A few early details on the week are that we have 4 "groups" that will be played on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (a day off given on Thursday so there isn't a clash with ITV4's Europa League football coverage) before the semi-finals on Saturday and the final on Sunday. The format for the groups sees two best-of-7 group semi-finals in the afternoon before the winners of these two games play each other in the group final that evening over the best-of-11 so busy days for the players. Then on Saturday the semi-finals will see the winner of group 1 play the winner of group 4 and the winner of group 2 play the winner of group 3 over the best of 11 frames before the best-of-19 frames final on Sunday.
In terms of ITV4's coverage it's very much the same deal as last year with Jill Douglas presenting things while Clive Everton, Neal Foulds and Alan McManus provide delightful commentary in the box and analysis between frames and matches back in the studio. I can't wait for the full afternoons and evenings that will be covered by ITV4 with the same brilliant set-up they had last year sure to be employed by them, and fully praised by us fans once again.
Now it's time for me to take a look at each of the groups in turn, looking at the 4 players in each, how they've qualified and how I expect them to run this week in Coventry.
Group 1 (Wednesday)
Group Semi-Finals Draw:Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Stuart Bingham
Shaun Murphy Vs Marco Fu
Defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan as always will be one of the hot favourites for this week. The Premier league was one of his favourite events so he'd have been thrilled to win it's replacement event in it's first year last year. As well as being defending champion Ronnie also qualifies via wins at the Masters and Welsh Open earlier this year. He played in the International Championships in China last week so it will be interesting to see how he goes in back to back tournaments with a fair bit of travelling wedged in between. However, Ronnie looked in good form on the way to the quarter-finals, although when truly tested for the first time against Mark Williams he struggled a little. The good news for O'Sullivan fans ahead of this week I guess is that this tournament is in the UK and not China, because Ronnie isn't a fan of all of the travelling, and feels much more comfortable at home in English events in front of really big crowds cheering him on, which is something he misses a little big during games in China. Putting that all together I think you'd be a fool to say that he won't be right up there for the victory this week.
Last years runner-up Stuart Bingham has got a very tough group semi-finals against Ronnie O'Sullivan to start him off in a repeat of last years final which of course Ronnie won. Stuart has beaten him since then in last years UK Championship, but overall O'Sullivan has the better of the head to head between them. Stuart has been in good form in 2014, especially in the last few months with wins in the Shanghai Masters and a couple of Asian Tour events this season and last to put him into the Champion of Champions. I guess the thing for Bingham is turning these big wins in Asia into big wins in the UK, and he certainly has the confidence and support behind him to make it happen, whether that is this week or not. With such a tough game first up, he may be on the back foot from the start but if he can come through that start he'll have as good a chance as any of taking the title this week.
Shaun Murphy is another of the men in form right now after his win in Bulgaria and making the final of the non-sanctioned invitational General Cup in Hong Kong. He qualified for this event with that win in the Bulgarian Open last month as well as earlier wins in 2014 at the Gdynia Open and the Haikou World Open so it's been a very productive year for Murphy. The win in Gdynia allowed him to re-discover all of that confidence and belief that he'd lost over the couple of years previous. He may have under performed recently in Chengdu, losing in the Last 32 but I think that part of that could well have been from having 3 weeks away from home and I'm sure he'll be happy to be back in the UK now and with a few days at home before he has to play in Coventry, he'll be fresh and raring to go once again. His record against Marco Fu is good with wins recently in the General Cup, World Championships and the Masters in January. With good form and confidence behind him, I think Shaun is a good candidate to make it to at least reach the group final, though whether he gets any further could well depend on the player that faces him.
Marco Fu qualified for this event as the highest ranked player not already qualified and I think that sums up the last year for Marco Fu pretty well. He's been inconsistent with his performances this year and never really looked like winning a tournament since making the final of the International Championships a year ago. Since then it's been a very mixed bag for Marco with early round exits at the UK's, German Masters and Shanghai Masters amongst other events, and while he made the quarter-finals of the International Championship this week, he had to battle hard in a lot of those games and he only really looked good from start to finish in the game he lost against Robert Milkins. If Marco is to be the best players at the best events and have good runs he needs to find some consistency in his game, and I'm sure that will come if he continues to work hard, which needs to be his goal in the short term.
Group Finalist: Shaun Murphy
Group Winner: Ronnie O'Sullivan
Group 2 (Tuesday)
Group Semi-Finals Draw:Mark Selby Vs Steve Davis
Judd Trump Vs Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby is the lead man in group 2 and the leading man in the tournament really as World Champion and World number 1. This season has been slowing in starting for Mark really having not entered Australia, or qualified for the recent International Championships. He did however win the Riga Open very early in the season as well as reaching the Shanghai Masters semi-finals. The key for Mark in this event is that he will be very fresh having had almost a month off from competition, and he's a threat in every tournament he enters big or small, but this is the beginning of a busy period for Selby now, so I expect his game to be finely tuned for this week after plenty of rest and hard practice. With a nice game to ease himself into the event as well, I think when things get tougher he'll thrive on them.
Steve Davis is here as the World Seniors Champion, but as a man that is no longer a full time playing member of the tour it's going to be hard for him to come here and get any kind of a respectable result against the World champion and World No.1, but it'll be nice to see him competing on the big stage, because at the end of the day his time playing in these events is coming to an end.
Judd Trump qualified for this event thanks to winning the Championship League in March and then the Australian Open at the beginning of July, his first full ranking event win for nearly 2 years. Judd's looked in reasonably good touch this season despite an early exit at the International Championship. He's also gone well in the European Tour events at the start of this season and his confidence seems to be right up again and he'll fancy his chances of having a really big run this week. Judd is another player that thrives on the big crowds in these big UK events and that will surely spur him on this week (and certainly a lot more than the virtually non-existent crowds in China), but with the first round being best-of-7 and playing a tough player like Stephen Maguire he'll need to get going fast or he can go home.
Stephen Maguire has managed to qualify for this tournament by winning the invitational Six Reds World Championship in Thailand, but in regular events his form has been very poor and he needs to sharpen up ahead of this week. He suffered an early exit in the International Championships, simply because he couldn't kill the match off against Noppon Saengkham because (based on the frame scores and breaks in the match) he was by far the better player. The one thing that will immediately fire Stephen Maguire up this week after a very poor season of early exits in most, if not all tournaments, is the fact that he's playing Judd Trump in the first round. There's something about his meetings with Judd that really seems to fire the Scotsman up, which is evident from the 9-2 lead that Maguire holds on the recent head to head. Often the head to head doesn't give a player any advantage, but that's a little bit different when you know you've beaten a top top player in virtually all of your meetings in the last 2 or 3 years. His match with Judd will be a very good one, and I'm sure it'll go down to the wire, but going into the group final I don't think that will help the winner out too much.
Group Finalist: Stephen Maguire
Group Winner: Mark Selby
Group 3 (Friday)
Group Semi-Finals Draw:Neil Robertson Vs Ali Carter
Mark Allen Vs Ricky Walden
Neil Robertson is another of the top seeds in this event having won the UK Championships and Wuxi Classic within the qualifying period, but just lately Neil has been a bit quiet in tournaments, and in the middle of a busy run in period ahead of Christmas he certainly needs to pick his form up with so many other top players challenging for titles and on top form. Last 32 exits from a large number of frames in front at the Shanghai Masters and International Championship, is very uncharacteristic for the Australian and I'm sure he'll be just a little bit concerned about that, and he certainly can't take the same liberties this week against the rest of the games elite. He won't be too worried though because his season started off well with a successful defence of his Wuxi Classic title and making the final of the Australian Open the week after and if he can bring that form to Coventry he will of course be a big challenger. He really enjoyed the set up of this event and the atmosphere along with all of the players, and hopefully for him that will fire him into some form.
It'll be wonderful to see Ali Carter return to full professional tour snooker this week for the first time since the World Championships in April, after undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer. I'm sure it will be emotional for him to come back like this in a big tournament in front of a big crowd that will provide a great atmosphere and a fantastic ovation for Ali on his return. I'm glad that he's managed to sneak through the back door and qualify as the 16th man by being the 4th highest ranked player not already qualified for the event (with his seeding being locked at No.13 in the world for the rest of the season). Having played out in the Hong Kong General Cup (an invitational tournament not fully sanctioned by World Snooker) and winning that event in the final beating Shaun Murphy, as well as other top players like Mark Davis, Liang Wenbo and Marco Fu in his first competitive tournament since his treatment, which is one hell of an achievement and one that he's described as one of the best of his career. Carter is certainly not coming into this event cold then and he's not here to make up the numbers and he'll give Neil Robertson a very tough match in the group semi-finals. The result of that match for me will depend on how Neil responds to the pressure Ali will put him under.
Mark Allen is in top form at the moment and has been the best player on tour since the beginning of this season. So far this season he has reached 2 full ranking event finals and 2 European Tour event finals, winning one at the Paul Hunter Classic and really does seem to be on top of the world right now. To best of those runs came at the International Championships where he showed a lot of bottle once more to beat Mark Williams 9-8 in the semi-finals in a classic before losing to Ricky Walden in the final. Mark will be full of confidence and have plenty of belief, and I think we're getting to the stage now where Allen is due a Triple Crown title and he's in the form now to do it. A bet on Mark Allen to win the UK or Masters in the next couple of months could certainly yield some money.
Ricky Walden initially qualified for this as the 3rd highest ranked player not already qualified, but he'll be happy that his name can now go in as the International Champion having beaten Mark Allen 10-7 in the final today. Ironically the two guys are playing each other again on Friday in the group semi-final over the much shorter best-of-7 frames format. That match could simply come down to how both players have been able to prepare after the International final which is just 5 days before this match and who has the biggest "post tournament hangover" with such a short turnaround. While Ricky is obviously in good form, so too is Allen and he'll be more determined to go one better this week, and I think that the winner between these 2 will win the group and make the semi-finals. I just fancy Mark Allen to sneak that victory in another tense game.
Group Finalist: Neil Robertson
Group Winner: Mark Allen
Group 4 (Monday)
Group Semi-Finals Draw:Ding Junhui Vs Dominic Dale
Barry Hawkins Vs John Higgins
Ding Junhui may have had a very slow start to this season, but he qualifies for this event after victory at the China Open in April and the German Masters in February. His season so far has seen him fail to qualify for both Wuxi and the International, while missing Australia. He has however won the first Asian Tour event of the season back in June, along with making the quarter-finals of the second and the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters so he's not desperately out of form coming into this. While Ding may have lost those qualifying games in Barnsley I think that is simply down to motivation issues. There's no way a player like Ding should lose those games, because you'd expect even his B game would beat them. However, having to play qualifying matches in Barnsley for ranking events in China may seem a bit stupid to him and with the draws he had he may have come into this games cold on practice with a lack of motivation. With a big tournament this week in front of a big crowd you'd hope that he'd come into the event very sharp after a couple of weeks off and motivated to play his best snooker, because when he wants to play well, he very often does and if things go his way he can be untouchable.
Dominic Dale qualifies for this event having won the Snooker Shoot-out event back in January in Blackpool and it will be very interesting to see how he goes in this tournament this week. He was in very good form at the back end of last season after winning the shoot-out. He made the quarter-finals of the World Championship and was only a deciding frame from making the semi-finals. This season though he has failed to fire in any of the European Tour events or ranking events of any sort so, while I wouldn't say he is struggling, he isn't in the kind of form that would give him a really big run at this event, although he could cause Ding Junhui some early problems and put him under some early pressure in the group semi-finals. If he could manage that then who knows, he has as good a chance as anyone else in this group.
Barry Hawkins hasn't been in the best of form over the course of the last year, qualifying for this event from his win at the Players Championship Finals in March. He did also reach the World Championship semi-finals at the end of last season and the semi-finals in Wuxi and Riga at the start of this season. In the last couple of ranking events he has had Last 32 exits, both of which were to Mark Williams in Shanghai and Chengdu, but given how Mark Williams played in those games it's not as if Barry has been playing that badly. Barry also doesn't have great memories of this event last year losing out to Ding Junhui in the group semi-finals, but playing a very out of sorts John Higgins in the first round this year gives him a much better chance. Even if he's not at the top of his game, I'd expect him to grind out a result, in a style that he's become much better at in the last couple of seasons since his climb up to 5th in the World Rankings.
John Higgins has only managed to qualify for this event by being one of the highest ranked players not already in it. His last ranking title actually came at the 2012 Shanghai Masters over 2 years and his last win of any sort came at the Bulgarian Open event in June 2013 which is now 16 months ago. It's been a tough time for John with results not going his way on the table at all. So far this season John has managed to make it to the Sunday (Last 16 onwards) of any of the European Tour events, while in the ranking events he suffered a Last 16 exit in Australia, Last 32 exits in Shanghai (his first round match), the Wuxi Classic and a Last 64 thrashing 6-1 to Li Hang at last weeks International Championship. John was handed an early exit at last years tournament also, in the group semi's to compatriot Stephen Maguire 4-3 and I can't see him beating Barry Hawkins right now, simply because he's totally out of form and there's absolutely no rhythm to his game, but it only takes one week to turn things around.
Group Finalist: Barry Hawkins
Group Winner: Ding Junhui
Tournament Runner-Up: Mark Selby
Tournament Winner: Ronnie O'Sullivan
With 16 fantastic players involved this week I'm sure we're going to see a week of top quality once again, just as we did in this event last year (which I thought was one of the best on the calendar) and I'm sure with the matches we have in store there could be some more classics in store again. I'll be back with updates throughout the week on how each group goes and then updates on the latter stages on Saturday and Sunday as well.
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