PREVIEW: 2020 UK Championship

Welcome to the UK Championship, the first of the Triple Crown!

This should perk our fanbase up. Indeed, we are still in the middle of a pandemic and the tournament will stay in Milton Keynes unlike originally planned. The draw was completed earlier than expected so that competitors have more time to prepare. Therefore, the results of the Northern Ireland Open would not be taken into account.

A few players decided to not participate in the UK Championship. Marco Fu, Mei Xiwen and Bai Langning are still stationed in Asia. Australian Steve Mifsud is absent as per usual. Stephen Hendry decided to put his comeback on hold. Hendry explained that his game isn’t ready yet and wanted to play in front of the crowds. Hopefully, the crowds will return very soon.

But there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful. BO11 matches. A £200,000 prize for the winner. A number of potential surprises. There were a number of shock results since the format was revamped in 2013. If you want to read a countdown about this, please click here to read more.

Who are the favourites?

It is pretty obvious who the favourites are. The best four players at the moment are Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Ronnie O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan and Robertson reached one ranking final already and Selby won the European Masters. But Trump has reached three ranking finals and won two of them – the English Open and the Northern Ireland Open!

All four of these players have performed very well in Milton Keynes and should be very difficult to beat.

One cannot rule out Ronnie O’Sullivan. Indeed, his form this season has been questionable. But he’s won the UK Championship seven times, three of which came from his last five appearances. In the early rounds of the UK Championship, he seemed unstoppable.

But despite their capabilities, Trump and Robertson have surprisingly poor records at the UK Championship. Trump hasn’t reached the quarter-final stage since 2014, nor has Robertson since 2015. Since his 2017 UK Championship victory, Selby hasn’t reached the final eight since then either. There is also a question to how long could Trump could keep up such brilliant consistency. The UK Championship is a bigger and longer slog.

But we must talk about the defending UK Championship winner, Ding Junhui!

Ding’s record is eclectic at best. Ding has won the UK Championship three times already but has lost to the likes of Adam Duffy, Leo Fernandez and James Cahill in this event. But if you beat Ali Carter, O’Sullivan, Yan Bingtao and Stephen Maguire in one swoop, than you deserve to win any title. That’s exactly what Ding did to win the title.

The big question is knowing which Ding Junhui will turn up!

Can someone spring a surprise this UK Championship?

There were a number of surprise results since the format was revamped in 2013. If you want to read a countdown about first-round shocks, please click here to read more.

Aside from first-round shocks, there were many surprise players who reached the quarter finals. No. 87 Sunny Akani was so close to reach that stage in 2017, but lost to O’Sullivan 6-5 in the Last 16. No. 37 seed Anthony McGill and No. 56 Martin O’Donnell reached the UK Championship quarter-finals in 2014 and 2018 respectively. Last year, 54 year-old Nigel Bond hit the headlines when he defeated Judd Trump in the 2019 UK Championship and went on to make the final eight. Amazingly, David Grace made the 2015 semis despite being No. 80 in the world, beaten by No. 28 Liang Wenbo.

So who do we think? If we are looking at UK Championship records, James Cahill, Sunny Akani, and Li Hang seem to be good low-ranking contenders. In terms of this season’s performance, Martin Gould, Robbie Williams, David Grace and Ken Doherty could be interesting outsiders.

Race to the Masters

The UK Championship is the last chance for anyone to qualify for the 2020 Masters. That will be in Alexandra Palace hopefully.

Matt Huart of WPBSA made a lot of the analysis on the #RaceToTheMasters already. What is definite is that defending Masters champion Stuart Bingham will be No. 1 seed, regardless of what happens. Defending World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan will be No. 2 seed, assuming he chooses to participate this time. The rest down to No. 14 Mark Williams are largely safe from dropping out.

We could have three Masters debutants in 2021. Yan, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Gary Wilson are the most likely contenders. Yan’s place at the Masters is relatively sealed. But there are many players who want to nick their spot at the last minute. Jack Lisowski, Anthony McGill, Joe Perry, Graeme Dott, Ali Carter and Barry Hawkins can do this. Scott Donaldson and Zhou Yuelong will need much deeper runs to achieve that too.

Carter reached the Northern Ireland Open semi-finals. The £20,000 ranking points has thrown him right into the mix to get a place. He is less than £10,000 behind No. 16 Gary Wilson now, so this will be very interesting!

Triple Crown Chase for Stuart Bingham

Bingham has won the World Championship and the Masters. If Bingham wins the UK Championship, then he will be the 12th snooker player to complete the Triple Crown. Journalist Nick Metcalfe conducted an excellent interview with the 2015 World Champion in the run up to the UK Championship. Please click here to read and digest all the wonderful information.

The last thing to mention is the qualification of the World Grand Prix. For those who need a reminder, the tournament is for the best 32 players in the one year ranking list. The tournament starts on 14th December. This could be vital for the low-seeded players to pick up important ranking points. It also provides an extra incentive for under-performing top players to pull their finger out.

Draw

All rounds are BO11 matches, except the the final, which is a BO19.

Please note that Ryan Day and Anthony Hamilton have been tested positive for COVID-19 and are forced to withdraw from the event. I wish them a speedy recovery. Their opponents will receive a bye to the next round.

Section 1

Ding Junhui (1) vs. Jamie Curtis Barrett (128a)

Ian Burns (64) vs. David Grace (65)

Luca Brecel (32) vs. Lei Peifan (97)

Xiao Guodong (33) vs. Brandon Sargeant (96)

Jack Lisowski (16) vs. Farakh Ajaib (112)

Tian Pengfei (49) vs. Jamie O’Neill (80)

Gary Wilson (17) vs. Oliver Lines (113)

Anthony Hamilton (48) w/o Xu Si (81)

Quarter-final winner: Ding Junhui vs. Gary Wilson

Section 2

Alan McManus (41) vs. Jimmy White (87)

Zhou Yuelong (24) vs. Peter Devlin (104)

Sam Craigie (56) vs. Chang Bingyu (73)

Mark Allen (9) vs. Jamie Wilson (120)

Ryan Day (40) w/o Jak Jones (89)

Scott Donaldson (25) vs. Simon Lichtenberg (106)

Daniel Wells (57) vs. Gerard Greene (72)

John Higgins (8) vs. Fergal O’Brien (121)

Quarter-final winner: Mark Allen vs. John Higgins

Section 3

Mark Selby (5) vs. Michael White (124a)

Liam Highfield (60) vs. Jackson Page (69)

Michael Holt (28) vs. Gao Yang (103)

Hossein Vafaei (37) vs. Billy Joe Castle (92)

David Gilbert (12) vs. Fan Zhengyi (116)

Robert Milkins (53) vs. Si Jiahui (76)

Barry Hawkins (21) vs. Riley Parsons (110)

Mark Davis (44) vs. Robbie Williams (85)

Quarter-final winner: Mark Selby vs. Robert Milkins

Section 4

Lyu Haotian (45) vs. Soheil Vahedi (84)

Anthony McGill (19) vs. Steven Hallworth (108)

Yuan Sijun (52) vs. Chen Zifan (78)

Yan Bingtao (13) vs. Sean Maddocks (117)

Li Hang (36) vs. Fraser Patrick (93)

Zhao Xintong (29) vs. Rory McLeod (100)

Chris Wakelin (61) vs. Louis Heathcote (68)

Neil Robertson (4) vs. Brian Ochoiski (125a)

Quarter-final winner: Lyu Haotian vs. Neil Robertson

Section 5

Judd Trump (3) vs. Paul Davison (126a)

Luo Honghao (62) vs. Dominic Dale (67)

Liang Wenbo (30) vs. Allan Taylor (99)

Ben Woollaston (35) vs. Andy Hicks (94)

Mark Williams (14) vs. Ben Hancorn (115)

Sunny Akani (51) vs. Kacper Filipiak (77)

Ali Carter (20) vs. Ashley Carty (109)

Ricky Walden (46) vs. Rod Lawler (83)

Quarter-final winner: Judd Trump vs. Ali Carter

Section 6

Mark King (43) vs. David Lilley (86)

Graeme Dott (22) vs. Zhao Jianbo (111)

Andrew Higginson (54) vs. James Cahill (75)

Stuart Bingham (11) vs. Zak Surety (118)

Martin O’Donnell (38) vs. Jamie Clarke (90)

Kurt Maflin (27) vs. Aaron Hill (101)

Mark Joyce (59) vs. Eden Sharav (70)

Kyren Wilson (6) vs. Ashley Hugill (123)

Quarter-final winner: Graeme Dott vs. Kyren Wilson

Section 7

Shaun Murphy (7) vs. Lee Walker (122)

Elliot Slessor (58) vs. Mitchell Mann (71)

Matthew Selt (26) vs. Amine Amiri (102)

Lu Ning (39) vs. Ken Doherty (91)

Stephen Maguire (10) vs. Iulian Boiko (119)

Stuart Carrington (55) vs. Barry Pinches (74)

Tom Ford (23) vs. Pang Junxu (105)

Noppon Saengkham (42) vs. Peter Lines (88)

Quarter-final winner: Lu Ning vs. Noppon Saengkham

Section 8

Jimmy Robertson (47) vs. Igor Figueiredo (82)

Joe Perry (18) vs. Alex Borg (107)

Joe O’Connor (50) vs. Duane Jones (79)

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (15) vs. Lukas Kleckers (114)

Martin Gould (34) vs. Jordan Brown (95)

Matthew Stevens (31) vs. Jamie Jones (98)

Alexander Ursenbacher (63) vs. Nigel Bond (66)

Ronnie O’Sullivan (2) vs. Leo Fernandez (127a)

Quarter-final winner: Joe Perry vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan

Winner: Mark Allen vs. Kyren Wilson

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The 2020 UK Championship will take place at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England on 23rd November and 6th December 2020.