Qualifying rounds for the Riga Masters were held some two and a half weeks ago and that shortened the field down from 128 to the round of 64 that is played throughout Wednesday. There were plenty of non-entries for this event amongst the top players which will see the likes of Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ricky Walden and last years Riga winner Barry Hawkins all staying at home. Meanwhile, Stephen Maguire failed to qualify after he lost out to Fang Xiongman, someone he had beaten comfortably days earlier in World Open qualifying, while fellow Scot Alan McManus lost out to Jamie Cope and Ben Woollaston was well beaten by Polish Adam Stefanow who competes as an amateur.
On a scheduling point, the Last 64 (and two heldover Last 128 matches) will be played on Wednesday with the Last 32 and Last 16 making up Thursday's play before the final three rounds take place throughout Friday.
Without further ado, here is how the draw looks for the opening act in the story of this new season.
Quarter 1
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Luca Brecel Vs Sean O'Sullivan
David Gilbert Vs Sam Baird
Jamie Jones Vs Gary Wilson
Xiao Guodong Vs Gareth Allen
Ryan Day Vs Jack Lisowski
Ken Doherty Vs Noppon Saengkham
James Cahill Vs Zhao Xintong
Adam Stefanow Vs Bradley Jones or Darren Morgan
This quarter is certainly one in the draw that stands out as an opportunity for someone to really make their mark on the new season. Without a top 16 player in sight, but guys like Ryan Day, David Gilbert and Luca Brecel that are all just outside of there and well capable of a run. With a bit of reflection time after the World Championships I am sure that the Belgian Brecel would view last season as one that got away with decent that did not really convert in to what he was capable of achieving. That will surely inspire him to work harder and carry on his climb up the rankings starting here in Latvia.
The Chinese players could have a huge influence on this event with nine of them qualifying (not including Zhang Anda who has withdrawn) and the two in this quarter could have a big say. Xiao Guodong had a horrid season last season, when it would have been easy to forget that he was a ranking finalist in 2013. The early qualifiers he played show signs of a turn in fortunes that he certainly needs, or else his tour spot itself could be in danger. I can certainly see him having a strong week this week as I could equally with young Zhao Xintong who I and many others have been touting for years as something special. He is one of my three players to watch from the start of the season, though it is surely too early to be talking him up as a winner of this event.
Quarter Winner: Luca Brecel
Quarter 2
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Matthew Stevens Vs Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Tian Pengfei Vs Allan Taylor
Joe Swail Vs Stuart Carrington
Neil Robertson Vs Michael Georgiou
Zhou Yuelong Vs Christopher Keogan
Judd Trump Vs Chris Wakelin
Graeme Dott Vs Marco Fu or Tatiana Vasiljeva
John Higgins Vs Mark King
In contrast to quarter one, quarter two features four members of the world's top 16 who will be looking for stylish starts to the new campaign. Neil Robertson is one players who has started seasons well in previous years as a back to back winner of the Wuxi Classic (played as the first ranking event of the season on both occasions) and a serial runner-up of the Australian Open in the event that followed. Both men that have beaten Robertson in an Australian Open final are also in this quarter in Marco Fu and Judd Trump, while John Higgins has also had success at the start of the season in recent times. Going back to 2013 he defeated Robertson to win one of the early season European Tour events before losing to the same man in the Wuxi final. Last year meanwhile, he was a runner-up in the World Cup final with Stephen Maguire the week before winning the Australian Open.
Marco Fu has to play a held over Last 128 match, and assuming he has no trouble against a little known opponent that could be an advantage for him in settling into the tournament and getting used to conditions before playing a tough player like Graeme Dott as early as the Last 64. Of the four top 16er's in this section it is probably Trump who I fancy least to progress simply because I see him as a player who often has to warm into a season a lot more, being a form and rhythm player that he is.
The best of the rest could well be Matthew Stevens. He impressed in the early season qualifiers after a poor time in the last few months on the table. If he still has the hunger and the correct attitude then it is tough to keep a naturally gifted player like him down for long.
Quarter Winner: John Higgins
Quarter 3
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Li Hang Vs Chen Zhe
Ali Carter Vs Zhang Yong
Jamie Cope Vs Jak Jones
Mark Williams Vs Mark Davis
Jimmy Robertson Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng
Martin O'Donnell Vs Sam Craigie
Fang Xiongman Vs Andy Hicks
Joe Perry Vs John Astley
Quarter number three still has plenty of quality with the likes of Ali Carter who was a winner on the European Tour last year, former Players champion Joe Perry and the man he overcame in that final, Mark Williams. As well as that we have one of my players to watch in Sam Craigie who could do some damage in his section of the draw.
It is a close call in this section but again I have tried to look at players who have played well early on in recent seasons, since the snooker seasons have begun starting much sooner. Carter was a winner last August in Furth which could show good signs and his form last season was good in patches last season, which many of us fans have welcomed. Perry lost out in many events at the beginning of the season to the overall champion including the Australian Open and Shanghai Masters while it is two years since he started the season with that narrow Wuxi Classic final loss. I often think the Gentleman's ability to get to the latter stages of competitions is underestimated and I think he can have a strong start to the season again here.
Quarter Winner: Joe Perry
Quarter 4
Last 64 Draw: (Picks in Bold)Rory McLeod W/O Zhang Anda
Anthony McGill Vs Andrew Higginson
Martin Gould Vs Tom Ford
Fraser Patrick Vs Yan Bingtao
Stuart Bingham Vs Lee Walker
Fergal O'Brien Vs Adam Duffy
Mark Selby Vs Michael Holt
Kyren Wilson Vs Ian Burns
The bottom quarter of the draw contains the world champions of the last three years among some very strong names. Defending world champion after winning his first in 2014, Mark Selby also won the last ever event on the old European Tour, which was fitting in a way as he was the most successful player throughout the history of the tour events in Europe. One of his other ET victories came at this event in 2014 in his first full event as world champion. Even though by name this is now a fully fledged ranking event, I am sure Selby will come here with the same game plan that has proved successful in these events through the years and will once again be a strong contender.
At the start of last season Kyren Wilson was in the 50's in the rankings, but following victory in September's Shanghai Masters he ended it inside the world's top 16 and was suddenly a major contender for every time he stepped up to play. His skill and temperament combined, in my opinion, will soon see him become the type of player that wins at least one tournament a season and if the tournament odds are good, he is certainly a player to persist with on the betting front.
The man that I am picking out this week though is the 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham. With the pressures of being the reigning champion gone he can now reflect on a season that still saw him make a major ranking event final and lose some unfortunate matches. Prior to last season he was a player that was becoming a regular winner, particularly on the Asian Tour. With the change to make this an event played down from 64 to a winner over three days rather than the full 128 that sees it become closer to the more staggered format of those Asian Tour events and a hard worker like 'Ballrun' will take confidence from starting the season well in the qualifiers played at Preston a couple of weeks ago. In fact, after some of the criticism he received in the 2015/2016 campaign it would almost be ironic if he came out of the blocks quickly this year with a victory.
Quarter Winner: Stuart Bingham
Tournament Runner-Up: John Higgins
Tournament Winner: Stuart Bingham
Those are my thoughts on the first event of the season, but at this stage it is very hard to tell who is going to get that fast start and who may have a poor run through the summer. Following these three days in Latvia is the Indian Open (another tournament with mostly best-of-7 matches) which begins on July 4th.
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