 6-2 Judd Trump
Stephen Maguire 6-5 Liang Wenbo
Joe Perry 6-3 Kurt Maflin
Mark Allen 6-4 Peter Lines
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-1 Michael White
Akani Songsermsawad 6-0 Barry Hawkins
Martin Gould 6-4 Hossein Vafei
Xiao Guodong 6-3 Noppon Saengkham


Last 16 draw: (Picks in Bold) 

Ryan Day Vs Li Hang
Mark Joyce Vs Lu Haotian
Shaun Murphy Vs Ricky Walden
John Higgins Vs Mark King
Stephen Maguire Vs Graeme Dott
Mark Allen Vs Joe Perry
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Martin Gould Vs Xiao Guodong


Ryan Day has not quite guaranteed his passage into the Masters but defeat for Neil Robertson has certainly helped that cause massively. A win here against Li Hang would all but guarantee his place and he overcame Li in the Northern Ireland Open so certainly has some positive thoughts feeding into this game. Li is not to be underestimated though, he has had a very strong season and can score heavily and make the most of any errors from Day.

Lu Haotian is in fantastic form and despite some good wins from Mark Joyce this week as well, many will make Lu favourite here. His run to the Northern Ireland Open semi-finals was impressive but the players he has beaten and the manner in which he has accomplished it this week has been very impressive.

Shaun Murphy looks to be in fantastic form so far this week and was very impressive against Jimmy Robertson in the last round. However, Ricky Walden also looked very good in the last round against Kyren Wilson and is finally getting back close to his best after his back troubles. Walden has beaten Murphy the last two times they have faced one another and was also the victor against the Magician on the way to the semi-finals in York in 2011.

Graeme Dott has a fairly even record against Stephen Maguire but has beaten his fellow Scotsman in a number of their meetings in big tournaments over the last few years. He thrives on the big stage and showed what he still had in the locker with his big win against Trump. Maguire has looked good in this tournament but has still looked a little inconsistent at times this season despite signs of improvement, and this looks like a close contest.

Mark Allen and Joe Perry sets up as another tight affair. Perry has come back into some good form and has scored well in his wins so far against Billy Castle, an in-form Jack Lisowski and Kurt Maflin. Allen is also scoring well and has been in good form all season, but will know he has by far the toughest test of his week so far when he takes on Perry.

It will be interesting to see how Ronnie O'Sullivan deals with the threat posed by Akani Songsermsawad. Akani is a good player who can score heavily but also seems to have a psychological advantage on a few of the established players he has beaten and is able to get inside players heads. His wins this week show he is very capable, but with Dr Steve Peters help, the days of O'Sullivan losing to Akani's style of player look to be gone.

Martin Gould and Xiao Guodong is another interesting game between two players in good form. Xiao has looked good for most of the season and I said at the start of the week that he could have a good run here in York. Both he and Gould have been scoring well and this heavy scoring will probably be the theme for this contest. Gould has reached a semi-final recently in Daqing and the quarters in Shanghai, but Xiao also looks to be coming back to his best, although I still think there is potential for much more from the Chinese star. Once again, this is another tight game to call.



All matches will now be televised or streamed as the tournament goes down to two tables for these last 16 matches that are to be played across Wednesday and Thursday and over the best-of-11 frames once again.

Mark Selby defeated in second round of UK Championships

The last 64 of the UK Championships saw the shock exit of the world number one and defending champion Mark Selby, as Scott Donaldson produced one of the performances of his life to send him packing.

Things actually started quite well for Selby has went 2-0 up and you could have been fooled into thinking this would be a comfortable afternoon for the world champion. However, Donaldson hit back with an 88 in the third frame, starting a run of three successive frames that would go to the Scottish youngster. Selby levelled the contest at 3-3 but could only sit and admire in the final three frames.

It looked as if Donaldson had really removed a monkey from his back after beating John Astley to record his first win of the 2017/2018 season, and it showed as he finished with confident breaks of 90, 77 and 84 to win the final three frames in three scoring visits and completely shut out Selby.

Also surviving a massive second round scare was fifth seed Shaun Murphy as he won the last two frames to defeat Liam Highfield 6-5. Murphy led 3-1 at the interval and had maintained that two frame cushion at 4-2, with a high break of 96, before Highfield came back into the contest. A key eighth frame that Highfield won on the black levelled the scores at 4-4 before Highfield moved 5-4 ahead. The left-hander had his chances in the tenth to seal victory but Murphy was able to win that one on the black to force a deciding frame.

Again, both players had chances in the decider but it was ultimately the Magician who worked his way out of a tough situation and into the last 32.

Things were also not plain sailing for John Higgins. His highest break in the match was only 59, but still ran out into a 5-2 lead against Cao Yupeng. The in-form Chinese player survived a scare to win the eight and then took the ninth with a run of 56 to really put the pressure on Higgins at 4-5. However, the number four seed was able to hold his nerve and win the tenth comfortably to complete victory.

There was no such trouble for Ronnie O'Sullivan as he continued his good form with a 6-1 defeat of Michael Georgiou with a high break of 82 in the final frame. Judd Trump meanwhile whitewashed Chris Wakelin despite a high break of just 61 which is slightly out of tune with Trump's usual high scoring form.

Luca Brecel finished with two centuries in a 6-3 defeat of Aditya Mehta, and he will now face Mark King who missed the pink on 134 for a potential 147 break in his victory over Mike Dunn.

Meanwhile, victories for Ryan Day, Neil Robertson and Liang Wenbo mean the race for the Masters will continue into the last 32.


Last 64 Results: 

Scott Donaldson 6-3 Mark Selby
Li Hang 6-4 Robert Milkins
Mark Williams 6-2 Andrew Higginson
Ryan Day 6-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Neil Robertson 6-2 Ken Doherty
Mark Joyce 6-4 David Gilbert
Lu Haotian 6-3 Peter Ebdon
Marco Fu 6-4 Zhao Xintong
Shaun Murphy 6-5 Liam Highfield
Jimmy Robertson 6-5 Alan McManus
Kyren Wilson 6-4 Yu De Lu
Ricky Walden 6-5 Jamie Jones
Luca Brecel 6-3 Aditya Mehta
Mark King 6-4 Mike Dunn
Yan Bingtao 6-1 Ben Woollaston
John Higgins 6-4 Cao Yupeng
Judd Trump 6-0 Chris Wakelin
Graeme Dott 6-5 Dominic Dale
Liang Wenbo 6-1 Mitchell Mann
Stephen Maguire 6-0 Jak Jones
Kurt Maflin 6-2 Jimmy White
Joe Perry 6-3 Jack Lisowski
Peter Lines 6-2 Xu Si
Mark Allen 6-4 Oliver Lines
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-1 Michael Georgiou
Michael White 6-1 Matthew Selt
Barry Hawkins 6-2 Hammad Miah
Akani Songsermsawad 6-4 Michael Holt
Hossein Vafei 6-5 Anthony McGill
Martin Gould 6-2 Robbie Williams
Xiao Guodong 6-1 Tom Ford
Noppon Saengkham 6-0 Leo Fernandez

Last 32 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Li Hang Vs Scott Donaldson
Mark Williams Vs Ryan Day
Neil Robertson Vs Mark Joyce
Marco Fu Vs Lu Haotian
Shaun Murphy Vs Jimmy Robertson
Kyren Wilson Vs Ricky Walden 
Luca Brecel Vs Mark King
John Higgins Vs Yan Bingtao
Judd Trump Vs Graeme Dott
Liang Wenbo Vs Stephen Maguire
Joe Perry Vs Kurt Maflin
Mark Allen Vs Peter Lines
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Michael White
Barry Hawkins Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Martin Gould Vs Hossein Vafei
Xiao Guodong Vs Noppon Saengkham


The matches in quarters one and three feature in Monday's play with quarters two and four playing on Tuesday and there are some fantastic matches to look forward to.

The eye is immediately drawn to Mark Williams and Ryan Day in a clash that will have large Masters implications. Day of course is currently 16th on the provisional Masters list and needs to match or better the performance of Neil Robertson this week. With Robertson likely to beat Mark Joyce and in awesome form after making three successive tons in both of his first two matches, Day will be under huge pressure to beat Williams. He has done well so far with a 6-3 win in there against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, but Williams is in fantastic form and will be feeling confident coming into this one.

Another match that could have Masters implications is that of Liang Wenbo and Stephen Maguire. Maguire has only dropped one frame this week while Liang has only dropped two so both look in good form thus far and that could produce a very close match. It is still possible that if Liang loses tomorrow, a meeting between Day and Robertson in the quarter-finals would mean Liang is out of the Masters himself, victory though would put him a step closer to safety. Maguire has not quite fired since making the Riga Masters final, though Liang has not shown much this season as yet either so this is a tough one to call.

Judd Trump faces Graeme Dott in a match where many will expect Trump to come out on top, yet Dott has had a couple of good wins against Trump in the past. One of those was this year in the China Championship and Dott has been in decent form this year making a couple of last 16's already and I would not be surprised to see him push Trump close here.

Marco Fu came through a tight contest with young Chinese sensation Zhao Xintong and now faces another player meeting that description in Lu Haotian. Lu will give Fu a good test having already thrashed Anthony Hamilton and beaten Peter Ebdon as well as coming into this event from a semi-final in Belfast.

Joe Perry has been in good form this week so far and is starting to come back to something that looks close to his best, while Kurt Maflin has also been in decent form of late after a good run in Shanghai and has made it this far by ending Jimmy White's run in the last 64.

Xiao Guodong still looks a danger at the bottom of the draw. He overcame an ill Tom Ford 6-1 after a 6-0 drubbing of Chen Zifan and now faces Noppon Saengkham. Noppon reached this stage by beating Ding's conqueror Leo Fernadez 6-0 but will need to be on top form to beat the heavy scoring Xiao.

Michael White has also been in heavy scoring form and now holds the new high break after a 142 in defeating Matthew Selt 6-1. He now faces a very tough test against Ronnie O'Sullivan but he has all of the tools to overcome the Rocket in my opinion. If he can play his best stuff and take his chances, White is more than good enough at the highest level and has looked confident ever since re-entering the winners circle in late August.

Yan Bingtao and John Higgins is another mammoth tie. Yan is in fantastic form and full of confidence right now. He has shrugged off a 9-8 loss in his first ever ranking final with two easy 6-1 wins to reach the last 32 in York. His confidence must be through the roof after reaching a first semi-final in late October and then bettering that a month later. His run to the semi's in the International Championship featured a thrashing of Higgins and I could see the same happening here if Higgins does not start well. He looked shaky at times against Cao Yupeng and will know he needs to up his game here against Yan.

Ricky Walden fought back well to beat Jamie Jones in the last 64 and now faces Kyren Wilson in a match I think will go close. It looks to me as if Walden is slowly growing in confidence and his scoring is showing signs of improvement which is a huge positive, so perhaps a big run from Walden is not too far away.

Martin Gould looks to be scoring well and has been in good form after making the International Championship semi-finals and the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals recently. He has already made light work of Joe Swail and looked to up that performance in his victory over Robbie Williams. Gould now faces a good test against Hossein Vafei. Hossein has showed us a few times what he is capable of and displayed that again by overcoming Anthony McGill. Despite losing four frames in a row from 3-0 up he came back to win in a deciding frame and that is the sort of fight he has shown plenty of and that Gould can expect here.


All matches in the last 32 are played over the best-of-11 frames once more and now all of the action will take place in the main arena with the Sports Hall finished with for another year now that the tournament is down to four tables.

UK Championship Last 64 Preview

It's been a busy three days at the UK Championships after 128 players started on Tuesday but by Thursday night that field had been whittled down to the best 64. However, there was not room for two of the world's top 16 as Ding Junhui and Ali Carter fell at the first hurdle.

Ding had been suffering with an eye problem but flew into a 5-1 lead on Leo Fernandez, only to lose his way and see Fernandez (who has not long been back from suspension) take all of the last five frames.

As for Ali Carter he was undone by the legend that is Jimmy White by a hefty 6-2 scoreline. Carter did not look at the races and quickly became frustrated. It was joy though for fans of the Whirlwind who had travelled in great numbers to show support for their hero at the York Barbican.

Mark Selby survived a scare against the bottom ranked player Basem Eltahhan. No one expected much from Basem who had only played two matches on tour prior to an outing with the defending champion, and lost both of them 4-0. However, at 5-4 to Selby a lot of people were eating their words and holding their breath to see if Selby would get over the line and a break of 63 saw him win 6-4.

Aside from those two shock defeats for Carter and Ding, the top seeds are all still in the hunt in York and have a match under their belts as the BBC coverage begins on Saturday afternoon for the beginning of the last 64.

Here in full are the results from round one:

Mark Selby 6-4 Basem Eltahhan
Scott Donaldson 6-2 John Astley
Li Hang 6-1 Gerard Greene
Robert Milkins 6-1 Chen Zhe
Mark Williams 6-0 Paul Davison
Andrew Higginson 6-0 Sam Craigie
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-5 Elliot Slessor
Ryan Day 6-0 Jamie Curtis-Barrett
Neil Robertson 6-1 Rod Lawler
Ken Doherty 6-3 Gary Wilson
Mark Joyce 6-3 Thor Chuan Leong
David Gilbert 6-4 Christopher Keogan
Lu Haotian 6-1 Anthony Hamilton
Peter Ebdon 6-2 Allan Taylor
Zhao Xintong 6-5 Rory McLeod
Marco Fu 6-2 Nigel Bond

Shaun Murphy 6-1 Hamza Akbar
Liam Highfield 6-4 Daniel Wells
Jimmy Robertson 6-1 Alex Borg
Alan McManus 6-3 Robin Hull
Kyren Wilson 6-1 Sean O'Sullivan
Yu De Lu 6-2 Ian Preece
Jamie Jones 6-3 Craig Steadman
Ricky Walden 6-1 Duane Jones
Luca Brecel 6-4 Soheil Vahedi
Aditya Mehta 6-5 Sam Baird
Mike Dunn 6-2 Fang Xiongman
Mark King 6-0 Boonyarit Kaettikun
Ben Woollaston 6-2 Li Yuan
Yan Bingtao 6-1 Zhang Yong
Cao Yupeng 6-5 Tian Pengfei
John Higgins 6-1 Chris Totten

Judd Trump 6-0 Matthew Bolton
Chris Wakelin 6-1 Lee Walker
Dominic Dale 6-0 Adam Duffy
Graeme Dott 6-2 Josh Boileau
Liang Wenbo 6-1 Sanderson Lam
Mitchell Mann 6-2 Stuart Carrington
Jak Jones 6-4 David Grace
Stephen Maguire 6-1 Yuan Sijun
Joe Perry 6-1 Billy Castle
Jack Lisowski 6-4 Wang Yuchen
Kurt Maflin 6-1 Alexander Ursenbacher
Jimmy White 6-2 Ali Carter
Peter Lines 6-5 Zhou Yuelong
Xu Si 6-5 Mark Davis
Oliver Lines 6-3 Mei Xiwen
Mark Allen 6-2 Lukas Kleckers

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-3 Jackson Page
Michael Georgiou 6-5 Alfie Burden
Matthew Selt 6-2 Ian Burns
Michael White 6-5 Ross Muir
Barry Hawkins 6-1 Kurt Dunham
Hammad Miah 6-3 Matthew Stevens
Akani Songsermswad 6-4 Fergal O'Brien
Michael Holt 6-5 Niu Zhuang
Martin Gould 6-3 Joe Swail
Robbie Williams 6-3 Martin O'Donnell
Hossein Vafei 6-4 James Wattana
Anthony McGill 6-2 Ashley Hugill
Tom Ford 6-1 Eden Sharav
Xiao Guodong 6-0 Chen Zifan
Noppon Saengkham 6-2 Zhang Anda
Leo Fernandez 6-5 Ding Junhui


This all sets up a fascinating last 64 line-up in front of the cameras and now it's time to look at the second round draw and who may be a good pick for each quarter overall.

Quarter 1

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Mark Selby Vs Scott Donaldson 

Li Hang Vs Robert Milkins

Mark Williams Vs Andrew Higginson 

Ryan Day Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh

Neil Robertson Vs Ken Doherty 

David Gilbert Vs Mark Joyce

Peter Ebdon Vs Lu Haotian 

Marco Fu Vs Zhao Xintong

Mark Selby may well be in for a tough game against Scott Donaldson here. Donaldson has beaten Selby in the past and came close again at the English Open. As well as that the young Scot has the monkey off his back having finally won his first match of the season. Selby does sometimes end up in difficult situations in the early rounds of tournaments though will still generally get through and have a good run in the competition. 

Mark Williams is one to watch after following his win in the Northern Ireland Open with a comfortable victory in round one here. Andrew Higginson can be very hit and miss in recent years but was certainly a hit in round one by whitewashing Sam Craigie. It has been a while since Higginson has had a win on the big stage though and I think he will find life tough again here. 

Then there is the Race for the Masters battle that focuses a lot on this quarter with Ryan Day and Neil Robertson. Both had easy wins against easy opposition in round one but have much sterner tests and play at the same time which could be a distraction to them. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is an incredibly dangerous player and while he can make a lot of errors too, Day can be prone to some mistakes when not quite at his best. Robertson meanwhile faces crafty Ken Doherty who secured a nice round one win against Gary Wilson. Doherty has played well this season and with Robertson losing to a few lower ranked opponents this season an upset cannot be ruled out here given the added pressure.

Meanwhile, the in-form Lu Haotian will be looking to keep his nice run going with a win against Peter Ebdon. Another young Chinese player Zhao Xintong will be looking to cause problems for Marco Fu. However, Fu scored well in beating Nigel Bond in round one and came alive at this time last year by making the semi-finals in York and then going on to win in Scotland. I think Fu has a big opportunity in this section, given the other big names and story lines, to go slightly under the radar for a couple of rounds yet and if he continues scoring heavily he will take some beating. 

Best Bet: Marco Fu 

Quarter 2

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold)

Shaun Murphy Vs Liam Highfield

Alan McManus Vs Jimmy Robertson

Kyren Wilson Vs Yu De Lu

Ricky Walden Vs Jamie Jones

Luca Brecel Vs Aditya Mehta 

Mark King Vs Mike Dunn

Yan Bingtao Vs Ben Woollaston

John Higgins Vs Cao Yupeng

Luca Brecel had a bit of a scare in round one against Soheil Vahedi with Brecel relaxing a bit after the interval and Soheil playing well to get back in it. Aditya Mehta has the power to perhaps grind Brecel down a bit but may not be able to compete with the Belgian when you look at the scoring power. Even before his big breakthrough in August, Brecel has a good record in York, twice making the quarter-finals including a year ago. 

Kyren Wilson has had a good season making two finals already and it has taken a few good performances to beat him, with his loss to Sam Craigie in Belfast acting as a great case study to that point. I can't see him having too many problems against Yu De Lu who is capable of beating top players, but it is very rare that he actually has a good run in an event. 

Yan Bingtao's response to losing in the Northern Ireland final was to come out two days later and thrash Zhang Yong with a heavy scoring performance in the Sports Hall. Ben Woollaston is a good player in his own right but he will have to be at his very best to give Yan a challenge here. It is going to take a real off day for Yan or an incredibly good performance against him, to take him down because he must be so high on confidence with his latest results. 

Cao Yupeng has had some decent results this year and been one of the most improved players, given his results from the last couple of seasons prior to this. However, a match with John Higgins presents an entirely different challenge. Higgins has had a busy schedule playing in almost every event for a few months now and getting to the latter stages in many of them. Eventually, this has to catch up on him and a couple of his performances against O'Sullivan and the loss to Yan Bingtao in the International Championship where Higgins was quite poor, suggest he may need to re-look at his schedule in the future. 

Shaun Murphy of course has been a winner already in a big UK event this season as he took home the Champion of Champions title. He looked in good form in round one against Hamza Akbar, and has been in good touch almost all season scoring heavily. If his long potting matches his scoring form then we all know how tough a combination that is to overcome. Liam Highfield is Murphy's second round opponent and someone who have Murphy a good challenge in October's English Open playing well but just falling short 4-3. Highfield always looks a good player and can score heavily and will have good memories of his run in York last year to the last 16. 

Best Bet: Shaun Murphy

Quarter 3

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold)

Judd Trump Vs Chris Wakelin

Graeme Dott Vs Dominic Dale

Liang Wenbo Vs Mitchell Mann

Stephen Maguire Vs Jak Jones

Kurt Maflin Vs Jimmy White 

Joe Perry Vs Jack Lisowski 

Xu Si Vs Peter Lines

Mark Allen Vs Oliver Lines

Judd Trump is someone who will be looking to go deep in this tournament. If you look at his results last season he was unable to match the brilliance of the rest of the year with big results in the three Triple Crown events. They have to be the target for Trump but his draw in this quarter if by no means easy. Chris Wakelin will give him a good game in the last 64, and nearly pulled off a brilliant result against Selby in the Shanghai Masters and has beaten Ronnie O'Sullivan on TV before so he is not frightened of the big stage. 

Dominic Dale was in fine form in round one battering Adam Duffy and now faces Graeme Dott. The interesting point in this match will be if it is in the main arena or the sports hall. Looking at the schedule I would suggest it will end up in the latter and that for me favours Dale. Dale unlike Dott, played in the sports hall in round one and I think Dott is not always comfortable on the outside tables. It may be going back some years, but comments in his autobiography would back up that point. 

Liang Wenbo still may need a win or two to book his Masters spot depending on the performances of Day, Robertson and others. Here he faces Mitchell Mann who was in impressive form beating Stuart Carrington round one and looked to be scoring quite nicely. If Liang is feeling the Masters pressure then Mann may have a good chance, although the highest ranked Chinese player now left in the competition will have happy memories of booking a Masters spot here two years ago when he made the final. 

Jimmy White will be looking to back up his victory over Ali Carter when he takes on Kurt Maflin. The Norwegian though has been in good form of late and if he scores heavily it is going to be a big challenge for the Whirlwind, but you have to admire his desire to continue working hard and ability to continue pulling off these great results. 

Joe Perry was in excellent form in round one against Billy Castle and has looked in good form now for a couple of weeks. He is scoring well at the moment and in the first few frames against Castle he hardly missed a ball. It was only at the start of the year that Perry was a Masters finalist, and if he can perform like he did against Castle throughout the week then he could go on a very good run. Jack Lisowski presents stiff opposition in round two though and has been in brilliant form himself. He nearly let Wang Yuchen back into their first round match though and looked to have run out of steam last week in Northern Ireland. 

2011 runner-up Mark Allen is a major contender for this title if he continues to play as well as he has been. His performance and scoring in round one against Lukas Kleckers was excellent as it has been all season long. A big title is certainly coming if he continues to play like he did in making the International Championship final and World Open semis earlier this season. His second round match against Oliver Lines though sees him play someone who is not frightened off pulling off a big result. In this round last season Lines overcame Trump to match an equally big result that his Dad had in round one. Oliver also saw off Ding Junhui in the International Championship just a month ago also so Allen will not want to let his guard down in this one. 

Best Bet: Mark Allen

Quarter 4

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Michael Georgiou 

Michael White Vs Matthew Selt

Barry Hawkins Vs Hammad Miah

Michael Holt Vs Akani Songsermsawad

Anthony McGill Vs Hossein Vafei

Martin Gould Vs Robbie Williams

Tom Ford Vs Xiao Guodong 

Noppon Saengkham Vs Leo Fernandez 

Barry Hawkins has lost in this round of the UK Championship in each of the last three years to lower ranked opposition and will be desperate to fight that trend here against Hammad Miah. Hammad played nicely to beat Matthew Stevens and would not be frightened of showing Hawkins the door either. It has not been a good start to the season for Hawkins, which is not unusual for him if you look back through recent years. 

Akani Songsermsawad has continued his nice start to the season by beating Fergal O'Brien in round one here and now faces Michael Holt who has not been in the best of form. He could easily have been beaten in round one by Niu Zhuang but fought back well from 5-3 down to come through. If Holt were to lose here though it would be the eighth time in eleven events this season that he has failed to make it beyond the last 64 stage. 

Anthony McGill will be one to watch this week if he plays like he did in round against Ashley Hugill. He scored superbly in that match and looked very confident after a good start to the season. He is going to be tough to beat if he keeps up his good scoring because of the good tactical game that he has to match that. Hossein Vafei does not present easy round two opposition but he will need to be at his best to have any chance against an in-form McGill. 

Xiao Guodong impressed me in his round one win against Chen Zifan but faces a very tough match to call here against Tom Ford. Ford had an equally good win against Eden Sharav and both he and Xiao are scoring heavily and looking good. Xiao though has had some really nice results this season and is back on the up which makes him incredibly dangerous and I think he is more than capable of having a big run this week. 

Finally, this blog would not be complete without mention of Ronnie O'Sullivan. He takes on Michael Georgiou here in the last 64 in a match you would expect O'Sullivan to win comfortably and if he brings to York the form he displayed in the Champion of Champions and Shanghai Masters recently he is going to be so tough to beat. Given how hard he works on his health and fitness you would not expect him to run out of steam despite a very busy schedule he has had on the tour, and would love to add a sixth UK title to his collection. I think the draw sets up pretty well for him this week and it will take a big performance from someone to stop him going all the way here in York. 

Best Bet: Ronnie O'Sullivan 

UK viewers will have a choice of TV coverage on the BBC or Eurosport to watch this tournament when the last 64 gets underway on Saturday at 1pm with these best-of-11 matches.