This is the second tournament of the Coral Cup in Preston. Just want to mention that because I almost forgot about the Coral Cup already. This event involves the Top 16 of the one-year ranking list up to the Snooker Shoot-Out, with Mark Allen still taking the top spot. Stephen Maguire managed to get the final place because Zhao Xintong didn’t get far enough in the Shoot Out. Which is a good thing to be honest!
The Players Championship feels like the weirder and younger brother of the Masters, as it is in exactly the same format as the Masters. The first three rounds are a best-of-11 frames and the final is a best-of-19. This is a ranking event where £125,000 goes to the winner, which is a lot of ranking points as you can imagine. Since we love a meritocracy, not all of the Top 16 players are present. European Masters finalist and UK Championship quarter-finalist Joe Perry, World Grand Prix finalist Ali Carter and European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson have joined in the fray.
Whatever the results crop up will through a lot of spanners into many works. We have the Tour Championship, where only the Top 8 players in the one-year ranking list up to the Gibraltar Open will compete in. We have the World Championship too and to get into the Top 16 to automatically qualify for the Crucible is HUGE. No-one wants to play three qualifying matches because they missed out by one place. Ask the likes of Ryan Day, Ding Junhui and Mark Williams and they would love to tell you all about it.
FIRST QUARTER
Mark Allen (1) vs. Stephen Maguire (16)
David Gilbert (8) vs. Stuart Bingham (9)
Mark Allen once again tops the table and faces his good friend Stephen Maguire. 2019 is a surprisingly poor year for Allen so far and something was clearly on his mind when he conceded a frame early against Ali Carter in the World Grand Prix. Thankfully for him, he had plenty of time to spend with his family as he missed the Shoot-Out and was already knocked out of the Indian Open. Maguire is slowly emerging, which is nice to see. Two semi-final and a quarter-final appearances helped him leap to the Top 16. This is a completely different Maguire compared to a dejected Maguire who couldn’t see winning another ranking event in his career.
The tie between David Gilbert and Stuart Bingham is an interesting one and if you look at the head-to-head record, there’s only one winner. Excluding Championship League, Bingham won all nine of their meetings. The most recent meeting was in the 2018 UK Championship, where Bingham won 6-2. Bingham wasn’t on great form until he reached the final of the Welsh Open. It’s easy to forget he’s won two ranking titles this season. Gilbert is hammering the door down to win a ranking event, but I can only see a Bingham win here.
First Quarter Winner: Stephen Maguire vs. Stuart Bingham
SECOND QUARTER
Ronnie O’Sullivan (5) vs. Barry Hawkins (12)
Mark Selby (4) vs. John Higgins (13)
Not often you see so many top-heavy names in the quarter, but that’s just how the draw works, I’m afraid. Despite attending few tournaments, the Rocket is No. 5 on the money list. He won one ranking event and two non-ranking events and near the business end of every event at entered. That was until he lost in the first round of the World Grand Prix against Marco Fu. I’m sure the bosses at Coral are not best pleased with Ronnie. No, I’m not going to mention his stupid video, I’m better than that.
He has a pretty impressive record against Barry Hawkins (11-2 excluding Championship League). Despite the one-sided record, they had many great and close battles, more recently on the 2018 Shanghai Masters. Barry Hawkins, on the other hand, is still hunting for his first ranking title since he won the 2017 World Grand Prix. He played alright against Trump despite losing 6-5. He is someone who is a Triple Crown winner-in-waiting, but sometimes you do wonder when he will join players who win events regularly.
Both Mark Selby and John Higgins are having mediocre seasons by their standards. Despite winning the China Championship and reaching the semi-final of the Northern Ireland Open, Selby is playing his C-game. Despite reaching the China Championship final, Higgins is playing his E-game and spoken on numerous occasions about his dissatisfaction with the game. However, John Higgins did reach the semi-finals of the Indian Open despite his poor form and may transfer this to this tournament, where he may take it slightly more seriously. No offence to the Indian Open.
Second Quarter Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. John Higgins
THIRD QUARTER
Neil Robertson (3) vs. Joe Perry (14)
Mark Williams (6) vs. Ali Carter (11)
The match-up between Neil Robertson and Joe Perry is always a lovely one because both players are good friends. Neil has often credited Perry for settling into England and becoming the snooker player he is today. Excluding the Championship League and Snooker Shoot-Out, Neil is 10-6 ahead of Perry and the last four meetings are at 2-2. Neil should be confident after his Welsh Open win and now fairly relaxed after he withdrew from the Indian Open. Speaking of which, Joe Perry disappointingly lost to Li Hang in the Last 32. Since reaching the European Masters final, he reached the quarter-final stage once but has been relatively consistent this season.
Mark Williams has finally recovered from his binge and spoke that he is willing to ramp up his game in the run-up to the World Championship. Even so, his form isn’t fantastic. He failed to defend his German Masters Crown after being whitewashed by Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals. He hasn’t even progressed further into the latest tournaments yet. For Ali Carter, this is the perfect time to face him, coming off after the final of the World Grand Prix. Even though Carter won their recent meeting, let’s not forget that Carter was one of Williams’s victims during the last World Championship. I can see Carter making a threat here!
Third Quarter Winner: Neil Robertson vs. Ali Carter
FOURTH QUARTER
Kyren Wilson (7) vs. Jack Lisowski (10)
Judd Trump (2) vs. Jimmy Robertson (15)
I am going to be critical of Jack Lisowski, I’m afraid. Jack is without a doubt one of the most improved players on the tour and hit a number of brilliant milestones. But he hasn’t be able to beat the top boys yet. His lack of bottle has let him down on numerous occasions on this season alone. He was misfiring from all cylinders when he lost to Ding Junhui in the Masters as well as the World Grand Prix.
He has a lot to learn from Kyren, who has one of the best fighting qualities in a snooker player. His Masters loss against rival Judd Trump was hard to take. But he rebounded and took the German Masters, though afterwards to struggled because of his tip. Not sure if has improved but with potentially facing Judd in the quarter-finals, he will definitely be licking his lips.
Judd is on cloud nine. Two ranking titles and the Masters crown is quite a lovely thing to achieve, especially when there’s still a lot in the season to win still to go. He last lost a match in the German Masters quarter-final against Stephen Maguire. Since Jimmy won his first ranking title at the European Masters, he hasn’t made the same impression since. He reached the Last 32 of the Scottish Open and the German Masters, but was knocked out in the first round of the invitational events, which is a slight worry.
Fourth Quarter Winner: Kyren Wilson vs. Judd Trump
The Players Championship will take place from 4th–10th March 2019 in Preston, Lancashire, England.
