Hello again, snooker! Welcome the 2018/2019 season! Finally, welcome to Riga and we may see the barking mad MC Armands Simsons again! Woop woop!
It’s nice that the snooker season is finally and properly starting! Indeed, we had the Riga Masters and World Open qualifiers a few weeks back. While others such as Mark Selby and Judd Trump opted out of the Riga Masters, there were some shocks in store, as Stuart Bingham started his season with a surprise loss to Niu Zhuang in the qualifying rounds.
However, thirty snooker players have won both matches. They include the big guns (e.g. Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen, and Kyren Wilson), those aiming to get their first ranking win of their career (Zhou Yuelong, Jack Lisowski, and Xiao Guodong) and a number of surprises too (Mei Xiwen, Rod Lawler, and amateur David Lilley). It is also brilliant to see Marco Fu win both matches too. His Riga Masters qualifier against Elliot Slessor was his first win since recovering from laser eye surgery earlier this year.
Of course, there is little to analyse who is likely to do well here. One thing that is consistent is that the past two ranking finals in Riga featured someone who hadn’t won a ranking event before. Though Michael Holt lost to Neil Robertson 5-2 in 2016, Ryan Day won his first by beating Stephen Maguire by the same score. Dynamite will be looking forward to being unveiled as the defending champion for the first time – maybe he could defend his crown? His recent interview is here: http://www.worldsnooker.com/day-ready-for-riga-defence/
There will be some attention on The Challenge Tour as well! Since I published an article on this on Tuesday in FEATURED: The Challenge Tour, there’s been further developments and debate over how the series is currently handled. Seeing only 25 amateurs competing is tragic by World Snooker’s standards, regardless of the excuse. But one could argue that they should be thankful there is such an event at all. There seem to be two camps: one who believes World Snooker needs a tinker or those who say that players need to make a greater effort or sacrifice to compete in as many events as possible. Follow this interesting thread below:
Just 25 players will play in Latvia on Saturday for Challenge Tour Event 3…
A) World Snooker need a re-think
B) Amateurs need to up their commitment
C) Bit of bothhttps://t.co/epSTZQWaLk— Michael Day ⚪🔴🎱🎯 (@ViewCue) July 24, 2018
Now that we have got all that out-of-the-way, my previews will largely be the same as previous seasons. Who I think will win their first matches, who I think will win their quarter and finally, who I think will win the tournament. BRING IT.
First Quarter
Jamie Jones vs. Rod Lawler
Chris Wakelin vs. Sam Craigie
Robbie Williams vs. Lukas Kleckers
Xu Si vs. Mark King
Mei Xiwen vs. Joe Swail
Stuart Carrington vs. Fergal O’Brien
David Lilley (a) vs. Shaun Murphy
Nigel Bond vs. Zhao Xintong
Quarter Winner: Jamie Jones vs. Shaun Murphy
Second Quarter
Scott Donaldson vs. Robin Hull
Zhou Yuelong vs. Craig Steadman
Kurt Maflin vs. Liang Wenbo
Li Yuan vs. Neil Robertson
Barry Hawkins vs. Li Hang
Ricky Walden vs. (Rodion Judin (a) vs. Jimmy White)
Mark Allen vs. Peter Lines
Ali Carter vs. (Ryan Day vs. Jamie Cope)
Quarter Winner: Zhou Yuelong vs. Neil Robertson
Third Quarter
Michael White vs. David Gilbert
Joe Perry vs. Robert Milkins
Stephen Maguire vs. Gerard Greene
Lee Walker vs. Joe O’Connor
Luke Simmonds (a) vs. Kyren Wilson
Niu Zhuang vs. Simon Bedford (a)
Yan Bingtao w/o Anthony Hamilton
Liam Highfield vs. Michael Holt
Quarter Winner: Stephen Maguire vs. Kyren Wilson
Fourth Quarter
Tian Pengfei vs. (Graeme Dott vs. Maris Volajs (a) )
Ashley Carty vs. Anthony McGill
Xiao Guodong vs. Marco Fu
Mark Davis vs. Luca Brecel
Rory McLeod vs. Zhang Yong
Mark Williams vs. Ben Woollaston
Oliver Lines vs. Alfie Burden
Ian Burns vs. Jack Lisowski
Quarter Winner: Xiao Guodong vs. Jack Lisowski
Riga Masters 2018 Winner: Shaun Murphy vs. Kyren Wilson
The Riga Masters will take place from Friday 27th July to Sunday 29th July.
