Fourteen players of the Top 16. Twenty-five of the Top 32. Seven players outside of the Top 32. No Sunny Akani, so this ranking event is null and void!
For those who are not aware, the World Grand Prix, which is starting tomorrow, is for the Top 32 players on a one-year ranking list from the 2017 Riga Masters until the 2018 Snooker Shoot-Out. This is why the Snooker Shoot-Out was so significant – Michael Georgiou’s historic win was enough to push Tom Ford out of the running to qualify for the event; Stuart Bingham’s quarter-final appearance kept his place intact and Graeme Dott pushed himself further up the rankings, ideally you think to play an easier opponent. Nope – he gets Joe Perry, so he will have fun with that I suppose.
What’s slightly interesting is that the line-up is different every year. This tournament holds prestige because of the idea of competing against the best in-form players in the world There are 10 different players from last year’s edition, with Liang, Holt, Fu and even defending champion Barry Hawkins failing to make the cut. Since this is based on form, the ties are more random, conjuring up first round ties you’d argue be fit to be in the Masters let along a World Championship. These a full matches this time and less drunk people screaming from the audience, which is always nice. There’s only so many times we can be similar to darts but if you are looking for controversy, I’m sure Ronnie can conjure up something to piss Barry off. Just because he felt like it.
QUARTER 1
Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) vs. Robert Milkins (32)
Martin Gould (16) vs. Yan Bingtao (17)
Mark Allen (9) vs. Xiao Guodong (24)
Ali Carter (25) vs. John Higgins (8)
As I said before, these people are here for a reason. This quarter proves that because it is very difficult to pick a winner here. Though Ronnie won 8 times in 9 meetings against Robert Milkins, it is very difficult to know which Ronnie is going to arrive. But he will need to gear himself up for the next few matches. Gould, the UK quarter-finalist and Yan have beaten him before, with Yan winning 6-1 against the Rocket in the International Championship in his way to reaching the semi-finals of that event. This match will be very attacking as neither player is shy from a long-pot opportunity.
Allen qualified to be here just because of his run to the International Championship final. However, the Masters champion will be confident about this game and you could argue that his loss to Matt Selt was a one-off, simply because he was put off by the German Masters set-up. Xiao on the other hand, flourished, reaching the quarter-final by beating Selby and Liang, meaning we are finally seeing the Xiao we’ve been missing since 2013. Higgins has a good tie against the Captain, who has been relatively quiet this season bar one run to the semi-finals of the China Championship. To me, it looks like a Ronnie vs/ Higgins quarter-finals but Xiao and Yan are banana=skin opponents that can cause a shock, especially in the open best-of-7s which there is little margin for error.
Quarter-final Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. John Higgins
QUARTER 2
Shaun Murphy (5) vs. Ricky Walden (28)
Jack Lisowski (21) vs. Ryan Day (12)
Stephen Maguire (13) vs. Li Hang (20)
Michael Georgiou (29) vs. Luca Brecel (4)
This quarter is more open, mainly because there are only two Top 16 players in Murphy and Brecel. On paper, Murphy has a good draw against Ricky Walden but by form this should be a very good match. It has been well-documented that Murphy is here because of reaching three ranking finals in addition to one semi-final and two quarter-final and is one of the best players this season. Walden is on the resurgence from his back injury that hampered him so much last season that he dropped out of the Top 16, so he will fancy his chances. Day vs. Lisowski’s best run is the Riga Masters win and Shanghai Masters semi-finals respectively and with both hard hitters, it will be interesting to be how Jack performs as part of an exclusive club.
Maguire and Li should be an interesting one, as Maguire will play like he’s got a point to prove – determined to be in the Top 16. These two have played only twice this season, with Maguire winning on both occasions. Despite the Cypriot’s big win, which somehow led me to be tweeted by the High Commissioner of Cyprus (because Twitter is weird), Michael Georgiou is the lowest-ranked player in the event. But his well-deserved win helped him leapfrog Tom Ford to qualify. The only time he has played the Belgian Bullet is during his victorious Shoot-Out run! But this is a different kettle of fish. Can Georgiou now cope with being part of the elite? He has only beaten a Top 16 player once this season and that was Kyren Wilson in the China Championship. Brecel is a fearless man. He also has a good record of not being beaten by players outside the Top 32, with his happening on only two occasions.
Quarter-final Winner: Shaun Murphy vs. Luca Brecel
QUARTER 3
Judd Trump (3) vs. Michael White (30)
Joe Perry (19) vs. Graeme Dott (14)
Neil Robertson (11) vs. David Gilbert (22)
Jimmy Robertson (27) vs. Mark Selby (6)
The is the quarter of death for me. In fact, it is very unusual to see the possibility of Selby vs. The Thunder From Down Under before the quarter-finals, but it can be a possibility!
Judd vs. White is a match-up we don’t see as often as we should have. Trump has won all but the most recent occasion, where the Paul Hunter Classic champion triumphed 5-3 in the 2016 Shanghai Masters, though by Trump’s admission, it’s the one he threw away. He is struggling to cope with the impatience and hype that he must something big by now and it will be interesting it he can recover, despite having a very decent season! Perry vs. Dott should be excellent, with Dott hoping to keep up his momentum after reaching two ranking finals in a row and has a good record against both Trump and White too.
Neil has made a comeback from a combination of personal issues, gaming addictions and poor form over the last year to win the Scottish Open from 4-8 down to 8-8 against Cao Yupeng. As mentioned before, he has a difficult draw and David Gilbert is no slouch. With two quarter-finals to his name, the Angry Farmer should be confident about his chances. Jimmy is a banana skin-player for most of the Top 16. All it seems except Selby, who has beaten Jimmy in all 7 occasions. However, Selby has not been playing well all season, with only his International Championship win sparing his blushes. He is a late bloomer after all. Hard to predict this one.
Quarter-final Winner: Graeme Dott vs. Neil Robertson
QUARTER 4
Ding Junhui (7) vs. Mark King (26)
Mark Joyce (23) vs. Kyren Wilson (10)
Anthony McGill (15) vs. Cao Yupeng (18)
Stuart Bingham (31) vs. Mark Williams (2)
Without repeating too much why, but Ding needs to improve his form badly. Helped by his World Open victory, he has come off the boil, losing to players such as lower-ranking players such as Leo Fernandez and Oliver Lines. Thankfully, he has a good record against experienced campaigner Mark King. Joyce/Wilson should be an intriguing one since this is the only tie where both players haven’t played each other before. They even have the same coach! Kyren has had a great season with two ranking finals as well as the Masters final. Apart from the Shoout-Out, his only match since that teary final was a 6-0 trashing against Li Yan with three +50 breaks and a century, showing signs that he has but that loss behind him. Joyce got here through wonderful consistency, with three quarters, two last 16s and two last 32s this season, despite being No. 40 in the rankings.
Cao would hopefully recover from his crushing Scottish Open loss and turn it to something that will turn him into a title-winning player soon. He is against Anthony McGill who has played well enough not just to be here, but to cement his place in the Top 16, something which he deserves. Georgiou’s win has caused Bingham to drop down a place to play Mark Williams, who has been outstanding this season, without two ranking titles and the 6-six reds trophy added to his once dusty cabinet. Despite his ban Bingham has done enough to be here due to reaching the European Masters final and reaching the Last 16 of the Indian Open. His only win since coming back (apart from the Shoot-Out of course, is a 6-2 win against Jimmy White in the China Open qualifiers. Match of the event so far and we have no idea if Bingham will play with no pressure or playing to redeem himself and change the minds of the snooker faithful.
Quarter-final Winner: Kyren Wilson vs. Mark Williams
Tournament Winner: Luca Brecel vs. Kyren Wilson
