So after the festivities of the German Masters, we move on to the World Grand Prix to start off a very busy frame indeed. Even though this event is only in its third year and its second as a fully-fledged ranking event – it seems like a prestigious thing to win. Not only because it is another ranking title to win and the £100,000 is very nice too, but also because the 32 players are here because of their form the past year and by merit, making his even more satisfying. Looking down the list, the Top 24 players are in the WGP, with seven outside of the Top 32 and even one player who is outside of the Top 64 at all. He is also the youngest – Yan Bingtao earned £43,600 by reaching a quarter-final and four Last 16 appearances this season. Astonishing for a 16-year-old. Selby is top for obvious reasons with a huge £375,150 in winnings.
The German Masters certainly influenced the one-year ranking list to enter the tournament in the first place. Quarter-final performances by Tom Ford and Yan Bingtao knocked out Ben Woollaston and Luca Brecel before the tournament has even begun and the magnificent exploits of Anthony Hamilton even altered who is playing who here! For those who have been living in a cave away from the snooker world, Anthony Hamilton won his first ranking title. Why have I not written an article about him yet? Because everyone else is and a few of my exasperated tweets say it all!
So far, the draw! There are a number of brilliant ties here and weirdly, there are only two first meetings. O’Sullivan vs. Bingtao should be a great game, especially since Bingtao got to his first quarter-final in the German Masters. Perry and Williams should be a very close one, as well as McGill and Gilbert. Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump are looking to win this trophy again so this should be a good one! These first matches are best-of-7s, so more unpredictability!
Mark Selby (1) vs. Martin Gould (32)
Joe Perry (16) vs. Mark Williams (17)
Anthony Hamilton (24) vs. Mark Allen (9)
Dominic Dale (25) vs. Liang Wenbo (8)
Ronnie O’Sullivan (5) vs. Yan Bingtao (28)
Ricky Walden (21) vs. Neil Robertson (12)
Barry Hawkins (13) vs. Kyren Wilson (20)
Tom Ford (29) vs. Judd Trump (4)
Ali Carter (3) vs. Zhou Yuelong (30)
Stephen Maguire (19) vs. Mark King (14)
Anthony McGill (11) vs. David Gilbert (22)
Jamie Jones (27) vs. Marco Fu (6)
John Higgins (7) vs. Michael White (26)
Ryan Day (23) vs. Stuart Bingham (10)
Shaun Murphy (15) vs. Michael Holt (18)
Yu Delu (31) vs. Ding Junhui (2)
