So it is only yesterday when we saw Ronnie O’Sullivan triumph against Joe Perry 10-7. It is Tuesday where the China Open Qualifiers, followed by a very busy February. I haven’t spent too much time on the Last 128 draw and if Trump will defend his title, but here are the predictions anyway.
This will be very important. For the top players, this is a warm-up or a chance to be in fantastic form for the World Championship or a brilliant chance to avoid the qualifiers (something Stephen Maguire and Michael White did at the expense of Liang Wenbo and Ding Junhui.) Or on the other hand, hugely vital ranking points in Beijing ahead and plenty of points to save oneself from relegation from the tour (Ian Burns, for example).
There are notable omissions in the draw, such as Neil Robertson, Mark Allen and the mysterious disappearance of Jamie Burnett. This is a lottery but, if you need to look at my mid-seaosn analysis of which players are having a great season and which ones are struggling and need a boost, this is the link: https://clusterofredssnookerblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/21/so-who-is-hot-and-who-is-not-this-season/
Anyways, here are the predictions!
Judd Trump vs. Jason Weston (held over to main venue)
Anthony Hamilton vs. Ashley Hugill
Jamie Jones vs. Eden Sharav
Dominic Dale vs. Ross Muir
Anthony McGill vs. Peter Lines
Tian Pengfei vs. Ian Preece
Martin Gould vs. Lee Walker
Robbie Williams vs. Jamie Curtis-Barrett
Mike Dunn vs. Elliott Slessor
Luca Brecel vs. Andy Hicks
Rory McLeod vs. Daniel Womersley
Liang Wenbo vs. Itaro Santos (held over to main venue)
Kurt Maflin vs. Adam Duffy
Ben Woollaston vs. Igor Figueiredo
Dechawat Poomjaeng vs. Hossein Vafaei
Joe Perry vs. David John
Shaun Murphy vs. Sydney Wilson
Ken Doherty vs. Allan Taylor
Graeme Dott vs. Jak Jones
Gary Wilson vs. Duane Jones
Ali Carter vs. Hamza Akbar
Stuart Carrington vs. Wang Yuchen
Michael White vs. Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn
Yu Delu vs. Hammad Miah
Sam Baird vs. Jimmy White
Michael Holt vs. Liam Highfield
Oliver Lines vs. Zhang Anda
Mark Williams vs. Zhao Xintong
Peter Ebdon vs. Rhys Clark
Mark Davis vs. Yan Bingtao
Ian Burns vs. Thor Chuan Leong
John Higgins vs. Darryl Hill
Stuart Bingham vs. James Wattana
Chris Wakelin vs. Scott Donaldson
Robert Milkins vs. Mei Xiwen
Tom Ford vs. Noppon Saengkham
Kyren Wilson vs. Michael Georgiou
Xiao Guodong vs. John Astley
Mark King vs. Marc Davis
David Grace vs. Sanderson Lam
Mark Joyce vs. Mitchell Mann
Ryan Day vs. Fraser Patrick
Robin Hull vs. Gareth Allen
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. James Cahill
Zhou Yuelong vs. Michael Wild
Matt Selt vs. Craig Steadman
Joe Swail vs. Paul Davison
Ding Junhui vs. Sean O’Sullivan (held over to main venue)
Marco Fu vs. Daniel Wells
Rod Lawler vs. Jamie Cope
Alan McManus vs. Chen Zhe
Matthew Stevens vs. Josh Boileau
Barry Hawkins vs. Aditya Mehta
Li Hang vs. Fang Xiongman
Stephen Maguire vs. Boonyarit Kaettikun
Fergal O’Brien vs. Nigel Bond
Andrew Higginson vs. Chris Keogan
David Gilbert vs. Kurt Dunham
Jack Lisowski vs. Alex Borg
Ricky Walden vs. Zhang Yong
Jimmy Robertson vs. Cao Yupeng
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs. Martin O’Donnell
Alfie Burden vs. Akani Songsermsawad
Mark Selby vs. Adam Stefanow (held over to main venue)
