World champion Mark Williams suffers early exit at the International Championship

Mark Williams has suffered an early exit at the International Championship after losing 6-3 in the last 64 to Akani Songsermsawad. 

Akani came into this tournament having defeated Kyren Wilson in the first round of the English Open and he was in brilliant giant-killing form again here. The Thai was 3-2 down here to Williams before levelling at 3-3 and then producing breaks of 108, 101 and 62 in the final three frames to clinch a famous victory in Daqing. 

Williams was not the only big name casualty of the last 64 stage as eighth seed Kyren Wilson was taken out on Sunday morning by Yuan Sijun. Yuan continued his form that has seen him overcome Ding Junhui and Mark Allen in recent tournaments to defeat Wilson 6-2 with a high break of 70. 

Meanwhile, English Open champion Stuart Bingham also fell at the first hurdle in Daqing as Eden Sharav took him out 6-3, despite Bingham making a high break of 130. Bingham was joined by the runner-up in Crawley, as Mark Davis lost to European Masters runner-up Joe Perry, while the winner that week in Lommel Jimmy Robertson lost 6-3 to Tom Ford in a match that featured two centuries for both players. 

16th and 17th seeds Liang Wenbo and Anthony McGill also lost in the last 64. Liang went down 6-4 to Ian Burns, while McGill lost to Stuart Carrington by the same scoreline. Two-time International Championship winner Mark Allen was forced to fightback from 4-0 and 5-2 down to defeat Liam Highfield 6-5. The comeback for Allen featured breaks of 120, 127, 125 and a deciding frame contribution of 85. 

Defending champion Mark Selby was troubled in his heldover last 128 tie against Li Yuan, fighting back to win 6-5 despite Li having a golden chance in the decider with just blue, pink and black remaining. Things were much easier for the world number one in the last 64 though as he whitewashed Ken Doherty with three centuries in the process. 

Selby has spoken on social media about how difficult he has found things since news of the helicopter crash on Saturday evening which sadly took the life of the owner of Leicester City football club and the four others that were on the helicopter. Selby is a massive Leicester City fan, having previously paraded his World Championship trophy around the pitch at the King Power stadium, as well as winning his second world title on the same night that Leicester were confirmed as champions of the Premier League in 2016, defying odds of 5,000/1. 

Home favourite Ding Junhui has had to battle hard to make the last 32 in Daqing, winning the last two frames of his two 6-4 victories against Robin Hull in his heldover last 128 tie, and then against Zhang Anda in the last 64. Both matches featured key black ball frames that went in Ding's favour, including a massive won at 4-4 in his match with Zhang. 

Marco Fu held on to beat Andrew Higginson in a deciding frame, having made two centuries earlier on in the game, while Higginson made a total of six 50+ breaks in the tie. Neil Robertson also had six 50+ breaks including a century in his 6-1 win over Matthew Selt, while Barry Hawkins did the same in his 6-2 win over Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. 

The scoring has been especially heavy over the first two days, with a total of 49 centuries being made over the course of the 32 last 64 ties and the eight heldover matches. 

Last 64 results:

Mark Selby 6-0 Ken Doherty
Robert Milkins 6-2 Noppon Saengkham
Stuart Carrington 6-4 Anthony McGill
Ian Burns 6-4 Liang Wenbo
Joe Perry 6-3 Mark Davis
Neil Robertson 6-1 Matthew Selt
Xiao Guodong 6-2 Fan Zhengyi
Yuan Sijun 6-2 Kyren Wilson
Barry Hawkins 6-2 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Martin Gould 6-1 Li Hang
Jack Lisowski 6-1 Chris Wakelin
Marco Fu 6-5 Andrew Higginson
Yan Bingtao 6-0 Jimmy White
Ryan Day 6-3 Tian Pengfei
Michael Holt 6-4 Luo Honghao
Judd Trump 6-0 Alan McManus
Martin O'Donnell 6-4 Peter Lines
Tom Ford 6-3 Jimmy Robertson
Eden Sharav 6-3 Stuart Bingham
David Gilbert 6-2 John Astley
Mark King 6-3 Craig Steadman
Matthew Stevens 6-4 Jordan Brown
Zhao Xintong 6-5 James Wattana
Ding Junhui 6-4 Zhang Anda
Alfie Burden 6-2 Sam Baird
David Lilley 6-5 Ben Woollaston
Mark Allen 6-5 Liam Highfield
Hossein Vafei 6-3 Graeme Dott
Ali Carter 6-0 Kurt Maflin
Stephen Maguire 6-1 Michael Georgiou
Zhou Yuelong 6-1 He Guoqiang
Akani Songsermsawad 6-3 Mark Williams

Last 32 draw: (Picks in bold)

Mark Selby Vs Robert Milkins
Stuart Carrington Vs Ian Burns
Neil Robertson Vs Joe Perry
Xiao Guodong Vs Yuan Sijun
Barry Hawkins Vs Martin Gould
Marco Fu Vs Jack Lisowski
Ryan Day Vs Yan Bingtao
Judd Trump Vs Michael Holt
Tom Ford Vs Martin O'Donnell
David Gilbert Vs Eden Sharav
Mark King Vs Matthew Stevens
Ding Junhui Vs Zhao Xintong
Alfie Burden Vs David Lilley
Mark Allen Vs Hossein Vafei
Stephen Maguire Vs Ali Carter
Zhou Yuelong Vs Akani Songsermsawad

There are a host of fascinating last 32 ties and one of the first ones that jumps out sees good friends Neil Robertson and Joe Perry face off. The last two times these two have met outside of the Championship League have produced two 6-2 wins in China for Perry, one in this tournament in 2016 and the other in the 2016 World Open semi-finals. Perry is in good form of late defeating English Open runner-up Mark Davis in the first round here, as well as making the final of the European Masters earlier this month. Robertson meanwhile has not hit the same heights of his Riga Masters win in the tournaments since then and has lost at this stage of the first two Chinese ranking events this season. Both players are scoring well, but I think that Perry has a great chance here. 

The all-Chinese battle between Xiao Guodong and Yuan Sijun is another excellent match-up with Yuan recently reaching the quarter-finals of the China Championship beating Ding in the process, before beating Mark Allen in the English Open and Kyren Wilson to start his week off here in Daqing. Xiao scored heavily in his first round tie this week and has been knocking on the door of a big run quite a few times inside of the last year or so and this is another week where things could potentially come together for him. 

Marco Fu and Jack Lisowski had differing levels of stress in getting to this stage of the tournament. Lisowski was in a free-scoring mood as he took out Chris Wakelin 6-1 in the last 64, while Fu took on Andrew Higginson and only came through via a deciding frame. Whatever the rankings may say about how close this match should be, the form of these two players in the last year is heading in dramatically different directions. Lisowski is on the rise, starting the season by reaching his first ranking final and since then he has reached another three quarter-finals. Fu meanwhile has had his eye troubles, but has not been in much form since his return from eye surgery and it is about time he showed what he can still do, before his ranking heads further in the wrong direction. 

Ryan Day and Yan Bingtao is another tie that shapes up to be a very close one. Yan was a 6-0 winner in round one against Jimmy White but has not quite hit top gear yet this season, though he was a semi-finalist at this event 12 months ago. Ryan Day meanwhile has been a quarter-finalist in the last two events but has not kicked on and seemed to struggle a little in his 6-3 opening round win against Tian Pengfei. Tian led 3-1 at the interval and would score at least 40 points in four of the next five frames, despite the fact that Day won them all. The pair also met in the Northern Ireland Open last year where Yan was the winner on the way to making the final and the winner on Tuesday could well be battling for the title at the weekend. 

Judd Trump meanwhile will do battle with Michael Holt. Trump was a whitewash winner in round one against Alan McManus, though the Scotsman looked all at sea and made life quite easy for the 2012 International Champion in the end. Holt meanwhile has not been in the best of form this season but may have turned a corner by beating recent English Open quarter-finalist Luo Honghao 6-4 with three century breaks in that match. Trump has the better of the head-to-head between these two but if Holt can threaten Trump with the same level of scoring that he produced against Luo, then he has every chance of picking up another impressive win. 

Ding Junhui will be right up against it once more in the last 32 as he takes on young Zhao Xintong. Ding has fought hard to win his first two games in Daqing this week and that could be a sign of rust as this is only his fourth event of the season. In the first two Chinese ranking events Ding lost out at this stage to Robert Milkins and Yuan Sijun respectively and can count himself fortunate that he is still here this week. Zhao can also count himself lucky despite making three centuries, one of which came in the deciding frame of his victory against James Wattana. Zhao was of course a semi-finalist last time out in China at the China Championship and forced the best out of Judd Trump recently in the English Open and he has become a massive threat to the top players since winning back his tour card in May. 

David Lilley has continued his fine form as a top-up player via the Q School order of merit by reaching the last 32 here in Daqing and now faces Alfie Burden. Lilley defeated Ricky Walden in qualifying before a nice win against Tom Ford in the English Open and a 6-5 victory in the last 64 here against Ben Woollaston, despite having led 4-0 and 5-2 at different stages of that tie. Burden meanwhile is the current high break holder with a 142 in his 6-2 win against Sam Baird. His season could have been a lot better but for two comebacks from Liang Wenbo in the China Championship and then the European Masters, but he does look to be in decent touch. 

As mentioned in my tournament preview blog, Stephen Maguire and Ali Carter have set up their third meeting at this stage of the International Championship in the last three years. On the two previous occasions they have met in Daqing Carter has been the winner and their overall head-to-head favours Carter to the tune of 8-3 (if you exclude Championship League matches in which case it would have been 11-6). Both players showed form at the English Open before being shot down by eventual winner Stuart Bingham. Carter losing at the quarter-final stages, while Maguire went a round further. This week Carter has started out with a very impressive whitewash of Kurt Maflin while Maguire was a comfortable 6-1 winner against Michael Georgiou. On paper, there is very little between the two players but based on the record in this event and the head-to-head, Carter may have the slight edge. 

Finally, Akani Songsermsawad will be hoping to continue his good run and has plenty in common with his next opponent Zhou Yuelong. Akani overcame Mark Williams 6-3 in the last 64 after beating Kyren Wilson 4-3 in the English Open, while Zhou inflicted Williams' most recent exit prior to that, with a 4-3 win against the World Champion at the English Open. Akani is scoring excellently at the moment and made the last 16 of this tournament last year, so is looking to repeat that feat here by beating Zhou. The Chinese youngster meanwhile is showing bits of form, but will be disappointed that his win over Williams in Crawley was followed by a whitewash loss to Maguire and will need to up his scoring if Akani maintains the level he produced against Williams. 

All last 32 matches will be played on Tuesday, with the matches being played over the best-of-11 frames once more, with four of the 16 matches (Fu Vs Lisowski, Day Vs Yan, Ding Vs Zhao and Selby Vs Milkins) featuring in the live coverage provided by Eurosport TV and the Eurosport Player. 

International Championship Preview

After Stuart Bingham's success in Crawley where he took home the English Open title, the next stop on the snooker circuit is Daqing in China for the International Championship.

This is the third Chinese ranking event of the season and the fourth big Chinese event of the campaign for those that were invited to the Shanghai Masters in September. The defending champion this week is Mark Selby who has actually won this title two years in a row now.

One former champion that will not be here is the 2015 winner John Higgins who lost out 6-3 to Peter Lines in the last 128 qualifiers that were played two weeks ago. Also failing to qualify once again was Shaun Murphy who has hammered 6-0 by Sam Baird, while 2014 International Champion Ricky Walden fell to David Lilley and former China Championship winner Luca Brecel was taken down 6-5 by Jordan Brown.

On top of that, Shanghai Masters champion Ronnie O'Sullivan chose not to enter the event at all, though 2013 winner Ding Junhui, who is yet to enter an event outside of China this season, will be in action.

Perhaps it could be the turn of two-time International runner-up Mark Allen to get his hands on the trophy and the £175,000 winners cheque, or after the exploits of Jimmy Robertson and Mark Davis in the last two ranking events maybe another first time ranking winner or finalist could have the week of their lives in Daqing.

Quarter 1

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Mark Selby or Li Yuan Vs Ken Doherty

Robert Milkins Vs Noppon Saengkham or Chang Bingyu

Liang Wenbo or Ashley Hugill Vs Ian Burns

Anthony McGill Vs Stuart Carrington

Joe Perry Vs Mark Davis

Neil Robertson Vs Matthew Selt

Xiao Guodong Vs Fan Zhengyi

Kyren Wilson Vs Yuan Sijun

Noppon Saengkham is a potential dark horse this week in Daqing. At the start of the season he was a semi-finalist in China and should have been a ranking finalist when he held a commanding lead over Mark Williams in that match at the World Open. Then last week at the English Open he showed some more of what he could do by making the quarter-finals and along the way he overcame his potential last 64 opponent Robert Milkins. First up though he has to see off dangerous wildcard Chang Bingyu who has sent Jimmy Robertson off for an early bath in the first two Chinese ranking events of the season, but you still have to fancy an in-form Noppon for that one. Then if he were to make the last 32, the defending champion Mark Selby could await him, but some of the fear for Noppon will have been taken away by beating Selby on the way to that World Open semi-final.

Joe Perry and Mark Davis face off in a last 64 tie that holds an unwanted irony for the two players as they are the last two ranking event runners-up. Perry was excellent in his big week in Lommel at the European Masters but he did not get going anywhere near quick enough against Jimmy Robertson in that match. Davis meanwhile fell short at the English Open against Stuart Bingham but he can be proud of making his first ever ranking event final and I think he has all the tools to keep that run going in Daqing. In John Higgins, Ryan Day and Ronnie O'Sullivan the scalps Davis took on the way to his final in Crawley are slightly more impressive than those of Perry in Lommel but that means very little. There would also be a slight irony if Perry saw to it that Davis suffered the same fate as him in the first event after reaching his final, after Perry lost in the last 128 in Crawley to Daniel Wells. Davis had started the season with a couple of runs to the last 16 though and his form has been more consistent over the course of the early season, making him my pick in this match but also my dark horse again for this week.

Liang Wenbo and Anthony McGill are two players in the top part of this quarter that could cause problems for Mark Selby, but based on their recent form they will need to improve massively to do so. McGill comes into this event ranked 19 in the world, while Liang is now as low as 27 after his winners money from the 2016 English Open was subtracted from the rankings. Liang was still the second highest ranked Chinese player at the time the draw for this event was made, hence his heldover last 128 match, but he actually comes to the venue for the final stages as the fourth highest ranked player from China. Ashley Hugill can take confidence from the fact that Liang has struggled in his two heldover games this season, losing to James Cahill at the World Open and coming from 4-2 down to beat Alfie Burden 5-4 in the China Championship. Even though he made the last 16 there and in Lommel, he did not play anyone seeded higher than 47 in either tournament. As for McGill, he too made the last 16 in the European Masters for his best result of the season, but in that match to Jimmy Robertson he lost 4-3 on the black having led 3-0. In the Chinese ranking events this season he has struggled further, failing to make the World Open and then losing in the last 64 of the China Championship.

Neil Robertson is another player who is looking to regain the form that took him to an early season title. In both of the Chinese ranking events this season he has lost at the last 32 stage, which is hardly an inviting statistic when he would face the winner of Davis and Perry in the last 32 here. This goes with a last 64 loss in Belgium and even though he made the last 16 at the English Open he did not play anyone seeded higher than 59 before losing to the 101st seed. In the last 64 he faces Matthew Selt who has had two matches with Robertson in the past that stand out. In this tournament last year, the pair met at the last 32 stage when Selt took a 5-2 lead before Robertson somehow came back to win 6-5. Something very similar happened in the 2015 Australian Open where Selt led 4-0 before Robertson came back to force the decider, but that time it was indeed Selt that came through 5-4.

Kyren Wilson is probably the biggest overall threat to defending champion Selby in this quarter of the draw. Having said that he has had a couple of slightly more quiet weeks, losing in the first round of the English Open from 3-1 up against Akani Songsermsawad. He did make the last 16 in the European Masters after withdrawing from the China Championship because his son was unwell, but he lacked the same spark that took him to the Paul Hunter Classic and Six Reds titles in the latter part of the summer. He'll be determined to do better this week though, having pledged at the start of the European Masters that he would donate £100 to Cancer Research for every century he made in October. Whether this has upped the pressure or not, Wilson is yet to make a century in any of his five matches in October, losing two of those.

My first quarter selection for the International Championship is the defending champion Mark Selby. The world number one has won this tournament two years in a row, beating Mark Allen in the final last year and thrashing Ding Junhui in the final a year previously. Even a year earlier in 2015, he made the semi-finals before losing to eventual winner John Higgins, meaning that he has lost only one of his last 20 matches in this competition. Add into that the fact that Selby has already won this season in China, with a final frame victory against Higgins giving him the China Championship title four weeks ago. He might have lost early on in the English Open and at the last 16 stage of the European Masters but those losses were over the best-of-7 frames format and Selby is at his best over the best-of-11 frame matches or longer, which we will see throughout the week. While there is plenty of threat to Selby in this section there are only one or two players that I think have a chance against him over the longer matches and my expectation is that he will make the quarter-finals at the very least this week in Daqing. 

Best of the rest: Mark Davis

Quarter choice: Mark Selby 

Quarter 2

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold)

Barry Hawkins Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh

Martin Gould Vs Li Hang 

Marco Fu Vs Andrew Higginson

Jack Lisowski Vs Chris Wakelin

Yan Bingtao Vs Jimmy White 

Ryan Day Vs Tian Pengfei 

Michael Holt Vs Luo Honghao

Judd Trump Vs Alan McManus 

Judd Trump was the inaugural winner of this event back in 2012 and in the last two years he has made a semi-final and a quarter-final at this event. Perhaps the good memories he has of this event from previous years will help him to kick his season off in Daqing. In the first Chinese ranking event this season he lost in the last 32, before making the quarter-finals of the China Championship and losing to his nemesis John Higgins. His run to the last 16 of the English Open last week was a bit of all or nothing in that he made a number of centuries and other big breaks but still found himself in trouble in quite a few of the games. This week you would have to fancy him to get through the first couple of rounds comfortably enough before a potential meeting with last year's semi-finalist Yan Bingtao or one of the two men that knocked him out of the last two tournaments (Ryan Day or Tian Pengfei). If he can add some more consistency to some of the big breaks he was making in Crawley then he would take some serious stopping this week.

Marco Fu is yet to find his form this season either in all honesty. He came back at the World Championships after missing a third of the year after eye surgery and while he has made a quarter-final at the World Open, he has failed to pass the last 32 in any of the four other ranking events he has played. That includes three successive last 64 exits and the opponent he faces in the last 64 here has had plenty of success against Fu in the past. Fu and Andrew Higginson met in the World Open in a match that Higginson nearly came back to win from 4-1 down. Aside from that victory and two wins against Higginson in the Championship League that mean fairly little, Higginson has won all seven of their other meetings. That all bodes well for Higginson, especially given that he overcame Neil Robertson recently in the European Masters as well.

Jack Lisowski and Yan Bingtao are two players in the draw that could well do some damage. Lisowski started the year with the run to the Riga Masters final and has since made quarter-finals at the European Masters, Paul Hunter Classic and the World Open. He has gone slightly quieter though with last 32 exits to Trump in the English Open and to Scott Donaldson in the China Championship. With that in mind, Lisowski will hardly be delighted to see a potential quarter-final meeting with Trump again this week, but he has some hurdles to pass before that. As for Yan Bingtao, he has gone a bit quiet of late, losing in the last 64 of the last two events after reaching the last 16 of the China Championship. Expectation would have been that he would have kicked on quickly after losing the Northern Ireland Open final almost a year ago, but he has only made one quarter-final in the period since, baring in mind he made the semi-final of this event just two weeks before that Belfast final.

Ryan Day is a player that is threatening more and more all of the time. After winning three events last season, two of which were ranking events he is starting to get into that position a lot more regularly. The case in point here is that he has made the quarter-finals of the last two events to get his season going and he will be looking to continue building on that this week. His performance against Trump in the last 16 in Crawley was exceptional and if he can some more of that this week in Daqing then he will be tough to live with. The next step for Day would to be to win a ranking event that carries a bit more weight in terms of prize money, because he is only a good week or two away from getting back into the worlds top 8, which is testament to the consistency he has added to his game in the last year or so.

My second quarter pick though is someone who I have been tipping up for the last couple of events in Barry Hawkins who is on a fine run of form in China. Of late Hawkins has been on fire over in the Far East. This run started with him making the China Open final at the very end of last season and continued at the start of this season when he made the World Open semi-finals before losing out to David Gilbert. Another final came when he defeated Stephen Maguire, Mark Williams and Ding Junhui to make the final of the Shanghai Masters invitational before losing 11-9 to Ronnie O'Sullivan. Then at the China Championship he made the quarter-finals and could have gone on further there but for Zhao Xintong turning that match around from 3-1 down to win a blitz of frames in one visit and take out the match 5-4. I may have been saying this on the blog for a few weeks that I think Hawkins is trending towards another ranking title, but I still believe that strongly because of how close he has come to winning big titles in 2018, with three finals and a couple of semi-finals among other results. His record in this event specifically may not be the best, but with his form that is something you can overlook slightly. His draw is not simple by any means but if he plays how he has been then Lisowski is probably the one player you would look at as being a really tight one to call. For me though, you have to say that Hawkins has every right to be one of the favourites in Daqing. 

Best of the rest: Ryan Day

Quarter choice: Barry Hawkins

Quarter 3

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Martin O'Donnell Vs Peter Lines

Jimmy Robertson Vs Tom Ford

Stuart Bingham Vs Eden Sharav

David Gilbert Vs John Astley

Mark King Vs Craig Steadman

Matthew Stevens Vs Jordan Brown

Zhao Xintong Vs James Wattana

Ding Junhui or Robin Hull Vs Zhang Anda

Jimmy Robertson will still be riding high after winning the European Masters and climbing up to 25 in the rankings in the process. With John Higgins losing to Peter Lines in the qualifiers, the top little bit of this section does provide an opportunity for Robertson to make another last 16 here, as he would not have to play anyone ranked higher than him to do so. His first round opponent in Tom Ford is not an easy one, but Ford has struggled this season, most recently losing to David Lilley in the first round of the English Open and he barely qualified for this event, needing a decider to beat Joe Swail. That all makes Robertson a worthy favourite in my book and he could certainly do some more damage this week. 

David Gilbert did plenty of damage in the first Chinese ranking event of the season, making the final and doing everything but pick up his first major title. That all comes three years on from his excellent run to the final of this tournament where he was eventually beaten by John Higgins. He may have gone slightly quiet since that World Open with three straight last 64 exits, though his most recent in the English Open was against a top player in Shaun Murphy. In his qualifier he had to fight hard against Sam Craigie just to be here and that should give him a bit of a confidence boost. Should Gilbert and Stuart Bingham both win their last 64 ties here, the last 32 meeting between the two of them could easily produce the winner of this quarter.

Stuart Bingham of course comes here as the winner of the most recent ranking event and he could face the other most recent ranking winner in the last 16 if him and Jimmy Robertson both win their first two games this week. Bingham will be full of confidence now which will make it tough for the likes of Eden Sharav in the last 64 or indeed Gilbert, Jimmy Robertson or anyone else to stop him further down the line. Whether the draw opened up for Bingham or not he still had to perform well to get the job done against some difficult opposition. Two years ago Bingham made the semi-finals here in Daqing before losing to the eventual winner Selby, so also has some decent memories to bring to this event to go with all of the other positive vibes in his game at the moment.

Ding Junhui has been one of the forgotten men of this season such is how little he has played. So far, the only major tournaments he has played in have been in his native China and that may be in part due to him becoming a father for this first time earlier on in the summer. In the World Open he just edged through his heldover last 128 match against James Wattana and overcame Yuan Sijun from 3-1 down before losing in the last 32 to Robert Milkins. Then in the invitational Shanghai Masters he overcame Mark Allen and then beat Mark Selby in a decider before falling in the semi-finals to Barry Hawkins. From there he then lost in the last 32 of the China Championship to Yuan Sijun and has not played in the four weeks since. As always he has a heldover match, this time against Robin Hull. Hull lost in the first round of the English Open last week to Judd Trump and admitted afterwards that neurological problems could bring an end to his career at the end of the season. Those comments may have come with the fact that he is likely to drop off the tour at the end of the season in mind and could serve to take the pressure off of him for the rest of the season allowing him to pick up some good results here and there. Hull did win his most recent meeting with Ding at the 2017 Welsh Open and could be dangerous again here if the 2013 International champion is carrying any rust. From there further tests against the likes of Zhang Anda and Zhao Xintong could follow in the last 64 and last 32, so another early Ding exit is not out of the question.

My third quarter choice for this week is more of an outside the box selection in Zhao Xintong, as I believe that an opportunity knocks here with two top 16 players who would have been in this quarter failing to qualify. Zhao was lucky enough not to have to come through qualifying after the suspension of his opponent Jamie Jones at short notice gave him a walkover here to Daqing. Now everyone has been impressed by how Zhao Xintong has fought back this season after dropping off tour. He was far too good to be at Q School in May, but he needed to demonstrate that and he is finally doing so. So much so that he has nearly gotten into the top 64 inside of the first half of the first season on his new two year tour card. The world number 70 got to the semi-finals at the China Championship defeating Anthony McGill, Fergal O'Brien, Mark Williams and Barry Hawkins before narrowly losing to Selby. That came after he reached the last 16 of the Riga Masters by whitewashing Shaun Murphy. Last week in the English Open he led Judd Trump 3-1 before Trump turned into a computer and made three centuries to win 4-3, so who knows how far he could have gone in Crawley but for that brilliance from Trump.

For the sheer consistency of his scoring power, he is the best of the young Chinese crop and he projects a relaxed and calm state that must be difficult to play against. His big breakthrough came at this event in many ways back in 2013, beating Steve Davis in the wildcard round before thrashing Craig Steadman and Barry Hawkins to reach the last 16. He has the sort of all-out-attack style that is reminiscent of how guys like Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump and Neil Robertson win titles and he is probably just a few errors here or there from becoming the next Chinese ranking event. Looking at the draw this week, a potentially rusty Ding Junhui is the biggest opposition between Zhao and a potential quarter-final in my view and if he gets that far he could have the confidence to go all the way this time after the experience of making a semi-final last month, mirroring the sort of progression that Yan Bingtao made this time last year. 

Best of the rest: David Gilbert

Quarter choice: Zhao Xintong 

Quarter 4

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Sam Baird Vs Alfie Burden

Ben Woollaston or Bai Langning Vs David Lilley

Mark Allen Vs Liam Highfield or Luo Zetao

Graeme Dott Vs Hossein Vafei

Ali Carter Vs Kurt Maflin

Stephen Maguire Vs Michael Georgiou

Zhou Yuelong Vs Gary Wilson or He Guoqiang 

Mark Williams or Zhang Jiankang Vs Akani Songsermsawad

Ali Carter may have gotten his season going last week at the English Open with a run to the quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion Bingham. Carter was yet to get beyond the last 32 after his first four ranking events and has dropped down to 18 on the ranking list meaning he has a big battle on to make it to the Masters in January. He also made the quarter-finals here last year before losing out to Martin Gould. In the first round this week he takes on Kurt Maflin who has failed to get beyond the last 64 in any event since the start of the season, so that does not bode well for his chances here against Carter. The big test for Carter would come if he meets Stephen Maguire in the last 32. If that is the case it would be the third year in succession that they have met in the last 32 of this event, with Carter winning both of the last two 6-5 and 6-1 and Carter does have the edge on the overall head-to-head. 

Mark Williams is the headline act in this quarter as World Champion. Four years ago he made the semi-finals of this tournament and in the process played two of my favourite matches in the whole of 2014. In the quarter-finals he came through an incredible contest with Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-5, before losing a classic semi-final 9-8 to Mark Allen. Williams was the man to pick up the World Open title in early August and will now be searching for a second big Chinese ranking title of the season. He has had a fairly quiet time of things since that win, losing 5-3 from 3-1 up against Zhao Xintong in the last 16 of the China Championship, withdrawing from the European Masters and then losing in the last 32 in Crawley and looking like he was struggling there. Should he get over his heldover match as comfortably as you would expect, he then faces a tough test against Akani Songsermsawad he showed his metal over the best-of-11 frames by whitewashing Barry Hawkins and then just losing 6-5 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last 16 of the UK Championships. Akani was also a winner against Kyren Wilson at the English Open so is more than capable of causing an upset there. Beyond that he could face either Gary Wilson or Zhou Yuelong in the last 32, with Wilson making the quarter-finals of the World Open while Zhou knocked Williams out in Crawley, so this will not be a plain sailing week for the World Champion.

Stephen Maguire could be the man to take advantage of an early exit for World champion Williams. Maguire made the semi-finals last week at the English Open beating Yan Bingtao on the way as his biggest scalp. He will be determined to not let history repeat itself against Carter for the third year in a row if the pair both win their opening round matches. Maguire's sees him take on Michael Georgiou and like Carter's opponent Maflin, Georgiou is yet to get beyond the last 64 in any ranking event this season. Maguire also made the semi-finals in the season opening Riga Masters, but has struggled a little more in China losing in the last 32 and last 64 of the first two Chinese ranking events and in the last 16 of the invitational Shanghai Masters. For me though, this week presents a pretty good opportunity for Maguire to put that right and get on another good run.

My fourth and final quarter choice for this week's International Championship is the two-time runner-up Mark Allen. The Northern Irishman was the losing finalist here a year ago against Mark Selby and back in 2014 he lost out to Ricky Walden in the International final, and in two of the three other years that he has qualified for this event he made it to the quarter-finals, back in 2012 and 2015. It seems as though Allen enjoys the longer best-of-11 frame format that the event is played under, since his first ranking final came at the 2011 UK Championship, which was the first year that the event was reduced to best-of-11 frames in the early rounds. Add to that his record in China as a whole, with two of his three ranking titles and five of his seven ranking finals overall coming in China and it seems to have developed a strong combination that sees him prosper in this event. His season has not quite gotten off to a flying start though he did make the last 16 of the Riga Masters and the quarter-finals of the European Masters. In the first two Chinese ranking events he has lost in the last 32 to Jack Lisowski and Mark King respectively and last week at the English Open he felt like he was playing well despite a 4-3 loss to Yuan Sijun in the last 64. His scoring is without any question the strong area of his game and if he can find the missing piece of the puzzle like he did at the Masters where he was exceptional, then he is capable of winning so much more than he has done. Looking at his draw this week, Shaun Murphy and Ricky Walden were both drawn into this session but failed to win their qualifiers meaning that Graeme Dott is the next highest ranked player in the top half of this quarter, behind Allen. While there is still plenty of threat around him, there is certainly an opportunity given the draw and his record in this event speaks for itself, making him a big contender to go one better and take the title in Daqing. 

Best of the rest: Stephen Maguire

Quarter choice: Mark Allen 

Tournament winner selection: Mark Allen 

The format remains the same as in previous years with all matches up to and including the quarter-finals will be played over the best-of-11 frames. Friday and Saturday will then see matters go down to one table for the respective best-of-17 frame semi-finals before Sunday's best-of-19 frame finale. All of the action will be available to watch on Eurosport TV with the second TV table available on the Eurosport Player. For those viewers in the UK that are planning on getting up early on Sunday for the start of the coverage, don't forget that the clocks go back an hour. 

Fantasy Snooker: Points update and International Championship info

The English Open has come to a conclusion down in Crawley with Stuart Bingham beating Mark Davis 9-7 in a final that took most of the Fantasy Snooker League by surprise.

Only four players picked Bingham overall and two of those are now into the top three in the table thanks to his efforts, while not a single participant selected Mark Davis neither as a tournament pick or a season pick, for which he was eligible. Overall, the most popular pick was Ronnie O'Sullivan and his run to the semi-finals featuring a 147 maximum which earned 10 bonus points has helped boost a lot of people in the overall standings.

For Rob Chipp, special mention needs to go to the fact that not only did he pick winner Bingham, but he has quarter-finalist Noppon Saengkham as a season pick as well, seeing him rise from just outside of the top 10 all the way to becoming the nearest challenger to Ryan Duckett's lead. Meanwhile, last year's champion Kellie Barker also selected Bingham and has made her move up into the top three ahead of a busy period of snooker to come in the next couple of months.


Here is how the standings look in full following the English Open:

Ryan Duckett 330

Rob Chipp 322

Kellie Barker 297

Daniela Reich 295

Andy (APB147) 291

FAM147 291

Daz Muckian 281

Munraj Pal 277

The Cue View 256

Stephen McCabe 250

Dani M (esnukero) 240

Steven Bunn 237

Rob Francis 235

LTD Syndicate 228

Matt Butler 225

Martin Pearlman 222

Kim Kristensen 222

Phil Mudd 219

Voihelevettisua 219

Tungsten Darts 216

Anatole Compton 215

Cluster of Reds 213

Square Sausage 212

Andrew Devonshire 210

Chris Watts 208

Markus 205

Shaun Hunt 201

Debbie Dymott 199

Alex Abrahams 198

Pete Tscherewik 196

Anthony (antow73) 193

Daniel Gavin 161

Phil Robinson 161

Kevin Platten 126

Gary Freeman 113

GaryOnCue 76

Twit Torr Terry 70

Next up in the competition is the International Championship in China. Qualifiers for this one have just taken place so once the heldover matches are completed, the tournament will start with the last 64 at the venue. Please note as always that no heldover last 128 matches will count towards the points. Do not be caught out either by the earlier start to this event. The deadline for picks will be before the first matches in the early hours of the morning for UK viewers on Sunday 28 October, ahead of this eight-day tournament.

A couple of people of asked to see who they have already selected so I have compiled a "warning list" of players that have already used two or in one case even all three picks on a player, keeping in mind that you can only pick a player three times over the course of the whole season.

WARNINGS LIST:

Rob Chipp: Ding x2

Daniela Reich: N. Robertson x2, M. Williams x2, Brecel x2

Andy (APB147): Allen x2

FAM147: N. Robertson x2

Daz Muckian: Brecel x2

Dani M (esnukero): Bingham x2

Steven Bunn: Walden x2, Bingham x2

Rob Francis: Hawkins x2

Matt Butler: Hawkins x2

Voihelevettisua: K.Wilson x2

Square Sausage: Allen x2

Andrew Devonshire: Trump x3, N. Robertson x2

Markus: Trump x2, Selby x2

Debbie Dymott: Allen x2

Alex Abrahams: Hawkins x2

Anthony (antow73): K. Wilson x2

Daniel Gavin: Hawkins x2

Kevin Platten: K. Wilson x2

Well done to all of the participants who are not on that list, therefore meaning they have kept their options open for all of the big events that are to come later in the season, including the invitational Champion of Champions event that follows the International Championship.

Once again the deadline for picks is before the first matches in Daqing on Sunday 28 October, so good luck to everyone ahead of the next set of selections.

Mark Williams and John Higgins are among the top stars to fall on day four at the English Open

The top seeds have come crashing down on day four at the English Open, with a number of the world's top 16 falling across the last 32 and last 16. 

World champion Mark Williams was the most high profile as he looked very out of sorts in a 4-3 loss to Zhou Yuelong in the last 32. Williams had looked comfortable up until that point in the tournament, but seemed to be fighting with his cue action and clearly looked unhappy throughout the contest, as Zhou took advantage. 

John Higgins was another of the top stars to tack a tumble on day four. He had beaten Martin Gould in the last 32 quite comfortably, but fell foul of one of his bogey players in Mark Davis. Davis had won five of their six most recent matches in ranking events and set about extending that good record by winning the final two frames of a 4-2 victory. 

Davis will now play Ryan Day in the quarter-finals after Day took care of Judd Trump in the last 16. Trump had fought back from 3-1 down on Wednesday night in round two against Zhao Xintong and was 2-0 down to Jack Lisowski in the last 32 before winning 4-2, but could not keep the comebacks coming against the Welshman. He shut Trump out of the opening two frames before then making two centuries later on in the match on the way to recording a 4-2 triumph. 

Shaun Murphy will have to wait a little longer to get his season moving in the right direction after he lost out 4-1 to Robert Milkins in the last 32. Milkins would later lose 4-3 to Noppon Saengkham despite valiantly fighting back from 3-0 down to force the decider against the Thai. 

Barry Hawkins relinquished a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3 against Daniel Wells, who had also beaten Joe Perry earlier in the week, as well as beating Lee Walker from 3-1 adrift. Wells then went to a decider for the third time in a row as he took on Ali Carter, but on this occasion he had no further tricks up his sleeve. 

Neil Robertson was another top player to succumb on day four on what was an excellent day for WSF Champion and tour rookie Luo Honghao. Luo was one of the three rookies I picked out as players to watch at the start of the season and he is already living up to that billing. Early on Thursday, he booked his spot in the last 16 to face Robertson after a 4-2 win against Anthony McGill, before then beating the ninth seed by the same scoreline with breaks of 56, 69 and 74. 

The overwhelming favourite now to win this title is defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had a much more comfortable day on the baize. The top seed recorded back-to-back 4-1 wins, firstly against Matthew Stevens and then against Eden Sharav. O'Sullivan is the only one of the top 10 seeds for this tournament remaining in the draw after a day of surprises in Crawley. 

Last 32 results:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Matthew Stevens

Eden Sharav 4-0 Craig Steadman
Neil Robertson 4-1 Alan McManus
Luo Honghao 4-2 Anthony McGill
Judd Trump 4-2 Jack Lisowski
Ryan Day 4-2 Mark King
Mark Davis 4-2 Mei Xiwen
John Higgins 4-1 Martin Gould
Ricky Walden 4-3 Ben Woollaston
Stuart Bingham 4-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Ali Carter 4-1 Matthew Selt
Daniel Wells 4-3 Barry Hawkins
Robert Milkins 4-1 Shaun Murphy
Noppon Saengkham 4-1 Yuan Sijun
Stephen Maguire 4-2 Jordan Brown
Zhou Yuelong 4-3 Mark Williams

Last 16 results:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Eden Sharav
Luo Honghao 4-2 Neil Robertson
Ryan Day 4-2 Judd Trump
Mark Davis 4-2 John Higgins
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Ricky Walden
Ali Carter 4-3 Daniel Wells
Noppon Saengkham 4-3 Robert Milkins
Stephen Maguire 4-0 Zhou Yuelong

Quarter-final draw: (Picks in bold)

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Luo Honghao
Ryan Day Vs Mark Davis
Stuart Bingham Vs Ali Carter
Stephen Maguire Vs Noppon Saengkham

Opening up quarter-finals day at the English Open is the match between Stuart Bingham and Ali Carter. Bingham has gone about his business well so far this week, having dropped just three frames on the way to the last eight, all of which were in his last 32 match against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. He started off the week with whitewashes against Duane Jones and Hossein Vafei, before winning the final two frames of his match against Un-Nooh from 3-2 adrift. He then added to that by dominating Ricky Walden in the last 16, to record his third whitewash of the week. Carter meanwhile has had a tough route starting out against Rory McLeod before victories against Luca Brecel and Matthew Selt and a deciding frame victory over Daniel Wells. Carter's form over the last year has been far from stunning, while Bingham has looked really strong so far this week and is a clear title contender. If Bingham continues to score heavily then that may well give him the edge between these closely matched players. 

Second on the bill is the match between Ryan Day and Mark Davis. Day has been absolutely sublime so far this week, whitewashing Ashley Hugill in round one with a high break of 141, before a 4-0 victory against Zhang Yong in round two that also featured a century, before his 4-2 victories against Mark King and Judd Trump that featured another three centuries overall. Day was recently a quarter-finalist over in Lommel at the European Masters and having won three tournaments last season he should be full of confidence and finally have a comfort level in the latter stages of these tournaments. For Mark Davis this has already been a great week reaching another ranking quarter-final, but he will have to be at his very best against Day if he is going to go much further. It is tough to believe that Davis has slipped down the rankings enough to only be the 42nd seed for this tournament and the ranking points he has earned here will have him moving back in the right direction and another great result here cannot be completely ruled out. 

Ronnie O'Sullivan is well and truly the man to beat in this tournament now, as if he was not already, and once again he will be heavily fancied to beat the lowest ranked player to make the last eight in the shape of Luo Honghao. O'Sullivan has already played a series of players that are well outside of the top 32 in Kurt Maflin, Allan Taylor, Matthew Stevens and Eden Sharav, conceding just three frames in the process and while not at his best, he has remained fairly untroubled. Luo Honghao is an excellent talent who showed great fight and determination to pull his opening round match against Adam Duffy out of the fire at 3-0 down and from that fire a Phoenix has been born. From there he has recorded 4-2 wins against Stuart Carrington, Anthony McGill and Neil Robertson to show what he is capable of but this is a new level for him. Playing the great O'Sullivan produces nerves in many without it being your first ranking quarter-final and he has little experience of playing in proper TV conditions, while O'Sullivan has been a fixture of the TV table throughout the week, making this even tougher on young Luo. 

Finally, Stephen Maguire will face Thailand's Noppon Saengkham for a coveted semi-final spot. Maguire has gone somewhat under the radar this week but he looks to be in very good form. He needed to play well to recover and beat James Cahill 4-3 in round one before wins against Chinese youngsters Yan Bingtao and Zhou Yuelong with a win over Jordan Brown sandwiched in between. It is one of the mysteries in snooker currently that Maguire has not added to his ranking title tally of five since early 2013 when he won the Welsh Open, having only been in one final since then at the 2017 Riga Masters. That final did signal a return to form as he has gone on to make the semi-finals of both the 2017 UK Championships and 2018 World Grand Prix before starting this season with a semi-final at the Riga Masters. Now he is bidding for his fourth ranking semi-final in the last 12 months, but while his opponent may be seeded 20 places lower this week, Noppon is still a big threat. The Thai was a semi-finalist in the last Home Nations event of last year, before losing to Barry Hawkins in the last four in Cardiff. He then overcame the likes of Day and Selby to make the semi-finals of the World Open earlier this season before losing from 5-2 up against Mark Williams and it is a great effort to see him bounce back so quickly. Some of the demons from that loss to Williams and a loss from 4-2 up against Hawkins in the China Championship recently may have been exorcised in his last 16 victory over Milkins where he held on to win 4-3 despite leading 3-0 in quick time. For me though, there is a strong feeling that Maguire is looking more and more like returning to the big time and getting back in the winners circle and with the draw as it is, this could be his week. 

All of the quarter-final matches will be played on Friday over the best-of-9 frames with three of the four matches being on the main Eurosport TV table, while Maguire Vs Noppon will be available to watch on the Eurosport Player at the same time as O'Sullivan Vs Luo. With the guaranteed prize money doubling from £10,000 for quarter-finalists to £20,000 for semi-finalists, tomorrow is a massive day for the remaining non-top 16 players. 

Mark Selby out of the English Open after Ben Woollaston clearance

World number one Mark Selby has perished at the last 64 stage of the English Open after an excellent deciding frame clearance from Ben Woollaston saw him defeat Selby in a quality contest. Both players had made century breaks early on in the contest before Selby forced a decider from 3-2 down. Selby had the first chance in the decider with a break of 60 getting him close to the winning line. However, a missed cut into the middle allowed Woollaston in for the 51 clearance that clinched him the match. 

Prior to that on the TV table there was a fantastic treat for the Crawley fans from Ronnie O'Sullivan, as he made a 147 maximum break to round off his 4-0 victory over Allan Taylor in which he also compiled a 135 break. The maximum is O'Sullivan's 15th in professional competition and the second of the week after Thepchaiya Un-Nooh made one on Tuesday, with O'Sullivan now slashing Thepchaiya's prize money. 

The televised drama did not end there as Judd Trump produced the performance of the week to come back and defeat Zhao Xintong in a classic encounter. Zhao led the match 2-0 early on before a run of 90 from Trump kept him in the contest. The young Chinese star hit back with an 84 to lead 3-1, but three successive centuries of 126 in frame five, a 108 to force the decider and a 109 to win the decider saw Trump come through. 

He will now face his good friend Jack Lisowski who also came from 3-1 behind to defeat Ian Burns, and also making a century break in the process too. Life was much easier for Mark Williams who is into the last 32 after a whitewash win over Alexander Ursenbacher, while John Higgins recorded his second 4-1 win of the week, Nigel Bond the victim on this occasion. 

Shaun Murphy made breaks of 89 and a closing 91 to hold off David Gilbert, who had made breaks of 108 and 78 to level at 2-2 from 2-0 down earlier in the contest, but Murphy ran out a 4-2 winner there. Neil Robertson was also a 4-2 winner against Oliver Lines, while Barry Hawkins opened up with two centuries in a high quality match with Sam Craigie, which Hawkins eventually came through 4-3 with a deciding frame 69. 

There were further top 16 casualties on the day however. 16th seed and former winner Liang Wenbo was taken down 4-2 by Eden Sharav, 13th seed Marco Fu fell to Mei Xiwen to continue his poor start to the season. Luca Brecel's poor form continued as he lost out 4-1 to Ali Carter, while Mark Allen lost out to young Yuan Sijun, despite making breaks of 76, 87 and 92 to his opponents high of just 52. 

Stephen Maguire kept up his 100% record against Yan Bingtao after winning the final three frames for an eventual 4-2 win, but European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson suffered a shock loss as Jordan Brown came from 3-0 down to defeat the most recent tournament winner 4-3. 

Last 64 results:

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-0 Allan Taylor
Matthew Stevens 4-0 Jimmy White
Eden Sharav 4-2 Liang Wenbo
Craig Steadman 4-1 Chris Wakelin
Alan McManus 4-0 David Lilley
Neil Robertson 4-2 Oliver Lines
Luo Honghao 4-1 Stuart Carrington
Anthony McGill 4-0 Akani Songsermsawad
Judd Trump 4-3 Zhao Xintong
Jack Lisowski 4-3 Ian Burns
Ryan Day 4-0 Zhang Yong
Mark King 4-3 Peter Ebdon
Mark Davis 4-0 Adam Stefanow
Mei Xiwen 4-1 Marco Fu
Martin Gould 4-2 Zhang Jiankang
John Higgins 4-1 Nigel Bond

Ben Woollaston 4-3 Mark Selby
Ricky Walden 4-0 Lukas Kleckers
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Hossein Vafei
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-3 Thor Chuan Leong
Matthew Selt 4-0 Sam Baird
Ali Carter 4-1 Luca Brecel
Daniel Wells 4-3 Lee Walker
Barry Hawkins 4-3 Sam Craigie
Shaun Murphy 4-2 David Gilbert
Robert Milkins 4-3 Elliot Slessor
Yuan Sijun 4-3 Mark Allen
Noppon Saengkham 4-2 Steven Hallworth
Jordan Brown 4-3 Jimmy Robertson
Stephen Maguire 4-2 Yan Bingtao
Zhou Yuelong 4-2 Xu Si
Mark Williams 4-0 Alexander Ursenbacher

Last 32 draw: (Picks in bold)

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Matthew Stevens
Eden Sharav Vs Craig Steadman
Neil Robertson Vs Alan McManus
Anthony McGill Vs Luo Honghao
Judd Trump Vs Jack Lisowski
Ryan Day Vs Mark King
Mark Davis Vs Mei Xiwen
John Higgins Vs Martin Gould

Ricky Walden Vs Ben Woollaston
Stuart Bingham Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Ali Carter Vs Matthew Selt
Barry Hawkins Vs Daniel Wells
Shaun Murphy Vs Robert Milkins
Noppon Saengkham Vs Yuan Sijun
Stephen Maguire Vs Jordan Brown
Mark Williams Vs Zhou Yuelong

Once again, the odd upset here or there has not taken away from what is a fascinating line-up for the last 32 in the first half of Thursday's play. Ronnie O'Sullivan takes on Matthew Stevens in what you would expect to be another simple afternoon's work for the Rocket.

Neil Robertson will be looking to kick on from his two 4-2 wins so far this week but faces a tough task against Alan McManus who is yet to drop a frame this week. McManus was very close to beating Luca Brecel on home turf recently and could take advantage against Robertson if his inconsistent form continues. 

Luo Honghao has had two impressive wins this week, coming from 3-0 down to beat Adam Duffy in round one, before a 4-2 win against Stuart Carrington that also featured some heavy scoring. Luo has also beaten Anthony McGill before, at this year's China Open and the Scotsman has had a slow start to the season. Two whitewash wins at the start of this week suggest that McGill could be about to get his campaign going but Luo should cause him plenty of problems. 

Good friends Jack Lisowski and Judd Trump will face off in what always promises to be a top tie. Trump will be confident after a flawless finish against Zhao Xintong that might just ignite his season. For Lisowski, two wins on Thursday would put him into yet another quarter-final and he has a pretty good record against Trump and he certainly will not fear his opponent. Expect plenty of big breaks in this one and another game that goes to the wire. 

Ryan Day has had a comfortable week so far but now faces Mark King in a repeat of their European Masters quarter-final recently. King won on that occasion but has had to battle much harder this week against Ashley Carty and Peter Ebdon to reach this stage while Day looks to be in really good form. 

John Higgins faces Martin Gould in what is a repeat of their Australian Open final from a few years ago. Gould has had a quiet start to the new season but a victory here would soon change all that. Higgins showed little signs of vulnerability against Nigel Bond, contrary to some of his downbeat comments in his post-match interview from a day beforehand, but the comments he made there will just give Gould that added bit of hope in this one. 

Shaun Murphy was in good touch to beat David Gilbert in round two, in what was a tough draw, but having come through that should help build his confidence after a slow start to the season. In the last 32 he faces the ever dangerous Robert Milkins who took his deciding frame against Elliot Slessor in round two in one visit and he is always capable of taking down the top players, just ask Neil Robertson who seems to have suffered against Milkins more than most. Milkins will need to be in good scoring form against Murphy, if he can keep up the play that took him through against Gilbert, who did not look to have done much wrong in that contest. 

Finally, World Champion Mark Williams takes on another of the young Chinese players in Zhou Yuelong. While Yan Bingtao, Zhao Xintong and Lu Haotian have started to fire more and more over the recent months, Zhou has gone a little quiet but his talent is still there for all to see and the odd quiet period has to be expected from players of his age. He is still more than capable of making life difficult for Williams who is yet to be tested in Crawley so far. His wins over Dominic Dale and Alexander Ursenbacher have been for the loss of just one frame and did not really put him under pressure, so you feel Zhou will have to come out of the blocks quickly to put any heat on the ice cold Welshman. 

Thursday will be a busy day on the baize with the last 32 on Thursday morning and afternoon being followed by the last 16 in the evening, and all of those matches will be played over the best-of-7 frames once again, with a great selection of matches available on Eurosport TV and the Player once again. 

Ronnie O'Sullivan slams English Open venue despite victory

Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has described the K2 in Crawley as a "Hellhole" despite winning his first round match at the venue in the English Open 4-1 against Kurt Maflin. O'Sullivan's post-match comments appear to be fuelled by the general surroundings, including being interviewed near a toilet where he could smell urine and an odd anecdote involving Peter Ebdon and a man who was playing bowls on site. 

None of that stopped O'Sullivan though, despite him losing the opening frame to the Norweigian and he looked fairly sharp considering this is only his second tournament since the World Championships, which started nearly 6 months ago. 

The only big name casualty in fact over the first round action on Monday and Tuesday was that of Paul Hunter Classic champion Kyren Wilson who lost out 4-3 to Akani Songsermsawad. Despite an early century for the Thai, it looked like being a simple enough outing for Wilson when he led 3-1 but Akani had other ideas, fighting back strongly to win the last three frames of the tie. 

There was no such trouble for World Champion Mark Williams who made two centuries on the way to a 4-1 victory over Dominic Dale, while the number one ranked player Mark Selby cruised to a whitewash win over Sanderson Lam. 

Judd Trump looked far from his best in a 4-1 opening round win over Finland's Robin Hull. Hull had taken the opening frame and will be left to rue a cluster of chances that came and went later on in the match, as he failed to capitalise on Trump's short comings. Shaun Murphy meanwhile did not suffer another first round exit. The 2005 World Champion has already lost in the last 128 round of four events this season, and lost in the first round of the last three Home Nations events last season, but on this occasion he took down Mike Dunn 4-1. 

John Higgins was also a 4-1 winner in his opening round match against Li Yuan, but fans of the Scotsman will have been concerned by post-match comments he made to Eurosport. He described his run to the China Championship final as "one of the worst weeks of snooker I've played" and talked about his lack of motivation to put the practice in, sighting his back-to-back World Championship final losses as the reason his enthusiasm is not as strong at the moment. The alarming thing of the interview was how tired and sad Higgins looked and I have to sympathise with him because he is showing the signs that there is a deeper problem than just being a bit fed up with the game. 

Somebody at the other end of that spectrum is Jimmy Robertson. The recent European Masters champion will be on cloud nine and continued his excellent recent form with a 4-1 defeat of Michael Holt in round one in Crawley. Liang Wenbo looked to be in much better form as he whitewashed Gary Wilson and Barry Hawkins got off to a good start with his whitewash of Peter Lines. 

Mark Allen came through a tough opening round tie against recent European Masters semi-finalist Anthony Hamilton 4-2 to book his last 64 spot, while Neil Robertson was a 4-2 winner against Ross Muir despite seemingly forgetting to pack most of his clothes, ending up borrowing a waistcoat from Adam Duffy. 

The other big headline from round came from the cue of Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. His 4-1 win against Soheil Vahedi itself may not seem like huge news and it would not have been, apart from the fact that he compiled his second career 147 break in the opening frame of the match. If the feat is not repeated by another player in Crawley this week. Un-Nooh will take home an extra £17,000. 

Last 128 results: 

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Kurt Maflin
Allan Taylor 4-3 Scott Donaldson
Jimmy White 4-2 Lu Haotian
Matthew Stevens 4-1 Chen Zifan
Liang Wenbo 4-0 Gary Wilson
Eden Sharav 4-3 Michael Georgiou
Craig Steadman 4-1 Joe Swail
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Ken Doherty
David Lilley 4-2 Tom Ford
Alan McManus 4-0 Fan Zhengyi
Oliver Lines 4-3 Joe O'Connor
Neil Robertson 4-2 Ross Muir
Stuart Carrington 4-2 Martin O'Donnell
Luo Honghao 4-3 Adam Duffy
Anthony McGill 4-0 Simon Lichtenberg
Akani Songsermsawad 4-3 Kyren Wilson
Judd Trump 4-1 Robin Hull
Zhao Xintong 4-3 Michael Judge
Ian Burns 4-0 Li Hang
Jack Lisowski 4-2 Fergal O'Brien
Ryan Day 4-0 Ashley Hugill
Zhang Yong 4-3 Chen Feilong
Mark King 4-3 Ashley Carty
Peter Ebdon 4-0 Alfie Burden
Mark Davis 4-1 Robbie Williams
Adam Stefanow 4-1 Jamie Clarke
Mei Xiwen 4-3 James Wattana
Marco Fu 4-1 Mark Joyce
Zhang Jiankang 4-0 Luke Simmonds
Martin Gould 4-2 Billy Castle
Nigel Bond 4-3 Tian Pengfei
John Higgins 4-1 Li Yuan

Mark Selby 4-0 Sanderson Lam
Ben Woollaston 4-2 Graeme Dott
Lukas Kleckers 4-1 John Astley
Ricky Walden 4-2 Hammad Miah
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Duane Jones
Hossein Vafei 4-3 Michael White
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-1 Soheil Vahedi
Thor Chuan Leong 4-1 Hamza Akbar
Matthew Selt 4-3 Zhang Anda
Sam Baird 4-2 Liam Highfield
Ali Carter 4-2 Rory McLeod
Luca Brecel 4-0 Niu Zhuang
Lee Walker 4-3 Jak Jones
Daniel Wells 4-2 Joe Perry
Sam Craigie 4-0 Rod Lawler
Barry Hawkins 4-0 Peter Lines
Shaun Murphy 4-1 Mike Dunn
David Gilbert 4-3 Gerard Greene
Robert Milkins 4-2 Lu Ning
Elliott Slessor 4-2 Sean O'Sullivan
Mark Allen 4-2 Anthony Hamilton
Yuan Sijun 4-1 Farakh Ajaib
Noppon Saengkham 4-1 Harvey Chandler
Steven Hallworth 4-2 Xiao Guodong
Jordan Brown 4-2 Andrew Higginson
Jimmy Robertson 4-1 Michael Holt
Yan Bingtao 4-2 Andy Lee
Stephen Maguire 4-3 James Cahill
Zhou Yuelong 4-3 Paul Davison
Xu Si 4-2 Chris Totten
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-1 Kishan Hirani
Mark Williams 4-1 Dominic Dale

Last 64 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Allan Taylor
Matthew Stevens Vs Jimmy White
Liang Wenbo Vs Eden Sharav
Chris Wakelin Vs Craig Steadman
Alan McManus Vs David Lilley
Neil Robertson Vs Oliver Lines
Stuart Carrington Vs Luo Honghao
Anthony McGill Vs Akani Songsermsawad
Judd Trump Vs Zhao Xintong
Jack Lisowski Vs Ian Burns
Ryan Day Vs Zhang Yong
Mark King Vs Peter Ebdon
Mark Davis Vs Adam Stefanow
Marco Fu Vs Mei Xiwen
Martin Gould Vs Zhang Jiankang
John Higgins Vs Nigel Bond

Mark Selby Vs Ben Woollaston
Ricky Walden Vs Lukas Kleckers
Stuart Bingham Vs Hossein Vafei
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Matthew Selt Vs Sam Baird
Luca Brecel Vs Ali Carter
Daniel Wells Vs Lee Walker
Barry Hawkins Vs Sam Craigie
Shaun Murphy Vs David Gilbert
Robert Milkins Vs Elliott Slessor
Mark Allen Vs Yuan Sijun
Noppon Saengkham Vs Steven Hallworth
Jimmy Robertson Vs Jordan Brown
Stephen Maguire Vs Yan Bingtao
Zhou Yuelong Vs Xu Si
Mark Williams Vs Alexander Ursenbacher

There are a lot of stand-out ties in the last 64 in Crawley and still a host of top players in the running for the English Open title. Ronnie O'Sullivan takes on Allan Taylor and Mark Williams faces Alexander Ursenbacher in two games where it is difficult to see either of the top two seeds being too heavily troubled. 

World number one Mark Selby may have a few more problems against fellow Leicester cueist Ben Woollaston, who defeated Graeme Dott 4-2, but Selby has a good record against Woollaston and impressed enough in round one against Lam to make him difficult to back against. 

Jimmy White is still going strong into his 50's and after an International Championship qualifying win against Fergal O'Brien, victory over Lu Haotian in the last 128 backs up that he still has plenty of results in his locker and he will certainly have a good chance against Matthew Stevens in the last 64.

Judd Trump will need to improve on his first round showing against Robin Hull as he takes on the in-form Chinese youngster Zhao Xintong. Trump was nowhere near his best in round one, while Zhao held on for a 4-3 win against Michael Judge, who was a late replacement for the suspended Jamie Jones. Zhao has just been to the semi-finals of the China Championship with victories over the likes of Anthony McGill, Mark Williams and Barry Hawkins and with a good start here he is more than capable of taking Trump down. 

John Higgins of course will still be fancied strongly against Nigel Bond despite his comments about how he and his game stand at the moment, given Bond's ranking and Higgins 4-1 win in round one. Bond though has a habit of continuing to pop up with the odd great result every now and again. In round one this week he defeated Tian Pengfei 4-3 which may not seem impressive on paper, but for the fact that Tian made three century breaks in the match. 

Ricky Walden faces young German Lukas Kleckers who is almost in uncharted territory in many ways. Kleckers overcame John Astley 4-1 in round one for what was his first victory against a main tour pro, outside of his two runs in the Riga Masters both this year and last and will now look to kick on against Walden who saw off Hammad Miah in the opening round. 

Stuart Bingham and Hossein Vafei will meet again in what is a repeat of a match that must hold unhappy memories for Bingham. Not only did he lose the match against the Iranian in this tournament last year, as well as making some comments about his opponent later on social media, it would be his final match before being hit with his three-month suspension. Hossein went on to make the quarters that week and had a good result in round one here where he turned around a 2-0 deficit to beat Michael White 4-3. 

Luca Brecel takes on Ali Carter in what is one of the ties of the round. Brecel stormed to a 4-0 victory on one of the outside tables against Niu Zhuang in round one, despite his continued poor form that saw him lose his International Championship qualifier last week. Carter meanwhile was made to work hard by Rory McLeod for a 4-2 win and will have been glad of the day off before facing up to Brecel. With both players having obvious quality but little form, it provides a good opportunity for the victor to kickstart his season and put a potentially good run together. 

Barry Hawkins will face a tough test in round two as he takes on Sam Craigie. Hawkins is in good form of late and was a 4-0 winner in round one against Peter Lines, but he will still need to be on it from ball one against the impressive young Craigie. Craigie came away with his own 4-0 round one win against Rod Lawler that featured a high break of 129. 

Shaun Murphy will be hoping to get his season off and running this week, having beaten Mike Dunn 4-1 in round one. Murphy has had a horrible start to the season with four last 128 exits already and now faces a tough second round tie against World Open runner-up David Gilbert. Gilbert held on eventually against Gerard Greene, having led 3-0 with some good scoring early on in the match before coming through in a decider. He also needed a decider against Craigie in International qualifying, coming from 5-3 down that day and that could be a sign that another tight match is to be expected here. 

Mark Allen faces another tough ask in round two as he takes on Yuan Sijun. Allen had to see of recent European Masters semi-finalist Anthony Hamilton in round one and now takes on the China Championship quarter-finalist, at a time when he has admitted on Twitter that he is still not quite at his best. That may make him vulnerable to the young stars high scoring that took down Ding Junhui in his recent Guangzhou run. 

Allen's fellow Northern Irishman Jordan Brown is the next challenger hoping to stop Jimmy Robertson's winning run. Brown backed up an International qualifying win over Luca Brecel by defeating Andrew Higginson 4-2 in the first round here, while European Masters champion Robertson was a comfortable winner against Michael Holt and will be a big favourite to keep his run going. 

Finally, there is a mouth-watering tie between Stephen Maguire and Yan Bingtao. Maguire came from 3-2 down to overcome James Cahill in the first round in a match where both players played quite impressively and Cahill just happened to be the unfortunate player that had to lose on the day. Yan meanwhile was a 4-2 winner against Andy Lee but will need to up his game from that showing if he is to come out on top against the Scotsman, who has also won both of his previous meetings against the Chinese teenager. 

All of the last 64 matches will take place on Wednesday over the best-of-7 frames with a feast of snooker to look forward to on both Eurosport TV and the Eurosport Player, as 15 of the top 16 seeds in the tournament have made it into the second round. 

English Open Preview

This week is the curtain raiser for the 2018/2019 Home Nations series as the English Open gets underway in Crawley. Ronnie O'Sullivan is the defending champion after beating Kyren Wilson comfortably in last year's final. This will only be the second tournament that O'Sullivan has competed in this year, having won the invitational Shanghai Masters in September, and the opportunity for a big bonus is perhaps to much for him to resist.

Once again World Snooker are putting the £1 million bonus up if any player is able to win each of the English Open, Northern Irish Open, Scottish Open and Welsh Open this season. As unlikely as that may seem, there are a number of players that have won multiple times in the last year, but doing it with the extra pressure of life changing money on offer is a completely different story.

The large majority of the top players will be in attendance this week, apart from Chinese number one Ding Junhui who has chosen to give it a miss. The format for all of the events will be the same as last season, with the first four rounds being played over the best-of-7 frames before the best-of-9 frame quarter-finals on Friday, best-of-11 frame semi-finals on Saturday and a best-of-17 frame conclusion.

One thing the home nations has provided over the past two years is surprises and opportunities for lower ranked players, with the short format in the early stages of the events taking out a lot of the top guns early on. The very first English Open saw Liang Wenbo win his first ever ranking title and that pattern continued in Northern Ireland when Mark King was the victor. The likes of Yu De Lu, Scott Donaldson, Alexander Ursenbacher, Elliot Slessor, Lu Haotian and Noppon Saengkham all reached ranking semi-finals for the first time in one of the home nations events of the last two seasons while Yan Bingtao and Cao Yupeng were first time ranking finalists and very close to winning their opening ranking titles.

So with that in mind, that pattern will surely continue with surprises galore and players making a name for themselves at the highest level and that is a big theme to keep in mind across the home nations series, especially with Jimmy Robertson showing the way by winning the European Masters earlier this month for his first ranking title. 

Quarter 1

Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold)

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Kurt Maflin

Scott Donaldson Vs Allan Taylor

Lu Haotian Vs Jimmy White 

Matthew Stevens Vs Chen Zifan

Liang Wenbo Vs Gary Wilson 

Michael Georgiou Vs Eden Sharav

Joe Swail Vs Craig Steadman

Chris Wakelin Vs Ken Doherty

Tom Ford Vs David Lilley

Alan McManus Vs Fan Zhengyi 

Oliver Lines Vs Joe O'Connor

Neil Robertson Vs Ross Muir

Stuart Carrington Vs Martin O'Donnell

Luo Honghao Vs Adam Duffy

Anthony McGill Vs Simon Lichtenberg

Kyren Wilson Vs Akani Songsermsawad

Liang Wenbo was the first English Open champion back in 2016, defeating Judd Trump in the final that year, while last season he made a 147 break in this event. His form at best has been sporadic and his results could have been made a lot worse if he had not come from behind to defeat Alfie Burden in both the last 128 of the China Championship and last 64 of the European Masters. With his points from winning this event two years ago about to come off the rankings, the current Chinese number two would become China's number four if he cannot have a good run this week. A tough first round draw awaits though in the shape of Gary Wilson and the way things are going for Liang he will have to improve to avoid a first round exit.

Lu Haotian has continued his excellent progress since returning to the tour at the beginning of last season, having recently progressed to the semi-finals of the China Championship. Despite having less than 18 months worth of points, he is provisionally set to climb into the world's top 40 and could be a real dark horse in the draw this week and provide one of the early round challenges to Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Neil Robertson was an early season winner at the Riga Masters, but in the three ranking events since then he has failed to make it beyond the last 32 stage, which is more like the form he showed around this time last season on the way to falling out of the top 16. His first round opponent Ross Muir may have just made the last 16 of the European Masters, but Robertson played him this week in International Championship qualifying and was a 6-1 victor which bodes well for the Australian but his goal in the next few weeks should be to add more consistency to his results, starting here in Crawley.

Kyren Wilson is a man who has worked hard on his consistency, to record three final appearances last season including at this event, as well as a World Championship semi-final, before winning this season at the Paul Hunter Classic. Now he will be looking to kick on and make this a season where he wins multiple ranking titles and establishes himself as a top eight player. His draw this week could have been a bit kinder, starting out against the unorthodox but dangerous Akani Songsermsawad before a likely last 64 tie against Anthony McGill. After the match the two had against each other in the Shanghai invitational semi-finals, it would be no surprise though to see Wilson and O'Sullivan battling it out again here in the quarters.

Ronnie O'Sullivan may be the obvious choice, but he is my opening quarter pick. The only time we have seen O'Sullivan so far this season he was on the way to victory in Shanghai defeating Barry Hawkins in the final after victories against both Kyren Wilson and Neil Robertson, who are both in this quarter, earlier on in the event. Not only that but when he won this title last year he was in imperious form and came into that event fairly fresh and he will be even fresher this time around which always makes him so dangerous. He also made it to two quarter-finals in the Home Nations last year so the format seems to suit him well and looking at his draw I would fancy him to make at least the quarter-finals again this week if he is even close to his best. 

Best of the rest: Kyren Wilson

Quarter choice: Ronnie O'Sullivan

Quarter 2

Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold)

Judd Trump Vs Robin Hull

Zhao Xintong Vs Michael Judge

Li Hang Vs Ian Burns

Jack Lisowski Vs Fergal O'Brien

Ryan Day Vs Ashley Hugill

Zhang Yong Vs Chen Feilong

Mark King Vs Ashley Carty

Peter Ebdon Vs Alfie Burden

Mark Davis Vs Robbie Williams

Jamie Clarke Vs Adam Stefanow

Mei Xiwen Vs James Wattana

Marco Fu Vs Mark Joyce

Zhang Jiankang Vs Luke Simmonds

Martin Gould Vs Billy Castle

Tian Pengfei Vs Nigel Bond

John Higgins Vs Li Yuan

Zhao Xintong and Jack Lisowski are two very dangerous players that could have big runs this week in Crawley. Lisowski faces a tricky test in round one though against Fergal O'Brien who has beaten plenty of top players already this season in Luca Brecel, Shaun Murphy, Ali Carter and Marco Fu. Lisowski made the final in the season's curtain raiser in Latvia and has been to three quarter-finals since then but will be disappointed with how he played in each of those efforts at the World Open, Paul Hunter Classic and the recent European Masters. Zhao meanwhile is faring well having earned his tour card back in the off-season at Q School, making the semi-finals of the China Championship, beating Mark Williams and Barry Hawkins in the process. Both could prove threatening to the hopes of 2016 runner-up Judd Trump early on in the tournament.

Ryan Day curtailed a slower start to the campaign by making the quarter-finals of the European Masters, and looking at the draw he has a big opportunity in Crawley to make at least the last 16 if he is in decent form. Day overcame Mark Selby from 2-0 down in Lommel which will be a big boost for his confidence and after winning three titles last season, he should not be short in that area. If things open up in other parts of this section, the Welshman could well be the man to pounce.

Mark Davis is playing very close to home this week and should have a good amount of supporters in Crawley, which could give him an extra boost to record some good results this week. For me, his draw presents an opportunity to record some good results. His opening round opponent Robbie Williams is not in the best form and neither of his potential last 64 opponents Jamie Clarke and Adam Stefanow have won a match so far on tour. Davis has already made the last 16 of the Riga Masters and Paul Hunter Classic this season and recorded two centuries in his recent International qualifier so he looks to be in good form and could be dangerous this week too.

John Higgins did not get on so well in International qualifying in the last week. The 2015 International champion fell to a 6-3 loss against Peter Lines. This may have been a surprise after he made the final of the China Championship, but he failed to make a break higher than 85 in his 35 frames won that week, very unusual for someone of his scoring stature, which suggests he has not on top form at the moment. Higgins also lost in the first round of the Shanghai invitational and had not played this season prior to that tournament in September so it is still very early days for him in the campaign.

Judd Trump is my second quarter choice for this week. His season has gotten off to a pretty slow start thus far. In the four events he has played he was knocked out in the last 32 of both the World Open and in his defence of the European Masters title as well as falling at the first hurdle in the Shanghai Masters. While he is yet to find the consistency so far this season, a quarter-final at the China Championship was something to cheer and his record in the Home Nations series is certainly a good one and the format really seems to suit him. While there were a couple of early exits last year in the Home Nations events he still reached the semi-finals in Scotland for the second successive year and he was a finalist at both this event and the Welsh Open in the 2016/2017 season. I think part of the reason behind that is because, out of the top players, he strikes me as one of those who is a lot less vulnerable over the best-of-7 frames format. More often than not he finds a way to blow opponents away very early on with big breaks. He does have a tough looking draw with the likes of Zhao Xintong and Jack Lisowski standing between him and a possible last 16 place, but if he can take care of them he will have all the tools to extinguish the other threats that stand in his way. 

Best of the rest: Mark Davis 

Quarter choice: Judd Trump 

Quarter 3

Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold)

Mark Selby Vs Sanderson Lam

Graeme Dott Vs Ben Woollaston

John Astley Vs Lukas Kleckers

Ricky Walden Vs Hammad Miah

Stuart Bingham Vs Duane Jones

Michael White Vs Hossein Vafei

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Soheil Vahedi

Thor Chuan Leong Vs Hamza Akbar

Matthew Selt Vs Zhang Anda

Liam Highfield Vs Sam Baird

Ali Carter Vs Rory McLeod

Luca Brecel Vs Niu Zhuang

Lee Walker Vs Jak Jones

Joe Perry Vs Daniel Wells

Sam Craigie Vs Rod Lawler

Barry Hawkins Vs Peter Lines

Mark Selby is the leading man in quarter number three as the world number one. Not much is missing from the CV of Selby but since the inception of the Home Nations series in 2016 he has not been able to win one of them. Selby only played in two of them though last season, and two the year before but has failed to get beyond the last 32 in any of them, which is something he will want to put right here in Crawley. Having just won the China Championship he should be full of confidence. A potential last 64 tie with Graeme Dott could be an early tester but if he can get beyond that a big week could be in store.

Ali Carter and Luca Brecel are two top players in this section that are seriously struggling for results in recent months. Carter has failed to get beyond the last 32 of a ranking event so far this season, while a quarter-final appearance at last season's World Championship is the only time he has gone beyond the last 32 in a ranking event since the 2017 International Championship. As a result his world ranking has dipped to 21. As for Brecel, he has just been beaten in International qualifying by Jordan Brown, but did reach the last 16 of the European Masters on home turf earlier this month. However, he has not gone beyond that stage to a quarter-final in ranking competition since the Shanghai Masters in mid-November of last year. Brecel and Carter could meet this week in the last 64 and perhaps the victory could see either player get out of their respective slump in performance.

Joe Perry was a beaten finalist at the recent European Masters and will now be looking to kick on and climb back into the top 16. Perry is provisionally at 17th and having been in the top 16 as recently as the 2017 Masters, where he reached the final, he will know that he is more than capable of making that return. First up for him this week is a tester against Daniel Wells, but given recent form you have to make Perry a favourite there to start his tournament strongly.

Stuart Bingham is the man in 16th position in the rankings presently, preventing Perry's return to that top 16. Bingham was a semi-finalist at this event in 2016, before going on to win the Welsh Open in the same season so he knows his way around these Home Nations events. This season has been a bit of a slow burner for Bingham, who has failed to get beyond the last 32 of a ranking event since the China Open in April. With Michael White in Bingham's mini-section struggling for form, his draw looks very gettable and presents an opportunity to at least make this the best result of his season so far.

Barry Hawkins is my third quarter choice here though. The Hawk has a good record in the Home Nations series without having won one. In the eight tournaments since it was brought in he has made two finals and was a semi-finalist at this event two years ago, as well as making a further quarter-final. His record of late has been sensational as well. After making the final of the Welsh Open and China Open at the end of last season, on top of another World Championship semi-final, Hawkins has started this season with a semi-final at the World Open, a final at the Shanghai Masters and narrowly lost out in the quarters of the recent China Championship. The only thing that is missing is another trophy to put in that cabinet and the way his game is trending, it would not be a surprise if he were to take home a title before the end of 2018. His draw this week is not easy, starting out against a Peter Lines who was victorious against John Higgins this week, so he will need to be on it from ball one and if he is on the sort of form he showed in Shanghai last month, Hawkins will be a tough man to beat. 

Best of the rest: Stuart Bingham

Quarter choice: Barry Hawkins

Quarter 4

Last 128 draw: (Picks in bold) 

Shaun Murphy Vs Mike Dunn

David Gilbert Vs Gerard Greene

Robert Milkins Vs Lu Ning

Elliot Slessor Vs Sean O'Sullivan 

Mark Allen Vs Anthony Hamilton

Yuan Sijun Vs Farakh Ajaib

Noppon Saengkham Vs Harvey Chandler

Xiao Guodong Vs Steven Hallworth

Andrew Higginson Vs Jordan Brown

Jimmy Robertson Vs Michael Holt

Yan Bingtao Vs Andy Lee

Stephen Maguire Vs James Cahill

Zhou Yuelong Vs Paul Davison

Xu Si Vs Chris Totten

Alexander Ursenbacher Vs Kishan Hirani

Mark Williams Vs Dominic Dale

Mark Williams is the headline act in this bottom quarter as World Champion. His season has started brightly with a victory at the World Open in the summer and his draw this week looks pretty inviting for the second seed. If he is in any sort of form he should make the last 16 and is the likely candidate to win the quarter with the form of some others in this section. His victory in last season's Northern Ireland Open means he does have some form when it comes to the Home Nations series and is a format he is comfortable with. So, there are plenty of reasons to be on Williams' side this week in Crawley.

Things have been a bit of a struggle for Shaun Murphy so far this season. That was underlined this week in International Championship qualifying when he was beaten 6-0 by Sam Baird. Apart from a last 16 at the China Championship there has been little positive to take forward, losing in the last 128 four times now in the new campaign. When you need something good to happen it is nice to come to a happy hunting ground but in the eight Home Nations series events, Murphy has only gone beyond the last 64 once, and lost in the first round on four occasions. In the first round here he faces Mike Dunn who has also not had the best start to the season, but a potential last 64 tie against World Open runner-up David Gilbert or Gerard Greene (who beat Murphy 4-0 in last season's Welsh Open) is not the greatest draw ever. However, you can only keep a good man down for so long (starting with his last 64 exit in April's China Open, Murphy has only won five of his last 13 matches on tour) and you have to believe that after making five finals between mid-August and the end of March last season, he will fight back soon.

Mark Allen had his best finish of the season so far by making the quarter-finals of the European Masters in Lommel and in International qualifying this week he was a 6-0 winner against Paul Davison. However, his tweets after matches suggest that he knows he can play a lot better than he is doing and with hard work plenty more good performances are coming. Unfortunately his record in the home nations last season was not much better than his good friend Murphy. His best was a last 32 appearance in Wales, with two last 64 exits and a first round loss in Scotland. In round one this week he faces a tough test against Anthony Hamilton, who made it to the semi-finals of the European Masters and with dangerous players like Yuan Sijun, Noppon Saengkham and Xiao Guodong all lurking in his mini-section, Allen will need to be on it from ball one.

Jimmy Robertson is the latest man to enter the ranking event winners club with his amazing run to victory at the European Masters. On the way to victory he defeated Joe Perry, Mark King, Mark Allen and Anthony McGill, winning all of his first three matches in Lommel in deciders on the black so many would say it was written in the stars for him. What will be special for him this week is that he is not far from home and should have plenty of support in Crawley. Ironically, his first round opponent is Michael Holt who many would consider as the greatest player not to have picked up a major ranking title yet in his career, so in some ways Holt will have a point to prove here. Whoever gets through that one could face a last 64 tie with the Andrew Higginson who is tough to beat on his day, and then a possible last 32 test against Stephen Maguire or Yan Bingtao. Given what has happened in the last week or so though, Robertson will be full of confidence and that could lead to more big runs.

Yan Bingtao is always a player worth keeping an eye on. His best run in a ranking event came in the Home Nations series last season when he made the final in Northern Ireland. His best run so far this season was to the last 16 in the China Championship, beating Stuart Bingham before losing to Judd Trump there. Last year's efforts in Belfast are not Yan's only notable Home Nations series moments. He also made the quarter-finals in this year's Welsh Open, whitewashed defending champion Liang Wenbo in this event last year, as well as reaching the last 16 in three of the four Home Nations events in the 2016/2017 season beating the likes of Mark Allen and world number one Mark Selby. Given that previous event form, Yan could be ready to make some more great memories this week in Crawley.

Xiao Guodong is my fourth and final quarter pick for this week. Xiao is one of the players I am looking at, especially after seeing Jimmy Robertson win his first ranking title last week, to kick on and get himself into the winners circle this season. He has already been to a quarter-final early on this season at the World Open, which follows from a good season last year where he made the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix, German Masters as well as the third Home Nations event in Scotland. He also made last 16 appearances at the UK Championships and indeed at this event where he overcame world number one Mark Selby in the last 32. His scoring is exceptional and it is hard to pick out for him what is missing, apart from more experience of beating top players and making the real latter stages of tournaments but than can all change very quickly. A lot of other young Chinese players like Yan Bingtao, Zhao Xintong and Lu Haotian are starting to knock on the door, but it would not surprise me if Xiao was the next new Chinese ranking winner given his immense quality. If the section of the draw opens up like I think it may, then the door could be wide open for Xiao to make his destiny this week. 

Best of the rest: Yan Bingtao

Quarter choice: Xiao Guodong 

Tournament winner selection: Barry Hawkins

As always with the Home Nations series the tournament will be covered in full on Eurosport and with an extra televised table on the Eurosport Player, while for UK freeview viewers the afternoon sessions in the early stages of the week, and all sessions of the final will be simulcast on Quest. If that is not enough, I will be back with round-by-round updates including all the big news and my usual predictions.