This is the tournament for the purists. Eight of the best players will gather in Wales to compete in the seaside resort of Llandudno. The first match is a best-of-17, which will be a huge turn-on for those who missed the UK Championship of old. The semi-finals will be a best-of-19. The final is a best-of-25. This is the third instalment of the Coral Cup, with Ronnie and Judd winning one trophy each.
Kyren Wilson and new Gibraltar Open champion Stuart Bingham manage to fill in the last few spaces because David Gilbert failed to make the cut. Even though these eight players top the Order of Merit, it is quite interesting to see some players lacking in form. This is more of a fault of the ranking system, which gives a hugely disproportionate amount of points to the winners, but that’s an article for another month.
Also in the pipeline is the Coral Cup. World Grand Prix champion Judd Trump and Players Championship Ronnie O’Sullivan are neck and neck to win it. After his brilliant tournament win in Preston, Ronnie is undoubtedly the favourite here. But everyone here is a ranking event winner and got to the Tour Championship by right. Since the matches are longer, there are more twists and turns. Let’s see!
All the head-to-head records come from Cuetracker.com, excluding the Championship League and Snooker Shoot-Out.
Mark Allen (1) vs. Kyren Wilson (8)
Mark Allen (1) vs. Kyren Wilson (8)
H2H: Kyren Wilson leads Mark Allen 6-4.
Recent meeting: 2018 Champion of Champions – Wilson beat Allen 6-5.
Both of these players have been hot and cold this season, which makes this tie quite hard to predict. This is especially the especially since they have beaten each other in high-profile matches – Allen in the 2017 Masters final (10-7) and Wilson in the 2018 World Championship quarter-finals (13-6).
Mark Allen has kept the top spot because he won the Scottish Open and was second-best to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the UK Championship. After a brief spell of being frustrated with his game and some personal problems, he reached the semi-finals of the Players Championship. He beat Stephen Maguire and Stuart Bingham before being whitewashed by Ronnie O’Sullivan.
On paper, Kyren Wilson also had a successful season, winning two ranking events and the 6Reds Championship. He is always renowned for his consistency, which is strange to see him so up-and-down. This includes losing three first-round ties in a row earlier in the season. Since his quarter-final appearance at the World Grand Prix, he hasn’t reached the quarter-final stages in four tournaments, including the Gibraltar Open.
Who will win here? If I had to choose, it should be Mark Allen, but Wilson has resilience in abundance….
Neil Robertson (4) vs. Mark Selby (5)
H2H: Neil Robertson leads Mark Selby 9-7.
Recent meeting: 2018 Champion of Champions – Robertson beat Selby 4-3.N
If there is a match where two players can bring the best out of each other, this is it.
It is very easy to forget how Mark Selby managed to qualify for the Tour Championship, let alone the other Coral Cup events. The £150,000 cheque that came from winning the International Championship certainly did that. However, if anyone can win an event on a C-game or a B-game by grinding results out over a long format, it is Mark Selby. However, he hasn’t beaten the top players recently. He lost to Trump in the Masters and the World Grand Prix, Gilbert in the German Masters and Higgins in the Players Championship.
Neil Robertson had a quiet season since he won the Riga Masters but is peaking at the right time. A Masters semi-finalist, Players Championship finalist and winning the Welsh Open is not bad work. This included making a comeback against Mark Williams and exacting revenge against Trump. Just based on this season alone, you would think Robertson would win this. However, if there was an event for Selby to turn on form, it is this one.
Judd Trump (3) vs. Mark Williams (6)
H2H: Judd Trump leads Mark Williams 8-5.
Recent meeting: 2018 German Masters – Williams beat Trump 6-1.J
This is a seriously intriguing match-up.
Every man and his dog knows that Judd Trump is having an excellent season. A Northern Ireland Open, Masters and Players Championship champion, Trump has a knack to snooker, apparently. Since his last event victory, he had a slight blip when he lost to Duane Jones in the Welsh Open. There were a lot of positives to take from his performances during the Players Championship. His annihilation of Jimmy Robertson showed his scoring prowess. His comeback from 5-2 down to win 6-5 showed another aspect of his game, though he did lose 6-4 to Neil Robertson.
Mark Williams is another person who people would be surprised to still be at Llandudno. But his World Open triumph back in August has kept him in the running. He said last month that he started putting in some practice in the run-up to defending his World Championship title. There hasn’t been too much evidence of that so far, as he won just one match in the Coral Cup so far. This is a perfect opportunity for Mark Williams to warm up and see if his practice paid off. Beating Trump would put him in the running.
I can imagine Williams winning here. He sounds up for it and will not take this lightly. The Judd of old would underestimate him, a player who is of poor form – let’s see if it happens again…..
Ronnie O’Sullivan (2) vs. Stuart Bingham (7)
H2H: Ronnie O’Sullivan leads Stuart Bingham 15-3.
Recent meeting: 2018 Masters – O’Sullivan beat Bingham 6-2.R
Stuart Bingham must really hate playing against Ronnie O’Sullivan. Look at the H2H record. Also, the last time Stuart beat the Rocket was in the 2015 World Championship. Maybe after his Gibraltar Open win, a victory over O’Sullivan is long overdue? He scored an awesome tally nine centuries in that entire tournament, including the joint highest break of 142. You must have a good season if you won two ranking events in a single season!
We’ve all heard about Ronnie over the past few weeks. From his atrocious, attention-seeking Australian accent to making history by becoming the first player to reach 1,000th century breaks. On top of that, he won the Players Championship in dramatic fashion too! Despite playing in just nine events this season, he reached six finals and won four of them. On that record alone, it seems very difficult to see one winner. This is especially the case as Ronnie has more experience of the longer matches because he appeared in the finals many times!
Predictions: Mark Selby vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan
