The snooker season has finally kicked off, though not as many expected!
The Riga Masters
Yan Bingtao became the first teenager since Ding Junhui thirteen years ago to win a ranking event. The 19 year-old Chinaman beat first-time finalist Mark Joyce 5-2 in the final of the Riga Masters. He is the third player after Ding and Liang Wenbo from Mainland China to win a ranking event. He is also the first one to taste such a victory since Ding won the 2017 World Open. Here’s to many more to come for Yan, who we all knew is destined to do something special in the world of snooker.
One thing I will say though, is that he was helped by a number of absent top players. In fact, no Top 16 player even reached the quarter-finals. The few who had qualified to go to Latvia in the first place were knocked out early, such as Mark Williams, Mark Selby and Luca Brecel. But others made headlines for being absent in quite a bizarre fashion. Several players missing out on the Riga Masters due to the cancellation of late flight, which is unusual in any sport. It is unlucky that their flight was called off, but it is their fault that they left it so late that there was no other alternative other than to skip the event altogether.
Still, it is easy for me to say not being a sportsman. If there was any tournament to accidentally miss, this would certainly be one of them.
The International Championship
Anyway, we have come to one of the biggest events of the calendar. The International Championship is pushed back earlier from its usual late-October slot for some odd reason. But it is still in Daqing, which hosted the event since 2015. It was confirmed that Daqing will host this event till 2020, after all. With £175,000 going to the winner, it is no wonder the big boys are coming out to play again (apart from Ronnie O’Sullivan, of course).
World Snooker regards this tournament to be highly regarded to be something special. It was billed as an outstanding addition to the snooker calendar and in terms of quality finals, it doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it is a very popular one with the elite players too. Since 2012 in both Chengdu and Daqing, only one player outside the Top 16 made it to the final. That was in 2015 when the No. 41 seed David Gilbert reached his first ranking final. He lost to the experienced John Higgins 10-5. As well as Higgins, Judd Trump, Ricky Walden, Ding and Selby managed to etch their name on the trophy.
Last season, Mark Allen became the next illustrious player to win the International Championship winner in some style, winning the event with 14 century breaks! Now, he defends his crown by playing Peter Lines first.
Draw in Depth
In terms of the draw, there is not much to tell. It would be sensible to pick a player who warmed up in Riga. But we do not know how often the Riga Masters absentees have been practising. In a recent interview, Trump mentioned he will work just as hard this season, if not harder than last season This is where he won three ranking titles, including the World Championship and the Masters. Now would be a perfect opportunity for Trump to assert his dominance and to intimidate his opponents so early into this season. He play Jordan Brown in the preliminary round.
There are a number of delicious ties here. Carter vs. McManus is always a good one and there’s a potential we can have Ding playing hot prodigy Zhao Xintong in the Last 64. More interesting ties include Yuan vs. Murphy, Bingham vs. Joyce and Highfield vs. Selby. Below is the draw!
The Draw
Mark Allen/Peter Lines vs. Sam Craigie/Pang Junxu (a)
Mark Davis vs. Matthew Selt
Ali Carter vs. Alan McManus
Ryan Day vs. Kurt Maflin
Ashley Carty vs. Xiao Guodong
Zhao Xintong vs. Ding Junhui/Simon Lichtenberg
Liang Wenbo vs. Duane Jones
Daniel Wells vs. Barry Hawkins
First Quarter-Final: Matthew Selt vs. Ding Junhui
John Higgins/Wu Yize (a) vs. David Grace
Elliot Slessor vs. Louis Heathcote
Stuart Bingham vs. Mark Joyce
Graeme Dott vs. Michael White
Chang Bingyu vs. Yan Bingtao/Alfie Burden
Yuan Sijun vs. Shaun Murphy
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs. Ricky Walden
Nigel Bond vs. Neil Robertson
Second Quarter-Final: Stuart Bingham vs. Neil Robertson
Mark Williams vs. Jak Jones
Zhou Yuelong vs. Robert Milkins
Luca Brecel vs. Sunny Akani/Li Yingdong (a)
Gary Wilson vs. Peter Ebdon
Michael Holt vs. Anthony McGill/Zhao Jianbo (a)
Ken Doherty vs. David Gilbert
Ben Woollaston vs. Mark King
Liam Highfield vs. Mark Selby
Third Quarter-Final: Gary Wilson vs. Mark Selby
Kyren Wilson vs. Robbie Williams
Tom Ford vs. Hossein Vafaei
Jack Lisowski vs. Andrew Higginson
Jimmy Robertson vs. Matthew Stevens
Chris Wakelin vs. Joe Perry
Stuart Carrington vs. Stephen Maguire
Scott Donaldson vs. Martin Gould
Zhang Anda vs. Judd Trump/Jordan Brown
Fourth Quarter-Final: Jack Lisowski vs. Judd Trump
Winner of the 2019 International Championship: Ding Junhui vs. Judd Trump
