Last 16 line-up set in Llandudno

After the first two days of action at the World Grand Prix in Wales, the Last 32 has been completed and we are down to 16 for the second round of matches. Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Ronnie O'Sullivan all went through on day one without much event, while Stephen Maguire played very well in beating Xiao Guodong, while Bingham squeezed through 4-3 against Anthony McGill having previously been 3-0 ahead. Martin Gould was also a winner against Alan McManus which now means he's got his punditry hat on for ITV4's coverage. The two lower seeded players to go through meanwhile on day one were Matt Selt, as he whitewashed an out of sorts Barry Hawkins, while Liang Wenbo came back from 3-2 down to beat Mark Allen, aided with some large slices of luck in the decider.

On day two Shaun Murphy was the first major player to go out as he finished 0 out of 12 on long pot attempts in his match with Peter Ebdon, as both players missed plenty, but Ebdon went through with a 136 break in the decider. That was shortly followed by the exit of out of form Ding Junhui against a very much in form Ricky Walden. Meanwhile, Joe Perry eased past Ben Woollaston with the help of a magnificent 139 break, and Mark Davis beat Marco Fu 4-1. The evening started with a couple of deciders in the all-Scottish and all-Welsh ties. Mark Williams came from 3-1 down to beat Ryan Day 4-3 on the black, while Graeme Dott completed a very good victory against Welsh Open champion John Higgins. To complete the round there was a comfortable win for Judd Trump while new Indian Open Champion Michael White was beaten by Robert Milkins.

Last 32 Results:

Mark Selby 4-1 Michael Holt
Martin Gould 4-1 Alan McManus
Stephen Maguire 4-1 Xiao Guodong
Peter Ebdon 4-3 Shaun Murphy
Ricky Walden 4-1 Ding Junhui
Mark Williams 4-3 Ryan Day
Joe Perry 4-0 Ben Woollaston
Judd Trump 4-0 Dominic Dale
Neil Robertson 4-0 Luca Brecel
Mark Davis 4-1 Marco Fu
Matt Selt 4-0 Barry Hawkins
Stuart Bingham 4-3 Anthony McGill
Liang Wenbo 4-3 Mark Allen
Graeme Dott 4-3 John Higgins
Robert Milkins 4-2 Michael White
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-2 Rod Lawler

So, there are still plenty of the biggest and best in the game of snooker left in this weeks World Grand Prix and we march on today with the Last 16 over two tables and the best-of-7 frames, which means that with so many evenly matched players anything can happen.

Last 16 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Mark Selby Vs Martin Gould - This should be a great match between two very established players. Mark came through what was a testing match at times against Michael Holt, but a century and two other very nice breaks from Selby showed that he was confident and striking the ball very nicely and close to the very top of his game in all departments. As for Martin, he's missed a lot of tournaments of late and hasn't played all that much in recent times, and when he has he's been a little bit short on form, and he knows as well that only his best is going to be enough to topple the World Champion, and in the last couple of seasons or so, Martin hasn't been producing this nearly as often, and I expect that Selby will end up tying Gould in knots in the safety exchanges, and that could be where this match is decided.

Stephen Maguire Vs Peter Ebdon - The manner in which these two players came through their opening round games differed enormously. Stephen made consecutive centuries at the start of his match with Xiao Guodong and played very well throughout that entire match. Stephen also said afterwards that he's been working very hard on his game in the last couple of weeks that he's had between tournaments and that missing the Indian Open has helped him come to this event very fresh. Stephen has been in good form in the last couple of months and if he does stay fresh then he is a big contender for all of the remaining events in the lead up to the World Championships. Meanwhile, Peter Ebdon came through a mistake filled match with Shaun Murphy where the only thing of real note came from a very twitchy Ebdon in the deciding frame with a 136 break to win it, but that was after missing several chances in the frame before, and most of the chances he gained was from Murphy's uncharacteristically poor long potting. If both play like they did in round one, then there's only one outcome really.

Ricky Walden Vs Mark Williams - These two guys must come into this slightly jaded after their recent escapades in India where both made the final and quickly had to make it back to the UK for this tournament. Neither one played particularly well in scrappy first round affairs as Williams fluked a deciding frame pink to grab an unlikely victory from 3-1 down against Ryan Day, while Walden didn't have to play too well against a badly out of form Ding Junhui. Both will be feeling it coming into this match I would imagine, and I can see it being a very close and scrappy encounter. Williams has been on top form of late making the latter stages of most recent tournaments, and his new fitness regime helped by his personal trainer is certainly helping him gain some much needed extra stamina in order to go deep in these events consistently. It's sure to be close and could go either way on the day in my view, but I just fancy Mark to edge the victory.

Judd Trump Vs Joe Perry - Both of these guys came through with whitewashes in round one as Perry beat Woollaston and Trump thumped Dale in just over an hour. Joe Perry was in decent form last week to make the Indian Open quarter-finals, and he's been playing pretty consistent stuff over the last season or two, making him much more of a handful for the games very top players on a regular basis, of which he is one. Judd Trump complained of a shoulder injury in India but showed no signs of this in his flying victory against Dale where he was striking the ball incredibly sweetly, scoring for fun as usual and totally shutting Dominic out of the game. When Judd is in this kind of form it's very tough to tip against him winning, and the same applies here.

Neil Robertson Vs Mark Davis - Neil Robertson looked in some pretty good form in round one against Luca Brecel, while Mark Davis knocked in a couple of century breaks in his victory over Marco Fu. Both guys look to be in good form after Davis beat John Higgins on the way to the Indian Open quarter-finals while Neil Robertson is playing in his first event here this week since winning the Gdynia Open. On paper you have to say that Neil has a considerable edge here given that Mark has struggled often at times this season and Neil has been looking good with his game since the New Year despite a couple of blips. Neil will really want to push on now and keep gathering form and momentum ahead of the World Championships and that is why I fancy him for a big run this week.

Stuart Bingham Vs Matt Selt - Yes. That's right. Yet another match has come up in the draw between Stuart Bingham and Matt Selt. These two boys seem to have been meeting very frequently over the course of this season, and Stuart Bingham certainly has a big advantage on the head to head in those matches, including Championship League meetings and a German Masters Last 32 match. I've said very often that Selt is one of the most improved players on tour this season, but Bingham is playing some consistently reasonable snooker and knows now how to win all of these types of matches even if he isn't playing at his best. You think that Selt will beat Bingham eventually if they keep meeting like this, but these runs can last a very long time, especially when your opponent knows they have the wood on you.

Graeme Dott Vs Liang Wenbo - Both of these two guys came through first round deciders against higher seeded players, as Wenbo was rather fortunate in his win over Mark Allen while Graeme Dott played very well with particularly strong match play snooker to beat John Higgins. Liang is one of the most unpredictable players on tour. Only a week ago, Wenbo lost to lower ranked opposition in Jamie Jones from 2-0 ahead, while this week he was able to come from 3-2 behind to beat a much better player in Allen. His inconsistency has blighted his game for a number of seasons now and it makes him very hard to back in any given game. With Dott though, you know exactly what you're going to get, decent scoring matched with very good and granite match play snooker, and that is usually what does it in these relatively evenly matched games, and after all Graeme is the better player on the day and played the better snooker of round one.

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Robert Milkins - This should be a very entertaining game between two very attacking players, who certainly don't hang around at the table. Robert Milkins firstly, has been in good form again this season as he pushes for an automatic Crucible place, making the final of a European Tour event and the quarter-finals of the recent Indian Open, along with the International Championship semi-finals. When he's scoring well and in good form he's a handful for any player, and if he's completely focussed on the job today and determined to win then I think he has a very good chance. Ronnie looks to be struggling a little bit again mentally with his game, showing this in very recent encounters in the Welsh Open and with Rod Lawler in round one. However, he will be much better suited to Robert's style of play, but equally he will have a much tougher opponent in Milkins and if he makes too many mistakes again, and looks as shaky as he did against Rod and at the Welsh Open, then he will be severely punished. It's going to be a very open game, and one I fancy to go quite close. On this occasion though, I fancy the underdog in Milkins to sneak over the line.


Plenty of even matches there and I'm sure there'll be more to come throughout the tournament, but who will make it through to Friday's quarter-finals? Well, i'll be back on Thursday to run you through all of the Last 16 results and to preview the four quarter-finals that will be played over the best-of-7 frames on throughout Friday.

World Grand Prix Preview

After a busy week in Mumbai for the Indian Open, where Michael White ran out the winner, we're quickly back into some more tour snooker as the World Grand Prix begins in Llandudno (don't ask me how to say that mind you, I had enough trouble spelling it) for another nice event in Wales, this one being an invitational tournament. This is of course a new event to the calendar for this season with the top 32 players on a one year ranking list from the start of the 2014 World Championships to the conclusion of the 2015 Gdynia Open getting an invite out to Wales. The draw for the first round is done based on those seedings with 1 playing 32, while 16 plays 17 and so on. The whole event is also broadcast on ITV4 who have done a fantastic job in the last couple of seasons with the Champion of Champions coverage, and I'm expecting more of the same this week. The event starts on Monday and runs to the final on Sunday, with the Thursday being a rest day as ITV4 covers the Europa League Football in the evening.

The format sees two tables in play, with the Last 32 being completed over Monday and Tuesday with all of those matches being over the best-of-7 frames, which is the same for the Last 16 on Wednesday, and Friday's quarter-finals when we get down to one table. Saturday's semi-finals are over the best-of-11 frames before the best-of-19 frames final on Sunday, so the format may be short for the early rounds but it all comes to an appropriate conclusion later in the week. Prize money for this event obviously doesn't count towards the ranking, but a £100,000 top prize is still a very lucrative one, with the runner-up receiving £35,000 and the losing semi-finalists getting £20,000 each.

There are 32 brilliant players involved this week, all thoroughly deserving of their places in this tournament, so let's have a look at how the draw shapes up for this week:

Quarter 1

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Mark Selby Vs Michael Holt
Martin Gould Vs Alan McManus
Stephen Maguire Vs Xiao Guodong
Shaun Murphy Vs Peter Ebdon

In this section we have the World Champion and top seed Mark Selby, Masters Champion Shaun Murphy, UK semi-finalist and Lisbon Open champion Stephen Maguire, Bulgarian Open runner-up Martin Gould as the main four seeds, while they're joined by four equally dangerous players in Michael Holt, Alan McManus, Shoot-out runner-up Xiao Guodong and Peter Ebdon, all of whom will be battling for a lucrative semi-final place.

Stephen Maguire has been in much better form over the last 3 or 4 months getting to the latter stages of a number of events, but he has failed to kick on when I thought he might be able to win one of the bigger ranking events. Semi-finals at the UK Championships and German Masters are all well and good but he never looked like getting into the finals of either of those, and when he got to the Welsh Open quarter-finals he threw in one of his worst performances of the season that I'd seen. A first round exit at the Gdynia Open most recently was not in the script, and I'm just hoping that the defeat to Higgins at the Welsh Open didn't hit his confidence that he'd managed to build up over the recent tournaments with those good runs that I mentioned. He has a tough first round draw against Xiao Guodong here, but if Stephen can come through it there's no ruling out another big run this week.

Shaun Murphy has been absolutely flying this season so far, cueing well, high on confidence and putting in big performances all over the place. The title of Masters champion is a huge weight off of his shoulders now as that had been his missing title for a number of years. Along with this Shaun has made the German Masters final since that Masters triumph, and a semi-final at the European Tour event in Gdynia along with his wins in Bulgaria and Germany earlier in the European Tour this season saw him finish at the top of the order of merit, and if his form can continue to build along nicely Shaun will be confident of a second World Title. A tough first round match with Peter Ebdon could cause him problems, but he knows Peter very well and with his confidence levels high he will still be expecting to win that one.

Mark Selby hasn't actually had the best of seasons, since his World title triumph at the end of last season. He struggled during the other big events like this in the UK's, Masters and even the Champion of Champions, while a German Masters title was great boost for him, the early exits continued in Wales and Gdynia. The thing with Mark is that he's a very gritty player, and you'd expect that to be enough in a lot of matches, it's just been that this season he's come up against the wrong player at the wrong time on a number of occasions, and he's also had a lot of things to contend with away from the table with the birth of his first child. Mark has had a nice couple of weeks off from proper snooker now though, and should come into this event finely tuned and fresh. The other thing about Mark is that he does love these big events like these with the one or two table set-ups, and it has always been said that this is when he comes into his own, and you'd certainly never count him out of doing that again this week.

Quarter Winner: Mark Selby

Quarter 2

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Ricky Walden Vs Ding Junhui
Mark Williams Vs Ryan Day
Joe Perry Vs Ben Woollaston
Judd Trump Vs Dominic Dale

Here in this section we have the new leading money earner of this season so far in International Champion and Indian Open runner-up Ricky Walden, along with Australian Open champion and UK runner-up Judd Trump, Wuxi Classic runner-up Joe Perry, Gdynia Open finalist and International Championship semi-finalist Mark Williams as the top seeds. They are joined by Welsh Open runner-up Ben Woollaston, Shanghai Masters semi-finalist Ding Junhui and the Welsh pair of Ryan Day and Dominic Dale, so once again it is a strong line-up that will be whittled down to the one player who will move into the last 4.

Ricky Walden is one of the very top seeds for this event, and rightly so too. His win at the International Championships was richly deserved and showed that he can compete in the bigger events, but again it was in China where he has now won 3 ranking events and all of his 4 ranking finals have come in Asia now after reaching the Indian Open final just yesterday. I have to say he clearly loves the conditions in Asia and seems to deal with them better than the other players, but again, when he's at the very top of his game his fluency and break building are superb and he's a match for any other player in the world.

Ding Junhui is Ricky's first round opponent and Ding is struggling more this season, than possibly at any other point in his career. It's a tough one to put your finger on and analyse really. The only possible explanation is that winning five ranking titles, and making the final of another has put too much pressure on him to recreate that form again this season, and therefore he has struggled to produce his best form. On the other hand, he may have seen his dominance of last season as what he'd been working so hard for, and maybe he has taken his foot off of the gas in belief that the titles would continue to come. Ding has already has Last 128 exits in the Wuxi Classic, International Championships and Welsh Open, while he also lost in the Last 32 of the UK Championships and German Masters, the Last 64 of the Indian Open and he still hasn't won a match at the Masters since taking the title in 2011. His form has now been a cause for concern for some time, and you can't imagine that deep down he'll have very much confidence at all. When you're struggling like this, the one thing you really need is an easy draw to get into the tournament, something he didn't have in India, and he doesn't have again here either.

Mark Williams is the form man meanwhile of the entire snooker tour in the last month or so. Within the last month he's played in most days of snooker possible, making the Welsh Open semi-finals, Gdynia Open final, winning the World Seniors title, and reaching the semi's again in Mumbai in the last few days. With all of this coming in such quick succession though, you have to ask the question of when Mark will start to feel the burden of the amount of snooker and travelling he's had to do in such a short space of time, and with this weeks event in Wales starting just days after the Indian Open and with the Players Championship finals in Thailand coming quickly after this too there is no rest for Mark, and I feel like an early exit for him this week wouldn't be the worst thing to happen, just for him to take a couple of days off. He has a tough first round match with Ryan Day, and even though Day is in poor form he will cause Williams problems, though I think Mark's form will be enough to get him through that match, it might not carry on to take him much further in the tournament.

Judd Trump was one of the form players in the early parts of this season, but he hasn't done as much since Christmas in terms of big runs, while there has been a lot of Last 16's and Quarter-finals. He reached the Last 16 in India last week but he had to battle hard there and didn't play very well at all suffering from a shoulder problem. If that shoulder problem continues it is always tough to play to the standards that Judd has set for himself, and he said that he was still struggling with the power shots even though his shoulder did improve through the tournament, and of course the power shots are as big a part of Judd's game than any other player on the circuit. Another thing with problems like this is not that it makes playing tough, as it does the practice. If you can't put the hours in pain-free, it becomes tough to step out on the big stage and play your best snooker. With all of this in mind, I wouldn't be putting the kitchen sink on Trump to go deep in this event.

Joe Perry has again, been plugging away hard this season, continually going very well in tournaments and carrying on from last season to play some of the best snooker of his career so far. He's been doing particularly well since Christmas, reaching the quarter-finals of the Masters, Gdynia Open and most recently last weeks Indian Open, along with another Asian Tour title win in January too. Joe has the confidence and belief in his own game, that by this age he should be producing performances like this as he still very much has the game to, and of course the experience. What I like most about Joe is how relaxed he often seems around the table, and while he can get a bit disgruntled during matches if things aren't going his way, when he's at the table he scores pretty well and just goes about his business quietly and confidently.

Quarter Winner: Joe Perry

Quarter 3

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Neil Robertson Vs Luca Brecel
Marco Fu Vs Mark Davis
Barry Hawkins Vs Matt Selt
Stuart Bingham Vs Anthony McGill

Looking now at the bottom half of the draw, we have some more top quality players with Masters finalist Neil Robertson, Marco Fu, Barry Hawkins, Shanghai Masters champion Stuart Bingham, Welsh Open semi-finalist Luca Brecel, Mark Davis, Lisbon Open runner-up Matt Selt and UK quarter-finalist Anthony McGill, who all have a great chance of winning this quarter.

One thing that stands out to me about Marco Fu coming into this event as how little it feels like he has actually played in recent times. After pulling out of India and not qualifying for the German Masters, the only big events Fu has been at are the Masters in January where he reached the quarter-finals, the Welsh Open where he reached the quarter-finals and the Gdynia Open where he was knocked out in the Last 32. While Marco has several quarter-final appearances to his name this season he hasn't played particularly well at any stage, and has generally been knocked out of a tournament 95% of the time when he comes up against a player playing well. His first round opponent this week is Mark Davis and that will be a very tough game and one which I expect will go down to the wire.

Mark Davis is a very similar player to Marco Fu in that a lot of the time he doesn't have to play his very best snooker to get a result, but when he does play well he goes far in an event. He played pretty well in reaching the Indian Open quarter-finals whitewashing John Higgins along the way. Mark does a lot better in the best-of-7 frames matches than in any other it seems and I have a feeling that if he plays like he did in India against Marco that he'll come through, but he certainly doesn't stand out as a player that I think will go deep in this tournament.

One thing that was said during the match between Barry Hawkins and Nigel Bond about Barry Hawkins by Willie Thorne when Barry lost 6-5 from 5-0 up at the UK Championships is that it could ruin his season. Since then he's lost 6-1 in the first round of the Masters, withdrawn from the Indian Open, lost in the Last 32 of the German Masters (first round at the venue), and the Last 64 of the Welsh Open, and he didn't even bother with the Gdynia Open either. On the provisional end of season rankings, Barry is down from his current seeding of 5th to a seeding of 8th, with the China Open, Players Championships and the World Championships to play that will change his ranking. If he fails to go well at any of those he could easily dip out of the top 8, and on the one year rankings from money earned this season, Hawkins is down in 25th. To say that defeat has ruined his season to this point is putting it kindly. This week his first round opponent is Matt Selt who is certainly going in the other direction with his confidence particularly, but also with his form, so again it's sure to be a very tough match for Barry.

Stuart Bingham is going along nicely this season once again, with another ranking title to his name early in the season and taking the Championship League title last month. Another semi-final at the UK Championships was very nice as well and even though he's been a bit quiet in 2015 away from the Championship League, now wouldn't be a bad time to start firing 100% once again, because it's not like he's been playing badly in the last few weeks either. He'll be another player coming into this run in period of the season fresh after missing the Indian Open, and that could be the key for Stuart threatening for another title in one of the remaining events this season.

Neil Robertson had been struggling just a little bit by his own very high standards at times coming into the Gdynia Open, where he played magnificently to capture his first title since the seasons start at the Wuxi Classic, which by his standards is a much longer wait. However, he has been playing very well again of late, with a temporary blip coming in the Masters final against Shaun Murphy and an unlucky result against Stephen Maguire coming in the German Masters quarter-finals, but while the results haven't gone his way he has still been very close to the top of his game, and he is now into the swing of his new Vegan diet.

Quarter Winner: Neil Robertson

Quarter 4

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Mark Allen Vs Liang Wenbo
John Higgins Vs Graeme Dott
Robert Milkins Vs Michael White
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Rod Lawler

Finally, in the bottom quarter of the draw we have the UK and Champion of Champions Ronnie O'Sullivan, International Championship and Shanghai Masters runner-up Mark Allen, Welsh Open champion John Higgins, Indian Open champion Michael White, Ruhr Open finalist and International semi-finalist Robert Milkins, German Masters semi-finalist Liang Wenbo, Graeme Dott and Rod Lawler.

Michael White is on top of the world at the minute having won £82,000 across two events in just a couple of weeks. First Michael White came through the lottery that is the Snooker Shoot-out to win the £32,000 top prize there, and as happened with Barry Hawkins when he went on to win his maiden full ranking event title a few months after, many fancied the same to happen for Michael. However, White didn't have to wait a few days like Hawkins, more just a few days before he dispatched of Ricky Walden 5-0 to win the Indian Open title and rise to a career high of 17th in the World rankings. He'll now be full of confidence for the rest of the season and will be a handful for the four remaining events on the calendar. One thing that hamper him in this event is that with a few tournaments and tournament wins in quick succession he may still be coming to terms with everything he has achieved as he comes out to play an incredibly tough player in Robert Milkins in the first round here, and with tiredness a factor too it will be very tough for White to continue his run.

Robert Milkins after all is not playing badly himself. Quarter-final appearances in the recent Gdynia and Indian Open's see him coming here in full confidence himself, and even though this is a non-ranking event, he'll want to continue his good rhythm and play as he looks for good runs in the Players Championship and China Open, still with hopes of qualifying automatically for the World Championships. Such a target can help focus the mind and bring out your very best as a player, and even though he doesn't need to be this week as I've mentioned, that won't stop Robert from being a handful.

It will be very intriguing to see the form of Ronnie O'Sullivan in this event ahead of the China Open, but more importantly the World Championships to end the season after he certainly wasn't himself last time out at the Welsh Open. His mind certainly wasn't with his snooker in that tournament as he played awfully at times and exited at the Last 32 stage to Matthew Stevens who played pretty badly himself. In fact, I sensed even earlier than this that Ronnie's mind seemed to be preoccupied at the Masters in January where he was thumped in the semi-finals by Robertson, but wasn't playing well really throughout. Even Ronnie's German Masters quarter-final exit to Shaun Murphy from 4-2 up was surprising, simply as it is so rare for Ronnie to lose when on the brink of victory like he was there, and in fact he was only a ball away from victory in the deciding frame. If he's not with it in the early stages of this tournament he could easily lose his head against someone like Rod Lawler and with a tough second round match against either Milkins or White he certainly has his work cut out again.

John Higgins would've taken an enormous boost in confidence and belief after the torrid time he'd had before winning the Welsh Open in February. A lot of inconsistencies had crept into his game over the recent months leading up to Cardiff and they were still present in Cardiff at times during some of the games, as he still missed a fair amount of balls you would expect him to get, while Last 16 exits since at the Gdynia and Indian Open's still present signs that John is not at the top of his game, and while he can still start matches off well, and play well for times in matches, he is now going missing in matches part way through for a couple of frames or more which is completely unheard of for John. He has a tricky first round tie this week with an equally gritty and tough player to beat in Graeme Dott and while you wouldn't rule Higgins out of winning this quarter, he could just as easily be thumped by Dott in round one.

Mark Allen was one of the stand out players of the first half of the season, but again he's been a little quiet in the last couple of months. Finals in the International Championship and Shanghai Masters were impressive but he was poor towards the back end of the year in the Champion of Champions and UK Championships. A Masters semi-final saw some more good performances from Allen, but since he's managed little with a German Masters last 16 and only a Last 32 at the Welsh Open, before not entering Gdynia or India to have a lot of time off before this run into the end of the season. I'm still waiting for Allen to really kick on and win a big event, but who knows he could be saving his best for the World Championships, because at the end of the day that's the one everyone wants to win.

Quarter Winner: Mark Allen

Tournament Runner-Up: Neil Robertson

Tournament Winner: Mark Selby


That draw is shaping up to have very exciting matches with plenty of twists and turns, from the outset right until the very end of this tournament with all of the top names and the men in great form obviously qualifying for this event, and being seeded and drawn accordingly. A fantastic mix of top players, improving players and young players starting to really breakthrough, I think there will plenty of the lower 16 seeds that come through and with the best-of-7 frames format in the early stages it's going to be a tough week for the top boys, but a very rewarding one for the winner with £100,000 at stake. I'll be back with plenty of updates throughout the week and it should be another enjoyable event, especially for terrestrial TV viewers of snooker in the UK who don't get to see as much quality tour snooker as those of us with Eurosport.

FANTASY SNOOKER LEAGUE: Points update and World Grand Prix Players

It was a very eventful Indian Open week in terms of your picks in the Cue Action Blog fantasy snooker league, and there have been sum shifts in positions in the tables, while it is certainly hotting up in the middle of the table in terms of the points separating those guys. The World Grand Prix is the next event starting on Monday with the deadline for picks being the start of the opening matches at 1pm.

Here's how we stand then after the Indian Open, with money left over in brackets:

1st: Andrew Brooker: 539 points (5 Million Leftover)
2nd: Gorkem Kurt: 429 points (0 Million Leftover)
3rd: Ezgi Ulutas: 424 points (2.5 Million Leftover)
4th: Gary: 416 points (2 Million Leftover)
5th: Michael Coudray: 399 points (3 Million Leftover)
6th: Sean: 398 points (10.7 Million Leftover)
7th: Snookerfollower: 379 points (4.5 Million Leftover)
8th: LTD: 338 points (1.5 Million Leftover)
9th: Anthony Ward: 325 points (7.8 Million Leftover)
10th: Guillermo: 321 points (0 Million Leftover)
11th: TungstenDarts: 277 points (5.2 Million Leftover)
12th: Kjetil: 263 points (15 Million Leftover)


There's how we look after the Indian Open, but that can all change again after this weeks World Grand Prix. Here are the 32 players to choose from, who have for this event, been priced up on their seeding calculated by the World Grand Prix ranking list:

World Grand Prix Players: (Picks DEADLINE Monday 16th March at 1pm UK Time)

Mark Selby - £6 million
Ronnie O'Sullivan - £5.9 million
Neil Robertson - £5.8 million
Judd Trump - £5.6 million
Ricky Walden - £5.4 million
Stuart Bingham - £5.2 million
Mark Allen - £5 million
Shaun Murphy - £4.9 million
Stephen Maguire - £4.8 million
John Higgins - £4.7 million
Barry Hawkins - £4.6 million
Mark Williams £4.5 million
Joe Perry - £4.4 million
Marco Fu- £4.3 million
Robert Milkins £4.2 million
Martin Gould - £4 million
Alan McManus - £3.5 million
Michael White - £3.5 million
Mark Davis - £3.5 million
Ben Woollaston - £3.5 million
Ryan Day - £3.5 million
Matt Selt - £3.5 million
Graeme Dott - £3.5 million
Xiao Guodong - £3.5 million
Peter Ebdon - £3 million
Liang Wenbo - £3 million
Anthony McGill - £3 million
Ding Junhui - £3 million
Dominic Dale - £3 million
Luca Brecel - £3 million
Rod Lawler - £3 million
Michael Holt - £3 million


As always it's £8 million that is allocated to be spent on the two players of your choice, along with any leftover money you have, so pick wisely. That's all from me on the fantasy league for this week, so have another good week of picking!

Indian Open Preview

After 5 days at the Circus Arena in Blackpool last week for the World Seniors and Snooker Shoot-Out events, it's time to get back into some more ranking event action, and it's a very open event that we have ahead in my opinion as the Indian Open begins from Mumbai on Tuesday and comes to a conclusion on Saturday. With a number of top players like Selby, Neil Robertson, O'Sullivan, Murphy, Hawkins, Allen, Maguire and Bingham to name a few, choosing not to participate in this event, while Ali Carter has withdrawn unable to get a visa and it seems Marco Fu may have withdrawn with the same issue,  it leaves the event wide open for the remaining players that have entered. The reason for the lack of entries from the top players is purely and simply that the schedule surrounding this is so hectic that the weeks directly following this event see most of the top players going to Wales for the World Grand Prix, Thailand for the Players Championship Finals and then Beijing for the China Open and of course the World Championships at the Crucible are now only a month and a half away, so the opportunity to rest and get some good work on the practice table done for players with World Title aspirations was too good for most to miss.

As well as this, the event has a very short format with best-of-7 frames matches being played right up until a best-of-9 frames final which is quite frankly pathetic for a full ranking event with a top prize of £50,000 prize for what is effectively a glorified PTC event, the likes of which are only worth a £20,000 top prize in Europe. For those of us in the UK and Europe there is no coverage on the TV through the usual channel of Eurosport who cover all of the other major ranking events in Asia, so we will have to rely on streams via the World Snooker website and the known betting sites in order to watch the event. I'm not particularly impressed with the set-up for the tournament, and I will be surprised if this one remains on the calendar for much longer with top players not entering, and this has already been relocated from the originally scheduled dates in October to this new March setting because of elections in the capital.

Meanwhile, for those that have entered the event, it is a one of key importance as the first of three remaining ranking events ahead of the seedings cut off for the World Championship, so I'm sure the players at all points in the rankings will be jostling for position, and especially those hovering around the 64 mark in the rankings and looking to keep their tour places for next year.

Here is how the draw for this week looks then:

Quarter 1

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Ding Junhui Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh or Neeraj Kumar
Fergal O'Brien Vs Luca Brecel
Matthew Stevens Vs Gerard Greene
Liang Wenbo Vs Jamie Jones
Mark Davis Vs Anthony Hamilton
Anthony McGill Vs Tom Ford
Jamie Cope Vs Fraser Patrick
John Higgins Vs Jamie Burnett

There are plenty of players up in this quarter who can do some damage and will be eyeing a big run ahead of what lies ahead in the season. Luca Brecel is one of the men in form, along with John Higgins. Tom Ford and Jamie Cope are a couple of guys to watch in terms of keeping their tour places. While both are currently above the 64 line, they're not completely out of sight yet and could do with some more wins between now and the end of the season.

Liang Wenbo is a man in reasonable form at the moment, after a semi-final run at the German Masters where it took a brilliant Shaun Murphy to stop him, he's since been beaten in the Last 32 of the Welsh Open by eventual champion John Higgins and it took a superb David Gilbert to beat him in the same stage of the Gdynia Open, so it's been taking good performances to finish him off. Liang is very dangerous on his day but also pretty inconsistent, so he could as easily be beaten in the first round by Jamie Jones as he could go on a run to the quarter-finals. It'll be interesting to see what this week has in store for him.

Ding Junhui has been in pretty poor form this season, with no really notable runs in 2015 so far at all, and only one semi-final all season in September's Shanghai Masters for full ranking events that is. I think Ding's mistake has been missing the European Tour events. While other players have been hot on match practice he has come into a lot of events cold on that front, and another example of that is here with his first match being over 3 weeks since his first round exit to Lee Walker at the Welsh Open. This could be the week where Ding turns his season around as he looks towards the Crucible now, but with a potentially tough draw in the early stages it could just as easily be another very disappointing week.

John Higgins is one of the men in form at present having won the Welsh Open a couple of weeks ago, and that will make him full of confidence for the rest of the season after a lean couple of years for the Scot. A lot of inconsistencies were starting to creep into his game, and at points in matches he was missing more "easy" balls than ever in his career and as the standard is so high these days he's going to get punished more harshly if he does go missing in the middle of matches. Equally he could play one brilliant match one day and turn up the next day struggling for form and big breaks, which still showed a little in the Welsh Open, and isn't going to go away you wouldn't think at his age.

Mark Davis meanwhile, is flourishing in his older years, reaching the latter stages of tournaments on a number of occasions. This season has been a little more quiet for Davis but he is still a dangerous man, and performs very well in this PTC style best-of-7 style events, and he can certainly beat any of the other players in this quarter on his day. Not only can Mark score heavily, but he is a very gritty player and it usually takes someone on pretty good form to stop him, and the same will be the case this week.

Quarter Winner: Mark Davis

Quarter 2

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Joe Perry Vs Marcus Campbell
Rod Lawler Vs Sam Baird or Brijesh Damani
Ben Woollaston Vs Yu De Lu
Alan McManus Vs Kyren Wilson
Mark Joyce W/O Ali Carter
Tian Pengfei Vs Lu Haotian or Dharminer Lilly
Mark King Vs Aditya Mehta
Ricky Walden Vs Rory McLeod

Again we have plenty more players here capable of winning the quarter, along with one of the main home favourites. Although there are 6 Indian wildcards in this event, Aditya Mehta is now the only Indian player on the tour, and he will be looking to impress his home fans. Meanwhile, Ricky Walden, Joe Perry and recent Welsh Open runner-up Ben Woollaston will be the main guys in contention to make the semi's from this group you'd think.

Ricky Walden had a good run to the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open, but his continued issues with a shoulder injury are going to make life very difficult for him as he goes through events that are very quick fire in nature like this one, and from personal experience I know that any back, neck or shoulder injuries like this are very difficult to shift and can take a lot of work to get over, which of course heavily affects the snooker not only because of the pain on shots, but because of the effects this has on the practice routine. However, for someone like Ricky, he can still do very well if he finds his range and rhythm very early on in the match because he is a very nice rhythm player and relies on this rhythm to score and play well, as we saw when he took the International Championship title.

Joe Perry is someone who has been in impressive form over the last couple of years, winning a couple of Asian Tour events (which to be honest aren't too dissimilar from this event this week), as well as a run to the Wuxi Classic final at the beginning of the season where he just couldn't get over the line and win his first ever full ranking event title. I think the Asian Tour wins are standing Perry in good stead now and he's really impressing me with his form, which has included a run to the Gdynia Open quarter-finals last weekend, and even his second Asian Tour title only came at the end of January, so he's playing well at the moment. I think someone could come along and win his first ever ranking title this week, and the top candidate for that in my mind is Joe.

Quarter Winner: Joe Perry

Quarter 3

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Judd Trump Vs Peter Lines
Gary Wilson Vs Adam Duffy or Sumit Talwar
Peter Ebdon Vs Zhou Yuelong
Mark Williams Vs Eden Sharav
Graeme Dott Vs Robin Hull
David Gilbert Vs David Morris
Ken Doherty Vs Joe Swail
Robert Milkins Vs Mike Dunn

First up, we have a couple of amateurs in the section who were able to qualify in the shape of Adam Duffy and Eden Sharav, so well done to those two. Out of the rest, Joe Swail and Robin Hull are two guys who are looking to get into the top 64 and save their tour places. Swail would qualify via the European top 8 not already qualified list, but Hull has a small mountain to climb knowing he has around £10,000 to make up on 64th place, or it'll be back to Q School or possibly the European Amateur Championships if he wants to continue his pro career. Judd Trump, Robert Milkins, Mark Williams and Peter Ebdon will be a few of the favourites to win the quarter outright.

Mark Williams has to be one of the favourites for this title this week, cueing as well as he is right now. He breezed to last weeks World Seniors title (probably because he's only 39!) and only a few days before that he reached the final of the Gdynia Open, which didn't come long after a run to the semi-finals of his home event in Cardiff. Mark has also had a little success in Asia this season, getting to the semi-finals of the International Championship. Williams has been working a lot on his health and fitness, which would appear to be standing him in good stead and there's nothing like a lot of good results in quick succession to boost your confidence, and secretly he'll be as determined as ever to continue doing well.

Judd Trump always does a fine job in these short format events, as he showed in cruising to the Gdynia Open quarter-finals before losing to eventual champion Neil Robertson. He looks to be back to his best this season after a quiet year or two and after final appearances in the Champion of Champions and UK Championships he hasn't quite gotten going in 2015. A first round exit at the Masters was not in his script, and he was unlucky to lose out in the German Masters quarter-finals, before a poor show in the Welsh Open last 16. Judd is probably the favourite with the bookies to win this event, and that would simply be because of the ease that he could breeze through this draw if he is on top form, but something tells me he won't be having it all his own way this week.

Robert Milkins comes into this event 17th in the Provisional seedings for the World Championships with a small mountain to climb if he's going to break into the top 16 and qualify automatically for the Crucible. However, he knows that if he could win this quarter and make the semi's or final of this event that would be a huge boost to his hopes and that could make him very determined to go far this week. Again, Milkins is a man that you expect to do well in the short format, and his runs on the European Tour have been impressive with one final and another quarter-final in there from just last weekend. In fact, if you go back to late October, with the cut off for the Masters getting close, Robert Milkins made the semi-finals of the International Championships to squeeze into the top 16 for the Masters. He even said that there was still time to get in, using that example as his reason for thinking that. He is very similar to Ricky Walden in that they are both very nice rhythm players, and when everything clicks they can be unstoppable, but when things start to go wrong, they really do go wrong. As he is in decent form and in need of a big week, I'm going to say that this could be another week where things click for Robert.

Quarter Winner: Robert Milkins

Quarter 4

Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Carrington W/O Marco Fu
Li Hang Vs Allan Taylor
Matt Selt Vs Joel Walker
Michael White Vs Cao Yupeng
Ryan Day Vs Nigel Bond or Faisal Khan
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon
Chris Wakelin Vs Rhys Clark or Pankaj Advani
Andrew Pagett Vs Zach Richardson

There are a couple of amateur qualifiers again in this section as Zach Richardson got a bye over Barry Hawkins in qualifying and Rhys Clark overcame Kurt Maflin. Rhys though has not only been unlucky to draw a wildcard, but even more unlucky that that wildcard is former tour pro Pankaj Advani who was still on the tour last season, before giving up his tour card to concentrate on his Billiards career. Nigel Bond is the main man here who is looking at his tour place, needing victories to put himself further clear of dropping out of the top 64, presently sitting right on the cut off line. Who are the main contenders for this quarter? Well, Michael White, Ryan Day and Matt Selt are a few that jump off of the page at me here.

Ryan Day is having a mixed time of things at the moment. It seemed as though he was in good touch at the German Masters where he lost out in a quarter-final deciding frame, but that didn't last long with Last 64 defeats in the Welsh Open and Gdynia Open. However, looking at his section in the draw he is clearly the strongest player in his section of 8 players (and two wildcards) looking for a quarter-final place. So, if he can knuckle down and get going this week there is a chance to potentially play himself into some form.

Michael White will be full of confidence coming out to India this week as the Snooker Shoot-Out champion. I don't care what you say about it being a meaningless tournament for snooker fans and a format that doesn't work or isn't popular, getting your first professional title is always special, and there's nothing like winning a title and £32,000, especially when you're a young player like Michael is. It could work for White as it did for Hawkins when he went on to win his first ranking title little over 6 months afterwards, and a lot of people were already saying before this that Michael White is the next most likely first time ranking event winner, and to be honest with the draw as it is with a lot of top players missing, this is an opportunity for someone this week, and you wonder if Michael could be the man to take that chance.

Matt Selt has been one of the most improved tour players over the last year and he's really been knuckling down and working very hard on his game to get to the levels he is currently showing. Top performances in the Asian Tour and European Tour events this season have seen him finish high up on the order of merit on both of those to qualify for the Players Championship finals. I expect Selt to go on a big run at a major ranking event very soon, and the way the draw looks with no recognised top sixteen players in this quarter, and with the best-of-7 frames format he's been going very well under in the last year, particularly to reach the Lisbon Open final and 2014 Gdynia Open semi's, you could certainly see him being the man to take the bull by the horns and charge through the draw if he senses the same opportunity.

Quarter Winner: Matt Selt 

Tournament Runner-Up: Robert Milkins

Tournament Winner: Joe Perry


Whatever the outcomes of this week, I'm sure good snooker will be played even if it is over a short format and with many of the top players missing, although from my personal opinion the time difference between the UK and India along with the lack of TV coverage makes it a very unappealing event to me, but at the end of the week, someone will have another full ranking event title and that will be important as the run up to the Crucible next month really gets going.

FANTASY SNOOKER LEAGUE: Points update and India Info

After a week off from the blog after the Gdynia Open, it's time for me to come back and update the points for my Cue Action Blog Fantasy League, along with giving all of you Fantasy League players the necessary information to make your picks for this weeks upcoming Indian Open which starts in the early hours of Tuesday morning, UK Time.

We're not here to mess about though, so let's have a look at how the points table looks after updating all of the points from last weekends Gdynia Open. Also, to save all of you asking, I'm going to put in brackets next to each player how much money he has built up through leftovers.

1st: Andrew Brooker - 491 points (7 Million leftover)
2nd: Gorkem Kurt - 408 points (0 Million leftover)
3rd: Ezgi Ulutas - 403 points (2.5 Million leftover)
4th: Gary - 374 points (2 Million leftover)
5th: Michael Coudray - 370 points (3 Million leftover)
6th: SnookerFollower - 358 points (4.3 Million leftover)
7th: Sean - 350 points (13.2 Million leftover)
8th: LTD - 309 points (1.5 Million leftover)
9th: Guillermo - 292 points (1 Million leftover)
10th: TungstenDarts - 273 points (8 Million leftover)
11th: Anthony Ward - 272 points (8 Million leftover)
12th: Kjetil - 234 points (15 Million leftover)


Right then, back to this week now and here's the information for the Indian Open:

INDIAN OPEN: (DEADLINE TUESDAY 10TH MARCH at 5.30AM UK TIME)

The news for this week is that there are of course 64 players that have qualified for the venue in Mumbai, and because of that I'm just going to say that the players will be priced up on ranking according to the pricing bracket that was used for the Welsh Open, to save me individually pricing up 64 names, and if there are any queries I can again be contacted via Twitter in the usual way. The only other thing to note is that there are 6 Indian Wildcards in the draw, these players are not available to be chosen and Wildcard round matches do not carry any points on them, so don't pick the six pros involved in wildcard games, eyeing it as an opportunity to score extra points. Finally, there were around 4 or 5 amateur players that came through the qualifiers, but as these players do not have a ranking, they are not available to be picked for this tournament.

Thanks very much for your time as always, and if there are any issues with tipping please let me know. Otherwise, enjoy your picking for this week.

Fantasy Snooker: Points Update and Gdynia Players

After a busy week of snooker at the Welsh Open, I've updated all of the points for that tournament and of course made the plans for the next tournament which is this weekends Gdynia Open European Tour event 6 which sees an even busier weekend.

Updated Points after the Welsh Open:

1st: Andrew Brooker 473 points
2nd: SnookerFollower 358 points
2nd: Ezgi Ulutas 358
4th: Michael Coudray 348 points
5th: Gary 325 points
6th: Sean 312 points
7th: Gorkem Kurt 307 points
8th: TungstenDarts 273 points
9th: LTD 270 points
10th: Anthony Ward 248 points
11th: Guillermo 240 points
12th: Kjetil 202 points

As you can see, still nothing in it really from 2nd to 7th in the points table, and I'm sure there could be some important swings in Gdynia this week so it's important to make some good picks.

Gdynia Open: (Deadline Friday 27th February 8am)

Rather than me listing all of the players in the event, it will be a lot simpler for me to say that most of the players will be priced up in the same way as last weeks Welsh Open so it is best for you to make your picks based on that, and if you have any concerns about money or a players price simply tweet me in the usual way.

Otherwise it's the same story for this week in that you can pick two players with the £8 million allocated for you to spend, along with any leftover money from previous tournaments.


The last word from me this week is simply to say: Good Luck and Happy Tipping!!!

European Tour 6: Gdynia Open Preview - A Huge Weekend

Friday sees the beginning of the Professional stages of the sixth and final European Tour event of the season as the snooker tour goes back to Poland for the Gdynia Open. As the final European Tour event of the season it's going to be a huge three days of snooker, with plenty to play for this week. Naturally, there are a large amount of players fighting for places in the top 24 in the Order of Merit to get into the Players Championship Finals and join the eight players qualifying via the Asian Order of Merit. Also, the top eight players not already qualified to stay on the tour for next season by currently sitting in the top 64 on the end of season seedings list, will earn a two year tour card via the Euro order of merit. The Gdynia Open also marks the final event of qualifying for the World Grand Prix, with the top 32 on a money list from the beginning of the 2014 World Championships to the end of this tournament getting in. Meanwhile, the guys hovering around the 64 mark a few places either side will want good runs in order to help their chances of staying on the tour for next season, and after all of that there is a tournament to win as well.

Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Allen and Barry Hawkins are the notable absentees from this event, which also means O'Sullivan won't be in the Players Championship Finals having not already qualified, unlike the other three. Shaun Murphy is obviously the top seed, as the seedings are done for these tournaments based on the European Order of merit, with Shaun winning both of events 3 and 4 this season. Shaun is also the defending champion this week though and I'm sure it would mean a lot for him to have a good run at defending the title that sparked the turnaround we've seen in him in the last year. Of course all three days of professional action from Friday to Sunday will be broadcast on Eurosport in Britain and on the continent and their coverage of the European Tour events has been superb so far this season so hopefully that keeps up.


Let's take a look at how the draw lines up for what really is a vital weekend:

Quarter 1

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Shaun Murphy Vs Jak Jones
Allan Taylor Vs Zak Surety
Kyren Wilson Vs Andrew Pagett
Joe Swail W/O Zhou Yuelong
Mark King Vs Dave Harold
Graeme Dott Vs Lu Ning
Kurt Maflin Vs Amateur Qualifier
Alan McManus Vs Amateur Qualifier
Michael White Vs Mitchell Mann
Craig Steadman Vs Amateur Qualifier
Noppon Saengkham Vs Michael Georgiou
Dominic Dale Vs Amateur Qualifier
Marco Fu Vs Vinnie Calabrese
Chris Melling Vs Chris Norbury
Ben Woollaston Vs Barry Pinches
Robert Milkins Vs Amateur Qualifier

There are a few guys in this section with plenty to play for and one of the main guys on that front is Joe Swail, while Jak Jones needs a couple of wins to try and get a tour card via the order of merit route, but a first round tie with Shaun Murphy is going to make that very tough. Allan Taylor is a nice £600 ahead of the likes of Jak Jones and is currently the 6th highest ranked player not already qualified, so a first round win against Zak Surety would put him fairly safe, but on the flip side he certainly does need that win or he may well lose that place. Andrew Pagett needs a small miracle to be honest, as probably only a run to the quarter-finals would get him a tour card via the EOoM, but he's supposedly giving up snooker at the end of the season anyway, realising he has no chance of staying on tour. Dominic Dale could still qualify for the Tour Finals here, but again he would need to reach the quarter-finals and I don't think his form is quite good enough to do that.

Joe Swail has interests all over the place in the different ranking lists. His walkover in the first round further consolidates that if he does finish outside of the top 64 at the end of the season, he will pick up a brand new two year tour card via the European Order of Merit, as he is currently the 2nd highest player not already qualified for next  year and is well clear of 9th on that front. That doesn't end Swail's interests on the European Order of merit as his walkover against Zhou Yuelong has lifted him into 28th place and just £800 behind 24th place, but his walkover there does mean that he would have to get to at least the Last 16 to have any chance of breaking into the top 24, and his possible Last 32 opponent could be Shaun Murphy, so it certainly won't come easy given that Shaun is the top seed with good reason.

Mark King is also looking to qualify for the Players Championship Finals, but is in the much greater position of 19th on the order of merit and around £700 clear of 25th place and dropping out of the qualifying spots. All that Mark really needs to do is to win his opening round game and that should see him nicely qualified, and that Last 128 match is against Dave Harold, who has been on a horrible run of form this season, and Kingy has been playing decent as always so I expect him to win that one comfortably.

Noppon Saengkham's eyes are firmly on saving his tour spot this weekend. The Thai is in the 4th spot for players not already qualified to get a tour card via the European order of merit and he shouldn't have any problems getting a new two year tour card via that avenue. On the other hand, Noppon is only 69th on the provisional end of season seedings and around £11,000 behind 64th place so a good run this weekend could perhaps help his bid to save his tour card in the regular fashion, but not qualifying for both China and India has well and truly hurt his cause on that front, and a tough first round draw this weekend against in-form Michael Georgiou, isn't going to see things getting any easier for him.

Marco Fu comes into this event as someone that cannot afford an early exit, which can sometimes happen with Marco because of his inconsistent traits. He is 20th on the European Order of Merit coming into this event and is £700 ahead of 25th place. I can't see Marco slipping up and out of this top 24 mind you, and he seemed to be in reasonable form in Wales so he is certainly a contender for a very good run this week, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see him make the quarter-finals by any means.

Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy is the defending Gdynia Open champion from last season, but is the top seed for this event by winning two of the five European Tour events this season in Bulgaria and Germany for events three and four, meaning he's won 50% of the last six ET events and can certainly go far again this week. Shaun's been cueing well this season, and despite an early exit at the Welsh Open, he'll still be confident and with a lot less pressure on his shoulders than he was under this time last year when he needed a good week to secure his place in the Players Championship Finals. If you let Shaun relax and play his natural game he's always an incredibly dangerous player and one of the favourites for any event.


Quarter Winner: Shaun Murphy

Quarter 2

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Matt Selt Vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Amateur Qualifier
Oliver Lines Vs Amateur Qualifier
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Amateur Qualifier
Neil Robertson Vs Amateur Qualifier
Anthony Hamilton Vs Michael Leslie
Fraser Patrick Vs Tony Drago
Chris Wakelin Vs David Grace
Ricky Walden Vs Amateur Qualifier
Mark Joyce Vs Amateur Qualifier
Jamie Cope Vs Jack Lisowski
John Higgins Vs Cao Xin Long
Jamie Jones Vs Ian Burns
Mike Dunn W/O Lu Haotian
Jimmy White Vs Jamie Burnett
Judd Trump Vs Amateur Qualifier

Again there are quite a few things for us to keep an eye on with the guys in this quarter, but most of the stuff seems to have sorted itself out nicely. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is 63rd on the end of season money list, so could do with all the money he can get to ensure his tour survival, but a run to the final of the Asian Tour event 3 has put him in the Players Championship Finals already giving him a nice money boost. Dechawat Poomjaeng is 31st on the Order of Merit, but only £800 behind 24th place and a run to the Last 16 would certainly put him in the mix for a tour finals place. Fraser Patrick is 3rd out of the players not already qualified and is a cool £2,500 clear of the ninth so his tour card is sealed, along with Chris Wakelin who is 17th on the order of merit and should make the tour finals too. Jimmy White is 5th on this list and a nice 1.5k clear of the ninth place so only a catastrophe would see him fail to regain his tour card, but he is 68th on the End of Season rankings and 9k behind 64th, so a good run this week and he might not need that tour card come May. Jimmy though does have a very tough draw for this week.

Jamie Jones has one thing on his mind this weekend in terms of the ranking lists and that is qualification for the Players Championship Finals. The Welshman is presently 28th on the Order of Merit, and around £800 away from 24th place and qualifying which means he could be in with a big shout if he can get two or three wins. His first round opponent is Ian Burns which presents a tricky match, but certainly one that he'll go into as the favourite, and fancy his chances of winning, while thanks to a walkover, he knows that his Last 64 opponent would be Mike Dunn if Jamie can beat Burns, and again he'd fancy his chances of getting a victory there if he can get that far. Overall, it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Jamie can make it into the Players Championship Finals.

John Higgins still has a chance of getting into the Tour Finals sitting £1,200 behind 24th place in the listings with the knowledge that a run to the quarter-finals would put him in very good position to qualify for Thailand next month. Of course Higgins is the man to beat after winning the Welsh Open last week, and if he can continue that form this week there is no reason why he can't run deep in this event and break into the top 24. One thing standing in his way is a much tougher draw than the one he faced in Wales. A possible Last 32 meeting with Ricky Walden and a potential Last 16 tie with Judd Trump, make reaching the last 8 a much tougher ask than it seems on paper, and it's always made tougher in these best-of-7 sprints.

Judd Trump is under no pressure at all this weekend, so again he can relax safe in the knowledge that not only has he qualified for the Tour Finals next month, but that he will also be one of the top 16 seeds to be drawn against the bottom 16 seeds in the actual event. Judd is another player in great form this season, though more in the first half than since Christmas, but he can take steps towards righting that with a big run this weekend.

Neil Robertson is a man whose Tour Finals spot is hardly a certainty as yet, sitting in the exact same seat as Marco Fu in 20th place in the order of merit around £700 clear of 25th place, but in a similar vain to Marco, I don't expect him to lose early on this week, especially not to an amateur qualifier which is who he will face in the Last 128. However, Neil will be determined not just to seal his place in the Grand Finals, but to win the event and get the best possible seeding and I certainly wouldn't rule him out of that. Neil has won this event before, a couple of seasons ago, so he will have good memories of playing in Gdynia, and he has been playing decent stuff on and off since Christmas without really going on and winning a title after his Masters final thrashing and unlucky quarter-final defeat at the German Masters. A big run here in Poland this weekend would make him feel a bit better, and put a lot of this right.

Quarter Winner: Neil Robertson

Quarter 3

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Mark Selby Vs Rory McLeod
Tian Pengfei Vs Amateur Qualifier
Liam Highfield Vs Ian Glover
Stuart Bingham Vs Amateur Qualifier
Mark Williams Vs Lee Page
James Cahill Vs Tom Ford
Andrew Higginson Vs Peter Lines
Rod Lawler Vs Ali Carter
Anthony McGill Vs John Astley
Gary Wilson Vs Marcus Campbell
Zhang Anda W/O Xiao Guodong
Joe Perry Vs Matthew Stevens
David Gilbert Vs Amateur Qualifier
Mark Davis Vs Amateur Qualifier

As we look at the bottom half of the draw, there are still as many things to keep an eye on this weekend, though this quarter does have markedly less. Joe Perry in this quarter is the 24th man on the European Order of merit, but having qualified via the Asian Tour for the Players Championship, that simply means that the European listing would get the extra place. Tom Ford faces a tough match with James Cahill as he sits around £6,000 of 64th place on the end of season rankings, while Marcus Campbell also has a tough draw sitting in 66th place and in big trouble.

James Cahill again has his tour place destiny presently in his own hands, as he sits in the 7th tour card qualification spot on the European Order of Merit, but only £400 clear of Elliot Slessor who is just outside of the places. James has a very tough match against Tom Ford in the first round and if he were to lose to Tom there, the likelihood is that Stuart Carrington and Elliot Slessor would both leapfrog and leave him in the position where he would probably drop off of the tour. Arguably, despite reaching the UK Championship Last 16 this season, you could say his match with Tom Ford is the biggest match of his career so far, because if he loses he will probably have to go back through Q School to regain his tour place.

Rod Lawler has interest this weekend in the World Grand Prix Money list, as he sits in 32nd place, with the top 32 qualifying and he is only around £1,000 clear of 33rd place Fergal O'Brien. Even though Fergal may have to make the Last 16, while a Last 32 berth could see him sneak in, Rod has an incredibly tough match in the Last 128 round against Ali Carter, and if he does lose to Ali there, that throws the doors wide open for Fergal to try and pounce. That match then for Rod is set to be a huge one then, and he'll go into the match as second favourite against a player of Ali's class.

Mark Williams will have his main target of the week in the back of his mind, and that is ensuring qualification for the Players Championship Finals. He is 22nd on the order of merit and around £500 clear of 25th place, so he you still feel that he needs a couple of wins to make certain his trip to Thailand for the finals. His first round opponent is Lee Page and I can't honestly see Mark losing to Lee. Mark Williams is in good form though and will be happy with his run to the Welsh Open semi-finals which is his second major ranking event semi-final of the season after his run to the International Championships in October, and the Welshman is again in with a good chance of another good run this week, and you wouldn't rule him out of a big run in this quarter and the event as a whole. Mark's is a similar situation of course to Shaun Murphy's of last year when he came to Gdynia without a title of any kind in some time, and scrapping for a tour finals spot, yet he went on to win the tournament. I don't think we can rule out the same eventually for Williams here either.

Joe Perry is presently that man occupying that 24th place on the European order of merit, but he has no need to finish in the top 24 on the list, having finished in the top 8 on the Asian Tour rankings after his victory at Asian Tour event 3. He is only £100 ahead of the chasing pack and could well be overtaken here as his first round opponent is a very tough one against Matthew Stevens, though I expect Perry to come through. In fact, after two wins on the Asian Tour, it may be about time that Joe Perry started to show what he can do properly in these European events, so don't be surprised that with the pressure off, he does well this weekend.

Mark Selby also has no pressure upon his shoulders either having qualified for the Tour Finals after winning the very first European Tour event in Riga, so he can relax this weekend, looking to continue on with his good form. Mark won the recent German Masters, and although he was knocked out by Luca Brecel at the Last 16 stage in Cardiff, he's still playing very good snooker at the moment and seems to have found his range now after some struggles this season. His draw isn't the easiest to go on far and run deep this weekend, but when has that ever stopped Mark?

Stuart Bingham is 25th on the order of merit coming into this week and £100 behind Joe Perry, but again the King of the Asian Tour has once again qualified via that order of merit, winning the second Asian Tour event this time to win yet another PTC event out in China. Despite all of his success in Asian Tour events, Stuart still hasn't quite come into his own at these European Tour events as I expected him to this season, and I thought he'd make at least a semi-final in one of these events, but it certainly isn't too late for him to do that now. The Championship league overall victory a couple of weeks ago would've boosted his confidence, and given him plenty of match practice, so he will certainly come into this tournament feeling sharp and a good run is certainly a great possibility.

Quarter Winner: Stuart Bingham

Quarter 4

Last 128 Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Peter Ebdon Vs Scott Donaldson
Sam Baird W/O Ahmed Saif
Elliot Slessor Vs Amateur Qualifier
Jimmy Robertson Vs Amateur Qualifier
Fergal O'Brien Vs Lu Chenwei
Ryan Day Vs Ken Doherty
Gerard Greene Vs Alfie Burden
Martin Gould Vs Amateur Qualifier
Luca Brecel Vs Hammad Miah
Michael Holt Vs Igor Figueiredo
Nigel Bond Vs Alex Davies
Aditya Mehta Vs Robin Hull
Michael Wasley Vs Steven Hallworth
Stuart Carrington Vs Amateur Qualifier
Joel Walker Vs Amateur Qualifier
Stephen Maguire Vs Ross Muir

This quarter is certainly the one to watch for twists and turns on all four counts to keep check of in this tournament that I outlined at the beginning of the piece. Jimmy Robertson is 28th on the Order of merit and only around £800 away from 24th, but having already from the Asian order of merit for Tour finals the extra place would simply go to the Euro order of merit were he to get into the top 24, and the same goes for Ryan Day who is 26th on the order of merit and only around £300 behind 24th place. Fergal O'Brien is one man with the most realistic chance of getting into the World Grand Prix that doesn't currently sit in the top 32, as he is 33rd on that list and around £1,000 behind, so if he could get into the last 16 he would have a genuine chance. Ken Doherty is 34th on that list, and also in this quarter but he is so far behind that only a semi-final finish for Ken would see him in with a shout. Nigel Bond meanwhile, is currently the lucky man sitting in 64th on the end of season seedings and is around £5,000 clear of 65th so he needs good performances in basically all events to keep himself one step ahead, but a tough first round match against Alex Davies could make things very interesting here. Robin Hull is 70th on the end of season seedings and may be £11,000 behind but having qualified for China and India and with the World qualifiers to come he is still in with a chance, and a couple of wins this weekend would do him no harm, and his first round game with Aditya Mehta has a lot riding on it. Alfie Burden has a tough first round tie with Gerard Greene, and he is only £7,000 clear of 65th place in his current position of 60th on those end of season seedings.

Elliot Slessor is a man who is clinging on to hope of getting a tour card for next season, as he searches for one via the EOoM standings. He is presently the 9th best player on this list to not already have a tour card provisionally for next season, and is £300 away from getting into that top 8 not already qualified where he needs to be, and that is simply the difference of one match. His first round draw sees him play an amateur qualifier though, and £400 behind James Cahill a man he can catch playing Tom Ford, things could certainly turn around in Elliot's favour, but only time will tell.

Stuart Carrington is in a very similar position to Elliot, though he is the 8th highest player on the EOoM not already qualified for next year, but only being £300 ahead of Elliot he has to win his first round game. Stuart is also 67th on the End of season rankings and is £9,000 away from 64th place, so he can still theoretically save himself by the ordinary means of getting into the top 64. A good run here won't hurt on either count though, and his first round draw sees him play an amateur qualifier, so he could certainly have had tougher as he looks for at least one win.

Luca Brecel has interest on two order of merits as he looks to qualify for two tournaments this weekend. Firstly, he is 18th on the European Order of merit and sits £800 clear of 24th place, so he should be able to seal his spot in the Players Championship Finals this weekend, but a first round win should guarantee him that spot. Things are also tight for him on the World Grand Prix seedings where he is currently 31st after his good run of form that saw him make the Welsh Open semi-finals last week. Again a win or two this weekend should see him qualify in the top 32 of that list quite nicely and get him some more good tournament experience. With the draw he has first up against Hammad Miah, and the good run of form he is on at the moment, I can certainly see things turning out his way.

Michael Holt is struggling at the moment having failed recently to get past the Last 128 stage by losing both of his qualifiers for India and Beijing, but also suffering a first round exit in Wales, so he could certainly do with qualifying for the World Grand Prix, where things currently hang in the balance. He needs a victory in his tough match against Igor Figueiredo you would feel to be certain of his qualification, presently sitting in 30th, but with a potential Last 64 clash with Luca. I fancy that Michael will just about be in the World Grand Prix next month though.

Aditya Mehta has interest in one particular thing this weekend, and that is qualification for the Players Championship Finals. He presently sits in 27th, but with 24th, 25th and 26th coming into this event, qualifying by the Asian Tour rankings he would presently be the 24th man via this list. He is only £400 behind 24th placed Joe Perry anyway, but the key will rest in his first round match I feel with Robin Hull. Robin is a very tough player and I fancy that Hull has a very good chance of beating him. If Mehta does get through though I'd fancy him to carry on and get to the Last 32 and that would certainly put him well and truly in the mix for Players Championship finals qualification.

Michael Wasley is also eyeing qualification for the Players Championship Grand Finals, and at 23rd in the present Euro Order of Merit, the ball is firmly in his court coming into this weekend. He is only £300 clear of 25th such is how tight it really is around these final qualifying spots, and one slip up could see him right out of the qualifying positions. The question is, will he slip up in the first round against Steven Hallworth? If Steven can push Michael like he did Shaun Murphy in the Welsh Open last week, than he'll certainly be in with a chance of upsetting Michael's apple cart.

Peter Ebdon sticks out as one of the biggest players in this quarter of the draw, particularly as he has qualified for the Tour Finals already, so has no worries on that front, and he's certainly been in very good form this season with a run to the semi-finals in Bulgaria, while he made the quarter-finals of one of the Asian Tour events earlier in the season too and the only man that has been able to stop him in the last two major ranking events is Mark Selby, at both the Last 16 stage in Berlin, but also the Last 32 stage in Cardiff. I think this all points to Peter having another nice run this weekend, and I think he'll make it to at least the Last 16 on Sunday given the form he has been showing.

Stephen Maguire is at the very top of his game at the moment at the moment it would seem. He has had good runs in basically every event since and including the UK Championships. It was a tournament victory in Lisbon straight after the UK's that ensured that he would qualify for the Tour Finals next month, and runs to the semi-finals in the German Masters and UK Championships as well as quarter-finals in the Welsh Open and the Masters have threatened that there is certainly a lot more to come from the Scotsman's cue, and his early round draws don't look particularly tough, so he looks like being a good bet for this weekend too.

Quarter Winner: Stephen Maguire

Tournament Runner-Up: Stephen Maguire

Tournament Winner: Neil Robertson 


It's sure to be a tight and a very exciting weekend of snooker for us to watch as fans and viewers, but one things for certain, there's going to be a lot of tension out in the arena with lots of players playing for a lot of different causes. It's always tough to keep a blog updated with results and news during the long days of these European Tour events, but I will try my best to tweet all of the important results, so those of you following the blogs account @CueActionBlog have that to look forward to.