Now this is where the big guns come to play. Snooker has now been dragged away from the pleasures of dragons, communism, and great walls this event takes place in the city of clocks, Jaguar, and the naked Lady Godiva (that is Coventry to you and me).
We have a brilliant line-up of snooker stars of who got here by merit (minus Marco Fu who has dropped out), starting out in Groups 1-4 (which is amazing since there is no point in calling them a group and many people were fine calling them ‘quarters’). They play the first match in a best-of-7s, followed by two best-of-11 matches and finally the grand finale of reaching the number 10 to win the lovely trophy. And it is a lovely trophy. And trust me, I have seen pictures.
Below are my predictions – it is harder to tell since we will never know if the finalists and semi-finalists recover from jet lag or whatnot, but here it goes:
Group 1 (sigh…)
Neil Robertson vs. Stuart Bingham
Ding Junhui vs. Ali Carter
Stuart Bingham has to be one of the contenders here. Not only is he gaining confidence by already reaching two finals and three semi-finals this season, he will feel rejuvenated and to be honest not hard done by the three successive centuries by Higgins in the previous final. He plays Neil Robertson, who has been very inconsistent this season and been fairly anonymous since his victory in Riga so Stuart should fancy his chances. Ding looked completely out of sorts against Marco Fu and had plenty of days off to sort himself out and Ali will not be intimidated after getting a win against a frustrated Trump under his belt. I can see Ding getting his head screwed back on here, but Ali is a very good best-of-7s player. However, Bull-run’s resilience should plow him through.
Group 1 winner: Stuart Bingham
Group 2
Judd Trump vs. Anthony McGill
John Higgins vs. Shaun Murphy
McGill is similar to Robertson this season – has been fairly quiet since his victory in the Indian Open. Also, he has a torrid record against Trump at 5-1, though the last time they both played McGill won the decider in the 2014 Riga Open. Trump has had a few days rest compared to Higgins and Murphy and given his recent successes in the past few weeks I expect him to put his performance behind him against Carter. The next match you would assume would be a tired slog, considering it is the winner vs. the semi-finalist of the China Championship, but Murphy is growing in confidence, after losing two tight deciders against Bingham 9-8 and a black ball finish against Trump. I expect another cracker here.
Group 2 winner: Judd Trump
Group 3 (but they aren’t groups!)
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Robin Hull
Martin Gould vs. Mark Davis
Ronnie couldn’t have a better group if he tried. Ronnie has the three lowest ranked players in the entire tournament in his group and plays the lowest ranked player of the lot! Snooker Shoot-Out winner Robin Hull is not having a good season and fighting to keep his tour card this season will fancy his chances as he has nothing to lose, and can imagine he will punish if Ronnie gets under the cosh, as he is very highly-rated amongst his peers. Both Seniors winner Davis and German Masters winner Gould aren’t having flourishing seasons either, though Davis did reach two quarter-finals this season. I expect Gould to push through due to his record, but will need to step up for Ronnie.
Group 3 winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan
4th Quarter (smash the system!)
Mark Allen vs. Joe Perry
Mark Selby vs. Liang Wenbo
A tough one. Allen has not had a good season, having earned £17,725 so far, the lowest out of any Top16 player. He recent quarter-final win over Selby should perk him up a tad, but he did look jaded against Higgins. Perry is a funny one – he seems to have a very mixed-bag of results this season and I fancy Allen due to his great best-of-7s record. Selby’s confidence will be booming and Liang will be hoping to bounce back and regain form from his success at the English Open. I feel this will be a one-off result for Liang for some time and against another best-of-7s specialist in Selby. And for the quarters, mark my words this will be interesting (see what I did there?) This is a coin flip for me – and I’m going with Selby.
Quarter-finalist winner: Mark Selby
Champion of Champions Winner: Judd Trump vs. Mark Selby 10-8
In the meantime, isn’t it strange not to see Kyren Wilson in this tournament?
