God these tournaments are going thick and fast aren’t they!
Straight after the World Prix, we have the last of the Home Nations events – the Welsh Open. It is a lovely event, though dumbed down by the best-of-7 format. But now it is part of the Home Nations package, it has put a shine back on! I went to watch my first live match there a couple of years ago, watching the first session of the final between John Higgins and first-time Ben Woollaston. Cardiff is a lovely city, though I would expect very sombre after losing to England in the Six Nations rugby I mean HA HA HA HA HA (I’m a Swindon Town supporter, I have to celebrate something).
Ronnie may have not a great record in the Home Nations events, having only making one appearance in the quarter-finals in those three tournaments, he does have an excellent record in this event, winning four times including two in the past three years. Then again, Higgins has also won here four times! We know that the £1,000,000 bonus for the clean sweep was long gone, but we also know the likes of Trump, Hamilton, Kyren Wilson as well as the winner have excellent records in this format. It will also be interesting to see which lesser-known players can take advantage here.We have quarter-final places filled by the likes of Chris Wakelin, Hossein Vafaei and Yu Delu in the past Home Nations events, and with what I like to call this ‘tennis-format,’ lower-ranked players can gain much-needed points here.
I do not get too caught up with wildcards, but Tyler Rees and Jackson Page are both very hot prospects indeed. Rees beat current World U-18 Champion Page to claim the U-18 European crown, also they clearly have a lot of pedigree, with Mark Williams giving a shout out to 15 year-old Page (who very strangely looks too similar to Michael White, but I don’t know.) A link about them is here (with some lovely double bass too): http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/wales/38936617
The Welsh have got very tough draws below, but a number of the Welsh contingent such as Grand Prix finalist Ryan Day would love to claim their home title here – it has been since 1999 when a Welshman took the title – Mark Williams beat Stephen Hendry 9-8 in Cardiff.
Anyways – DRAW. The top matches to watch here are Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Tom Ford; Neil Robertson vs. Jimmy White; Marco Fu vs. Martin Gould; Luca Brecel vs. Anthony Hamilton; and Tyler Rees vs. Jamie Jones.
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Tom Ford
Li Hang vs. Mark Davis
Fergal O’Brien vs. Cao Yupeng
Akani Songsermsawad vs. Chris Wakelin
Mark Williams vs. Elliot Slessor
Jimmy Robertson vs. Aditya Mehta
David John vs. Mark King
Scott Donaldson vs. Jack Lisowski
Quarter-Finalist: Ronnie O’Sullivan
Zhou Yuelong vs. Noppon Saengkham
Paul Davison vs. Joe Swail
Mark Joyce vs. Ross Muir
Marco Fu vs. Martin Gould
Ricky Walden vs. Graeme Dott
Michael Wild vs. Adam Stefanow
Rhys Clark vs. Lee Walker
Neil Robertson vs. Jimmy White
Quarter-Finalist: Marco Fu
Judd Trump vs. Andrew Higginson
Hatem Yassen vs. Alex Borg
Jackson Page vs. Jason Weston
John Astley vs. Ian Preece
Ali Carter vs. Zhao Xintong
Dechawat Poomjaeng vs. Darryl Hill
Hossein Vafaei vs. Sanderson Lam
Alan McManus vs. Christopher Keogan
Quarter-Finalist: Judd Trump
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs. Ben Woollaston
David Gilbert vs. Ryan Day
Tian Pengfei vs. Chen Zhe
Barry Hawkins vs. Fraser Patrick
Jamie Cope vs. Nigel Bond
Luca Brecel vs. Anthony Hamilton
Jak Jones vs. Craig Steadman
John Higgins vs. Sam Baird
Quarter-Finalist: Luca Brecel
Stuart Bingham vs. Matthew Stevens
Gary Wilson vs. Rory McLeod
Stephen Maguire vs. Zhang Yong
Ian Burns vs. James Cahill
Liang Wenbo vs. Rod Lawler
Duane Jones vs. Michael White
Andy Hicks vs. Martin O’Donnell
David Grace vs. Robbie Williams
Quarter-Finalist: Liang Wenbo
Tyler Rees vs. Jamie Jones
Dominic Dale vs. Zhang Anda
Alfie Burden vs. Igor Figueiredo
Joe Perry vs. Anthony McGill
Stuart Carrington vs. Sam Craigie
Gareth Allen vs. Wang Yuchen
Michael Georgiou vs. Allan Taylor
Ding Junhui vs. Robin Hull
Quarter-Finalist: Joe Perry
Shaun Murphy vs. Jamie Curtis-Barrett
Hammad Miah vs. Josh Boileau
Yu Delu vs. Robert Milkins
Oliver Lines vs. Eden Sharav
Mark Allen vs. Sydney Wilson
Boonyarit Keattikun vs. Ken Doherty
Hamza Akbar vs. Peter Ebdon
Matthew Selt vs. Mei Xiwen
Quarter-Finalist: Mark Allen
Fang Xiongman vs. Kurt Maflin
James Wattana vs. Xiao Guodong
Michael Holt vs. Mitchell Mann
Kyren Wilson vs. Sean O’Sullivan
Adam Duffy vs. Thor Chuan Leong
Yan Bingtao vs. Daniel Wells
Mike Dunn vs. Kurt Dunham
Mark Selby vs. Liam Highfield
Quarter-Finalist: Kyren Wilson
Final: Marco Fu vs. Mark Allen
If I get any of this right – especially the finalists, then I am the goddamn Pope! 🙂
