The 16 players were determined following the Shanghai Masters in September, with the top 10 players on the regular two year ranking list (which then extended down to Mark Williams after the withdrawal of Ronnie O'Sullivan), the best four players on the one-year list that had not qualified and two Chinese invites which were granted to Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo.
The event starts on Tuesday and concludes on the Saturday and is played over a two table set-up until the final. The Last 16 and quarter-final games are played over the best-of-11 frames, with the semi-finals being over the best-of-17 frames before a best-of-19 frames final, mirroring the International Championship format. Players get £15,000 just for turning up this week, with that doubling to £30,00 if they can win a match and get into the quarter-finals. Losing semi-finalists receive £50,000, the losing finalist will take home a very nice earning of £100,000 with the winner taking £200,000 home with the trophy.
Of the 16 players in action, only Mark Allen was not in attendance in Daqing after failing to qualify there, so the players should all be sharp and with the best players in the world involved the standard should be to the best of quality. As well of this, five of the 16 man field (John Higgins, Ricky Walden, Joe Perry, Mark Williams and Michael Holt) are not in the following weeks Champion of Champions event in Coventry with a place still reserved for the winner this week. If there is a "repeat winner", Joe Perry is the highest ranked player on the one year money list from the season so far so he will take the place.
Here's a look at what is in store over the five days in Guangzhou:
Quarter 1
Mark Selby Vs Anthony McGill - Mark Selby of course comes into this as the International Champion having played some of his best snooker last week in Daqing and with some of the consistency he has showed this season, winning the Paul Hunter Classic, making the Shanghai Masters final and the European Masters semi-finals he could well continue this on for some time. As a two time world champion now he seems to be more relaxed than in his first campaign and incredibly confident to go with that making him even more dangerous. Anthony McGill has come of age by winning his first ranking title this season, and making another couple of quarter-finals on top of that to put himself on the verge of the top 16. However, after losing in the first round of the International Championships last week, he made the decision (according to his Twitter account at least) to go home and then fly back out to China for this event which is a very strange one but each player has their own way of doing things. Either way an in form Selby should be too strong in this one.
Prediction: Selby to continue hot form with a 6-3 win
Mark Allen Vs Ricky Walden - Mark Allen comes into this one fresh after not playing in the International Championship and he is yet to hit the heights this season in terms of performance. Deciding to start his season later than most at the Paul Hunter Classic he reached the Last 16 there, and added further Last 16's at the Shanghai Masters and European Masters before an earlier Last 32 loss in the English Open. Ricky Walden meanwhile has found a little bit of form lately making the English Open quarter-finals and narrowly losing out to Ding Junhui in the International Championship Last 16. This match to me looks like one that could go to the wire and recent form could count a lot more than freshness at this stage of the season for me.
Prediction: Walden to win 6-5
Quarter Choice: Mark Selby
Quarter 2
John Higgins Vs Mark Williams - Mark Williams was a "17th man" style addition after the withdrawal of Ronnie O'Sullivan a few weeks ago from this event, but Williams has been in very poor form of late. Despite making the Last 16 of the English Open, he lost in the Last 64 of the International Championship to a Chinese wildcard, whilst also losing his first matches in the European and Shanghai Masters. Higgins meanwhile has quietly been picking up results without yet pushing on this season. He comes into this off of three consecutive quarter-finals and he beat Williams in July for a quarter-final place at the World Open. In fact the only two times this season Higgins hasn't reached the quarter-finals he has lost in the Last 16 so there haven't really been any surprise early exits from him. This week there is potential for the Scotsman to fire up and go a long way.
Prediction: Higgins to win quite comfortably 6-3
Judd Trump Vs Ali Carter - You have to wonder at what point in the recent run of Judd Trump's when the let up will come and he may go quiet for a couple of events. He has exerted himself to the maximum lately with a win at the European Masters which was followed straight away by making the English Open final and then the semi-finals of the International Championship. In that International semi-final with Ding he did not really get going, falling 6-0 behind and eventually losing 9-4 and you wonder if a couple of earlier exits could come now as he starts to tire. If anyone can beat Trump, Ali Carter has shown that he is not afraid to. Carter was back in the big time in July winning the World Open, and he has made the Shanghai Masters quarter-finals on top of that showing good form in the Chinese events so far. He has dropped off a little in the last couple of events, losing in the Last 32 of the English Open after producing comebacks in the first two rounds to avoid losing even earlier, and after a great escape against Maguire in the Last 32 of the International Championship he was then thrashed by Bingham in the Last 16. This one could well be a tight finish.
Prediction: A tense affair to finish with a 6-5 win for Trump
Quarter Choice: John Higgins
Quarter 3
Shaun Murphy Vs Joe Perry - Both of these players have had similar seasons so far. Murphy started well with a semi-final in India and a quarter-final at the World Open (where he lost to Perry). However, he dropped off with early exits in Shanghai, Romania and Manchester. He did pick back up with a very narrow and unlucky quarter-final loss to Judd Trump in the International Championship. As a new father, being away for a couple of weeks without being able to go home between tournaments may allow him to catch up on any sleep he has lost and perhaps come in this week a little fresher. As for Perry he too has had a very patchy season. He made the final of the World Open in July, and the quarter-finals of last weeks International Championship but has suffered a number of early exits in the remaining events. In fact, Perry has lost his first match this season in the Riga Masters, European Masters, Shanghai Masters and English Open which is strange for someone of Perry's highly recognised quality within the game. A big event like this should produce the best in both players, but Murphy's Masters record in particular displays his ability to really fire things up in these major tournaments with the World's very best.
Prediction: Murphy to come through a high quality opener 6-4.
Ding Junhui Vs Marco Fu - Ding Junhui was the runner-up last week at the International Championships, after falling away in the final and taking a 10-1 thrashing on the day. What the week in Daqing did for the Chinese number one though was continue his fine return to form in 2016 after his Shanghai Masters triumph in September after reaching the World final in May. His scoring is back to its brilliant best and that means he is going to be a hard man to stop in the coming months. As for Marco Fu he has suffered a number of early exits in tournaments this season having not yet reached the Last 16 in any ranking event, yet it does not appear that he has always played bad snooker. On the whole he has been involved in a lot of narrow matches that have not gone his way at the start of this season, and that continued in Daqing. Having not made the latter stages in many events so far this year he has also not played any top players so it will be interesting to see how he responds in this match against Ding, because he could very easily rise to the challenge or end up losing quite comfortably. For me only one of these two is a real contender to take the £200,000 at the end of the week.
Prediction: Another tight loss for Fu. Ding to win 6-5
Quarter Choice: Shaun Murphy
Quarter 4
Neil Robertson Vs Michael Holt - This is one match in the draw that could be a very intriguing one. Michael Holt has found some confidence and results in the last year or so, beating Ronnie O'Sullivan three times in that period and beating Neil Robertson in the first round of the World Championships. He reached the Riga Masters final at the very start of the season (losing out to Robertson) and has since added quarter-finals at the Shanghai Masters and International Championship playing the best snooker of his career. Neil Robertson's season (and in fact his 2016 results overall if you want to look further back) have been very mix and match with some hot streaks and a few icy cold ones. Losing seven frames in a row to lose the Welsh Open final against Ronnie O'Sullivan may have affected him as he did not win another match in the 2015/2016 season following that. This season got off to a promising start with a win at the Riga Masters and a semi-final at the World Open, but then when he next appeared at the Shanghai Masters he played a match of woeful quality losing 5-2 to Ryan Day. He was going well again at the European Masters before losing 6-0 in the semi-finals to O'Sullivan. In the Last 32 of the English Open he somehow went from cruise control against Xiao Guodong at 3-0 ahead with two centuries to his name to losing the match 4-3. Following his Last 16 exit to Joe Perry in last weeks International Championship I came across a video purely by chance, showing Robertson lashing out a couple of times, swinging his cue and smashing the cue ball off of the table on the way out of the arena after losing frame four. Then at 5-1 down it showed him apparently breaking off by smashing the reds everywhere, which all seemed very unusual for Robertson. If Holt can pounce on any frailties that Robertson shows this week then he has every chance of victory.
Prediction: Holt to continue his confidence growing 2016 with a 6-4 win over Robertson
Stuart Bingham Vs Liang Wenbo - If Stuart Bingham and Liang Wenbo can produce a standard of match that gets anywhere near their semi-final from the English Open a couple of weeks ago then it could be a real treat. Liang came out on top 6-5 in that match with both players hitting a barrage of big breaks, before the Chinese went on to win that event for his first ranking title in a 12 month span that has seen him grow hugely as a player. He was unfortunate to lose out 6-5 in the International Championship Last 16 last week to Selby and looks to have really grown in confidence which makes him dangerous to everyone now. Stuart Bingham has had a much better start to this season than the one he had a year ago when the pressures of being world champion seemingly got to him. Already he has been in semi-finals at the Shanghai Masters, English Open and last weeks International Championship. Even in his Last 16 exits at the Riga Masters and Indian Open he lost to the eventual runner-up and winner of those respective events, as well as losing to eventual winner Carter in the Last 32 stage of the World Open. It is continually taking in form players seemingly at the peak of their powers to beat Bingham, and on that basis it cannot be long before he goes on and wins his first title since the 2015 World Championship.
Prediction: Bingham to gain his revenge with a 6-4 win
Quarter Choice: Stuart Bingham
Overall Winner Selection: Stuart Bingham
The event on the whole will be covered on Eurosport for those that will be up early enough in the mornings and have free time over the course of the afternoons (at least if you are living in the UK or Europe).
Updates will be brought to you throughout what could be a fantastic exhibition of snooker and a break from the full on nature of the tour and worries about ranking lists - for one week at least.
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