PREVIEW: 2020 European Masters

After the start of the third Championship League of 2020, we have the second European Masters of 2020!

The European Masters graced its full-ranking status in many wonderful countries since 2016. It started in the eclectic capital city of Romania called Bucharest. Then it moved to the relaxing and gorgeous little Belgian town of Lommel for two seasons. Neil Robertson celebrated his first European Masters title in Dornbirn, an Austrian town surrounded by scenic mountains. Robertson whitewashed Zhou Yuelong 9-0, who reached his first full ranking final last year.

Now we are in Milton Keynes. It is not the most picturesque place to play snooker, I’ll be honest. I was born in Swindon, our town isn’t that much better (that is disputable), which says a lot about Milton Keynes.

The Unpredictability Of It All

This tournament will be quite weird for many reasons aside from the obvious. Some of the players in the draw already have more match practice than others. The first few groups of four players played in the first leg in the Championship League. We saw the likes of Judd Trump, David Gilbert, Shaun Murphy and Barry Hawkins achieve confidence-boosting victories, despite little practice. Will this intimidate their opponents? Even if that doesn’t, some players would’ve got used to the surroundings and playing conditions of Milton Keynes. Would this be a significant advantage?

You could rely on those who performed well in the Championship League. Lower-ranking victors Ryan Day, Robert Milkins and Dominic Dale might be worth a look. But one could naturally be drawn to the players who perform well a decent C-game or without practice. Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby are the obvious examples. Otherwise, very little to go on I’m afraid.

It will also be interesting to see how players will treat this ranking event. This will be the first ranking event without any crowd from start to finish. This will come as a relief to one player in particular. Anthony Hamilton withdrew from the World Championships at the Crucible due to health concerns, especially with crowd presence. Hamilton also withdrew from the Championship League due to the absence of COVID-19 testing. Testing is available during the European Masters and Hamilton will feature here against Michael Holt. Please read Phil Haigh’s interview with Hamilton regarding it all – I would recommend you do so by clicking here.

Intriguing Ties

This tournament will give us the first opportunity to seek players making their first ever professional bow. Some may have a brilliant opportunity to get their first ranking points under their belts. 16 year-old Jamie Wilson takes on German Simon Lichtenberg and debutant Sean Maddocks takes on Polish amateur Antoni Kowalski, for example.

But others are thrown completely into the deep end. 14 year-old Iulian Boiko will take on former World Champion and current No. 1 Judd Trump. Two European amateurs, Florian Nüßle and Brian Ochoiski, will player Mark Allen and Jack Lisowski respectively. You can read an interview between WPBSA and Ochoiski by clicking here, which has decent photos.

Looking at the rest of the draw, Neil Robertson starts his title defence against the unorthodox Sunny Akani. Ronnie O’Sullivan’s first opponent of the season is Welshman Daniel Wells. Shaun Murphy has a tricky opener against Liang Wenbo. Mark Selby plays Michael White in the first round, only White is an amateur now, having lost his tour card last season.

That last bit is still quite weird to me.

Draw

All rounds are BO9 matches, except the BO11 semi-finals and the final, which is a BO17.

Section 1

Neil Robertson (1) vs. Sunny Akani

Riley Parsons vs. Soheil Vahedi

Noppon Saengkham (32) vs. Allan Taylor

Sam Craigie vs. Ben Woollaston

Joe Perry (16) vs. Robbie Williams

Ben Hancorn vs. Pang Junxu

Barry Hawkins (17) vs. Fan Zhengyi

Gerard Greene vs. Jordan Brown

Section 2

Antoni Kowalski (a) vs. Sean Maddocks

Tom Ford (24) vs. Mark King

James Cahill vs. Elliot Slessor

Stephen Maguire (19) vs. Chang Bingyu

Jak Jones vs. Jamie O’Neill

Zhou Yuelong (25) vs. Alexander Ursenbacher

Alan McManus vs. Rod Lawler

Shaun Murphy (8) vs. Liang Wenbo

Section 3

Mark Allen (5) vs. Florian Nüßle (a)

Farakh Ajaib vs. Ken Doherty

Jimmy Robertson (28) vs. Ashley Carty

Jamie Wilson vs. Simon Lichtenberg

Ding Junhui (12) vs. Yuan Sijun

Brandon Sargeant vs. Hossein Vafaei

Graeme Dott (21) vs. Xu Si

Lyu Haotian vs. Alex Borg

Section 4

Fraser Patrick vs. Tian Pengfei

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (20) vs. Liam Highfield

Chen Zifan vs. Eden Sharav

Stuart Bingham (13) vs. Louis Heathcote

Mark Davis vs. Amine Amiri

Zhao Xintong (29) vs. Nigel Bond

Gao Yang vs. Zhao Jianbo

Mark Selby (4) vs. Michael White (a)

Section 5

Judd Trump vs. Iulian Boiko

Lukas Kleckers vs. Mark Joyce

Michael Holt vs. Anthony Hamilton

Jamie Jones vs. Dominic Dale

Jack Lisowski (14) vs. Brian Ochoiski (a)

Jackson Page vs. Billy Joe Castle

Ali Carter (19) vs. Rory McLeod

Steven Hallworth vs. Luca Brecel

Section 6

Kacper Filipiak vs. Peter Lines

Anthony McGill (22) vs. Luo Honghao

Robert Milkins vs. Ben Mertens (a)

David Gilbert (11) vs. David Lilley

David Grace vs. Lu Ning

Kurt Maflin (27) vs. Martin O’Donnell

Fergal O’Brien vs. Chris Wakelin

Kyren Wilson (6) vs. Lee Walker

Section 7

John Higgins (7) vs. Martin Gould

Ian Burns vs. Jimmy White

Matthew Selt (26) vs. Li Hang

Jamie Clarke vs. Ricky Walden

Mark Williams (10) vs. Ashley Hugill

Zak Surety vs. Peter Devlin

Scott Donaldson (23) vs. Mitchell Mann

Lei Peifan vs. Joe O’Connor

Section 8

Andrew Higginson vs. Oliver Lines

Gary Wilson (18) vs. Duane Jones

Si Jiahui vs. Ryan Day

Yan Bingtao (15) vs. Barry Pinches

Matthew Stevens vs. Igor Figueiredo

Xiao Guodong (31) vs. Stuart Carrington

Aaron Hill vs. Andy Hicks

Ronnie O’Sullivan (2) vs. Daniel Wells

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The 2020 European Masters will take place at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes from 21st to 27th September 2020. The event is sponsored by betting company BetVictor.