FEATURED: The Stories of the 2019 UK Championship

The UK Championship is one of the biggest tournaments of the snooker calendar. Though a number of people think it has been devalued since the change in the format of the draw since 2011, it still has a proud history, as well as being part of the Triple Crown.

The UK Championships also comes at a pivotal moment of the snooker season. It’s the final cut-off point for players to qualify for the Masters. It also represents the best opportunity of where a player’s season stands in snooker. Because of the 1vs128 … 64vs65 ranking format, it is extremely important to get a win here, as it may give players breathing space away from relegation while threatening their opponents to make for lost frames. This will be huge for the likes of Sam Craigie, Michael White and Ken Doherty, for example. For the full draw, please click here.

What are the main focuses this time around? There are plenty of stories and talking points at the UK Championship and here they are below!

Judd Trump’s Triple Crown Chance

Before you exclaim, I know Judd Trump has completed the Triple Crown. But what you might not know is that he could join an exclusive club to hold all three Triple Crown events! But only if he wins this UK Championship.

Judd Trump has the form to do this. Three ranking titles, including a sensational performance in the Northern Ireland Open, and being top of the centuries table is a fabulous start of his season as World Champion. Trump managed to reach the Champion of Championship final and it took a performance of such a huge magnitude of Neil Robertson to beat him. With such a busy schedule and lack to time to recover, we wonder how much Trump has left in the tank. Judd’s UK Championship record is patchy at best.

Only four players have succeeded in holding three Triple Crown titles at the same time. Steve Davis and Mark Williams have won all three titles in a single season during 1987/1988 and 2002/2003 respectively. Stephen Hendry completed this feat twice in the 1989/1990 and 1995/1996 season. John Higgins also succeeded in doing this, but unusually, he did this over two seasons. He won the 1998 World Championship and in the next season, he claimed the 1998 UK Championship and the 1999 Masters.

In short, no-one has held onto all three Triple Crown events since Mark Williams in 2003. It isn’t the most important accolade in snooker, but it’s always nice to get some extra kudos. Of course, Judd Trump will be gunning to do this, but will it put extra pressure on him?

Will Ronnie O’Sullivan’s UK domination continue?

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Triple Crown record is pretty phenomenal. Since he won the 2012 World Championship, he has won a Triple Crown event in every season. This was also helped by his domination in the UK Championship. His last loss in this event was the 10-7 loss to Mark Selby in the 2017 final. After that, he won the 2018 and 2019 UK Championship.

This isn’t to say he had it easy either. He was given a scare last year against Ken Doherty but came through as the 6-5 victor. The year before that, he was incredibly lucky not to lose to Sunny Akani in the Last 16. Had Akani not potted the blue when he potted the green, Akani would’ve won 6-4. Thanks to that change of fortune, Ronnie took advantage of that mistake and won that match 6-5 and went on to win the title.

Ronnie O’Sullivan will come in as one of the massive favourites to win. Some people will be slightly skeptical of his patchy form this season, despite winning the 2019 Shanghai Masters. But I expect Ronnie would want to be part of the Coral Series and earn many pounds this season and winning the UK Championship would guarantee him to do exactly that. Reaching the final of the Northern Ireland Open is perfect practice for Ronnie.

But who else can challenge him? Weirdly, the last seven UK Championship titles have been shared by just three players. Since 2012, the event has been won by either Neil Robertson, Mark Selby or O’Sullivan. Hopefully they could challenge him and who knows? There might be a completely new winner altogether!

The Race To The Masters

During the UK Championship, this feels like a very exciting backstory. This is the last opportunity for any player to break into the Top 16 and win a place at the 2020 Dafabet Masters. For those in the Top 16, a good run would cement their place at Alexandra Palace next year. Very, very important.

So who is under threat? Provisionally, Joe Perry, Ding Junhui and Ali Carter occupy the last three places among the elite. But considering 16th seed Carter is only £5,000 ahead of 17th seed Stephen Maguire, one victory may be enough for Maguire to steal a Masters spot from him. With so much prize money on offer in the UK Championship, it might take one good run for the likes of Gary Wilson, Graeme Dott, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and even Yan Bingtao to leapfrog their rivals. How fascinating will that be???

For all the information to who is in the race to the Masters, please click this link. It does look like current No. 13 seed Jack Lisowski and those who are higher ranked have sealed their Masters places. Which means that David Gilbert will be making his debut at Alexandra Palace. It is more remarkable that Shaun Murphy kept his place in the Top 16, considering last season was a horror show for him. But after reaching the International Championship final and winning the China Championship, he catapulted himself to safety.

Ding Junhui’s Fight For Form

Ding Junhui is a big worry coming into the UK Championship. He hasn’t won a ranking title since the 2017 World Open, nor has he reached a ranking final since the 2018 World Grand Prix.

His decline in form has made him slide down the rankings so much, his Masters place is under threat. This is a far cry from the same Ding Junhui who won five ranking titles in a single season and who was close to winning the World Championship not so long ago!

We can only speculate reasons for his poor form. Ding became a father for the first time last year. Ding even said that “being a father is harder than playing snooker at the moment.” Fatherhood may have given him a different sense of perspective, being that winning tournaments aren’t the ‘be all that end all’ to him anymore. Commentators like Stephen Hendry have picked up that Ding looked either bored and uninterested in the past. This is a perfect opportunity to announce that Ding’s back.

By his standards, Ding’s record in the UK Championship has been appalling. He hasn’t reached a UK quarter-final since 2011. This includes some surprising losses in the early rounds against James Cahill, Adam Duffy, Leo Fernandez and last year, Martin O’Donnell. But I think I cam say on behalf of many fans and players that we want to see the fire in Ding again.

Where will the surprise packages come from?

Don’t forget, Barry Hearn implemented a more flat and linear draw to the UK Championship in 2013. It is still up to debate to whether it has devalued the UK Championship more or not. I wrote about this already, so I won’t be too repetitive. But what has happened is that it has given greater opportunities for lower-ranked players to shine in such a prestigious event.

If we are talking about first-round shocks, amateur Mitchell Travis beating Marco Fu (2013), defending champion Neil Robertson losing to unseeded Peter Lines (2016) and unseeded Cahill defeating Mark Selby (2018) spring to mind among many. Since 2013, David Grace, Ryan Day and Tom Ford reached their first Triple Crown semi-finals of their careers. Liang Wenbo reached his first ranking final in the 2015 UK Championship, losing 10-5 to Neil Robertson.

This shows that there are a few smaller names that could make an impact in the UK Championship. With potentially a Masters place up for grabs, one run can offer plenty of reward to one outsider or two! Will it happen again this year? The ties Mark Allen vs. Jimmy White, Zhao Xintong vs. Alexander Ursenbacher, Li Hang vs. Jamie Clarke and David Gilbert vs. James Cahill are worth a gander for this reason!

Looking forward to it!