Monday evening sees the start of the World Grand Prix in Preston which means another set of statistics is ready to give you insight into the tournament. As the tournament is so close to the German Masters I have been unable to update the statistics since the Stat Attack that was published prior to Berlin, but a different field of players brings with it new variables for this event.
Starting off I will bring you any trends from the previous two Grand Prix events that have been played under this format of qualification. At the time of publication we are still unsure on much of the draw so there will not be many head to heads ahead of the start, but I may update this once the draw is available.
Then we move on to the player performance indicators to see who has the highs and the lows in each category, before the Tournament Top Ten will then pick out it's favourites to go on and succeed in this tournament.
PREVIOUS TOURNAMENT TRENDS:
- Barry Hawkins is yet to win a frame in the World Grand Prix, having lost in the first round 4-0 to Matt Selt in 2015 and then Joe Perry in 2016.
- Martin Gould has lost to the winner of both Grand Prix's, falling to Shaun Murphy in the Last 16 in 2016, whilst also losing the famous semi-final to Judd Trump 6-5 in 2015.
- Gould also overcame Mark Selby in the Last 16 in 2015 whom he will play in the first round of this years competition.
- Marco Fu is another player who, like Barry Hawkins, has failed to win a match at the Grand Prix.
- Top players like John Higgins, Neil Robertson and Mark Selby meanwhile have never made it past the Last 16 in the two years that this tournament has been played. Each of the three has suffered a first round exit and a second round exit.
- Despite having not won either of the two additions, making the semi-finals in 2015 and the final a year later makes Stuart Bingham the man who has won the most matches in the World Grand Prix.
- Making their Grand Prix debuts this week are: Mark King, Anthony Hamilton, Yan Bingtao, Zhou Yuelong and Yu De Lu.
- Deciders in the Grand Prix have been few and far between so far, but there are 100% records for Judd Trump and Ding Junhui, though both have only had to play two deciders to achieve this. Stuart Bingham and Mark Williams have played the most World Grand Prix deciders with three each, and both Bingham and Williams have won two of these three.
- Both John Higgins and Neil Robertson are 0/2 in Grand Prix deciders meaning that they have exited both tournaments staged by just the odd frame.
- For the season in deciding frames, Chinese players Zhou Yuelong and Yu De Lu are both at 100% having both won all of their six deciders each that they have played.
PLAYER PERFORMANCE: KEY INDICATORS
Average Frame Aggregate:
This week's Top 10:
- Mark Selby = 20.32
- Barry Hawkins = 19.49
- Ronnie O'Sullivan = 18.09
- Judd Trump = 17.45
- Stephen Maguire = 16.76
- Neil Robertson = 16.69
- Marco Fu = 15.62
- John Higgins = 14.96
- David Gilbert = 13.97
- Shaun Murphy = 13.2
This week's Bottom 10:
- Yu De Lu = -7.14
- Zhou Yuelong = -0.08
- Joe Perry = 5.17
- Dominic Dale = 5.27
- Jamie Jones = 6.09
- Yan Bingtao = 6.34
- Mark King = 6.44
- Martin Gould = 6.69
- Michael White = 6.74
- Anthony Hamilton = 7
Average Frames per 50+ break:
This week's Top 10:
- Ronnie O'Sullivan = 2.15
- Neil Robertson = 2.24
- Marco Fu = 2.24
- Judd Trump =2.41
- Mark Selby = 2.42
- Ding Junhui = 2.47
- Shaun Murphy = 2.54
- John Higgins = 2.56
- Barry Hawkins = 2.62
- Liang Wenbo = 2.72
This week's Bottom 10:
- Yu De Lu = 5.21
- Mark King = 4.8
- Dominic Dale = 4.09
- Zhou Yuelong = 3.79
- Jamie Jones = 3.52
- Ali Carter = 3.41
- Anthony Hamilton = 3.36
- Joe Perry = 3.27
- Martin Gould = 3.25
- Kyren Wilson = 3.23
Average Break when 50 or above:
This week's Top 10:
- Marco Fu = 83.31
- Judd Trump = 81.31
- Ronnie O'Sullivan = 81.08
- David Gilbert = 81
- Stuart Bingham = 80.91
- Michael White = 80.86
- Mark Allen = 80.21
- John Higgins = 80.05
- Stephen Maguire = 80.05
- Liang Wenbo = 79.95
This week's Bottom 10:
- Yu De Lu = 64.52
- Jamie Jones = 68.26
- Dominic Dale = 69.48
- Martin Gould = 70.52
- Yan Bingtao = 70.63
- Barry Hawkins = 72.29
- Mark Williams = 73.98
- Zhou Yuelong = 73.98
- Tom Ford = 74.59
- Mark King = 74.83
Close Frames win percentage:
This week's Top 10:
- Yan Bingtao = 76.92
- Marco Fu = 68.57
- Mark Selby = 68.52
- Dominic Dale = 67.74
- Liang Wenbo = 67.57
- Ricky Walden = 65.63
- Stephen Maguire = 65.52
- Kyren Wilson = 62.07
- Michael Holt = 60.87
- Neil Robertson = 58.82
This week's Bottom 10:
- Yu De Lu = 40.91
- Michael White = 41.67
- Shaun Murphy = 42.5
- Zhou Yuelong = 45.45
- Ding Junhui = 45.45
- Mark Allen = 47.06
- Barry Hawkins = 48.15
- Ali Carter = 48.98
- Martin Gould = 50
- Anthony McGill = 51.28
TOURNAMENT TOP TEN:
This weeks Tournament Top Ten was built up using a lot fewer components than usual to try and make it as relevant as possible in my opinion. The first things that were included were the 2015 and 2016 World Grand Prix's. Then the Masters tournament in January was added, as was the Champion of Champions as these are big events that are similar to this in their style. I also added in the 2016 and 2015 Players Championship finals as they were based on one season lists, and especially in 2016, very similar to the Grand Prix. This is also along with my stats performance indicator statistics that I have displayed some of above.
So according to all of that, these should be the top ten contenders for the title in Preston:
10 - Marco Fu - This week, Marco Fu just scrapes into the top ten. This is mainly thanks to his high finishes in the performance indicator statistics that you can see above. He sits in the top five for all of, average frame aggregate, average frames per 50+, average break when above 50 and close frames win percentage. Additionally, a run to the semi-finals of the Masters just edged him ahead of the chasing pack, despite the fact that he has never gone further than the first round in both years of the Grand Prix.
9 - Ding Junhui - Next up is Ding Junhui who comes back to the Grand Prix with decent memories of a semi-final appearance that featured in a period when he was really improving his form. He reached the quarter-finals in last years Players Championships, as well as a more recent quarter-final at the Masters and a semi-final in the Champion of Champions. He did not fair as well as Fu statistically but his past performances were just enough to finish ahead of him.
8 - John Higgins - Eighth position is where we find Scotsman John Higgins. Higgins main success in the components of this list came at the Champion of Champions where he walked off with the title. However, he has never made it past the last sixteen in the two years of the Grand Prix, whilst also exiting in the first round of the recent Masters. However, by having a tournament win to his name in the past performances he did enough to just slide ahead of Ding.
7 - Shaun Murphy - The defending champion Shaun Murphy is in seventh on the tournament top ten for his defence. Obviously the win last year was the main factor in this, having departed in round one in 2015. He was also knocked out of January's Masters in round one, but did make the semi-finals of last season's Players Championship which was almost a mirror image of the Grand Prix and played just two weeks after the Grand Prix. Had some of his more recent performances been better or his showing in the stats tables been higher he certainly would have penetrated the top five this week.
6 - Mark Selby - After weeks and weeks of Mark Selby being in the top two on this list, he has fallen as low as sixth for this week. This is mainly because of the fact that he has not passed the Last 16 in the two years of the Grand Prix. Add to that the two tournaments included from this season being just quarter-final runs for Selby and you can see why he has dropped. He would have been even lower had it not been for strong showings in the performance indicator statistics, where he was in the top five for average aggregate, frames per 50+ and close frames win percentages.
5 - Mark Allen - Mark Allen makes the top five in this list thanks to his win at the Players Championship last season which had the same format as the Grand Prix. Additionally he made the semi-finals in this season's first ITV4 fixture at the Champion of Champions and a quarter-final finish in the Masters offers a little bit of an extra boost also. Statistically, Allen did not do enough to make the top five in any of the indicators which prevents him going any further in the top five of this list.
4 - Joe Perry - Fourth place this week is Joe Perry, the winner of the 2015 Players Championship which had a similar 'one year performance list' qualifying criteria. In addition, he was a narrow losing semi-finalist at the Grand Prix a year ago against Stuart Bingham, whilst also finding his form much more recently as he marched on to the final of the Masters. Perry could have made the podium this week, had he have featured in the top five on a couple of the performance indicators but this was not the case.
3 - Stuart Bingham - Stuart Bingham reaches the podium this week as the man with one of the best records in the World Grand Prix. Last year he lost a final frame decider in the final against Shaun Murphy, whilst his semi-final in 2015 against Ronnie O'Sullivan was a much more one-sided defeat for Ballrun. Add to that a semi-final in the 2015 Players Championships and a quarter-final at this seasons Champion of Champions and Bingham is just able to climb above Perry. On the statistics lists, Bingham's best is a fifth place finish on the average break when above 50.
2 - Judd Trump - This week's TTT runner-up is 2015 Grand Prix winner Judd Trump. That win is the obvious reason for his high finish on the list, but a semi-final appearance in the 2015 Players Championship also helped his cause as well as high finishes in the performance indicators. Fourth for average aggregate, fourth for average frames per 50+ and second for average break when above 50 and it is easy to see why Trump is second this week.
1 - Ronnie O'Sullivan - The man that finishes top of the pile is Ronnie O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan was a runner-up in the 2015 Grand Prix as well as a losing finalist again at the Champion of Champions. His recent win at the Masters helped him go a way clear at the top, whilst he was also one of the top dogs statistically. Third place finishes for average aggregate and average break when above 50 but he is best in show for scoring frequency, being the leader in this weeks field for average frames per 50+ break.
That is all from a much thinner Stat Attack this week given the short turnaround, but look out for my preview which given the late draw is an even shorter turnaround.
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