First ranking tournament of the season and we are in a lovely country known for waterfalls, ice hockey, basketball and paganism apparently. Still, I would love to go there – seems like a pretty place! With Mark Selby out of the picture (probably because he is slightly loaded), this will make Neil Robertson’s chances of defending his Riga Masters champion slightly easier. He will play his first round match in Riga against amateur Daniel Ward. After staying away from Warcraft or some other game to cope with his publicised gaming addiction, now is the best time to show he is back. After all, he has won the first ranking event of the snooker calendar three times in the past four years, having won the 2013 & 2014 Wuxi Classic and of course, the 2016 Riga Masters.
In fact, many top players in Trump, O’Sullivan, Ding, Higgins didn’t enter and even Shaun Murphy lost his first-round match, losing 4-2 to Luca Brecel. Even last year’s runners-up Michael Holt failed to make it past the qualifying round, losing in a tough draw against Barry Hawkins. This means that there are plenty of opportunities for lower-ranked players to get some points on the board, such as draws in Ursenbacher vs. Slessor, Borg vs. Zhang and Steadman vs. Chen. Anthony McGill is given a kind quarter, as the second-highest ranked player in that quarter is Alan McManus, who was seriously struggling in form last season.
The second quarter is much tougher, with Bingham vs. Davis being a very tasty tie indeed and high-scoring Jack Lisowski waiting in the wings against The Welsh Dragon Matthew Stevens. It will be interesting to see how Gerard Greene will do against Stephen Maguire. Greene, who spent a year in the amateur ranks after being relegated from the tour, will definitely want to make a great impression that the Northern Irishman is back.
The third quarter is the top one, with Vafaei, King, Perry, Gilbert, Milkins, Hawkins, Day, Woollaston and Kyren Wilson fighting it out that one semi-place. Sometimes draws are too open, to be honest, considering all of these players have a good chance of winning a title this season. Finally, we have one of my players-to-watch Xiao Guodong, with Q-School top-up Jackson Page featuring after defeating James Silverwood in the previous round. The top tie, of course, is former World Champions Mark Williams and Peter Ebdon. Williams, who admitted he thought about quitting last season will be hoping his new approach in SightRight will improve his chances on getting his first ranking title since the German Masters in 2011. Since this is a best-of-7 format, anything can happen!
Latvia being Latvia, the country has opportunities to throw in their wildcards for good measure. Tatjana Vasiljeva is No. 7 in the Ladies Rankings is the former national and European champion and will be hoping to fare better than losing 4-1 to Marco Fu in the first round last season by playing Indian Open winner Anthony McGill this year. Also involved is teenager Rodion Judin, who is the current national champion and recently reached the last 16 of the 2017 European U21 Championships. He faces a winnable draw against Chinaman Chen Zhe. This tournament is live on Eurosport.
Here is the draw! Let’s make basketball-lovers feel foolish!
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs. Michael Georgiou
Stuart Carrington vs. (Anthony McGill vs. Tatjana Vasiljeva (a))
Kurt Maflin vs. Alan McManus
Eden Sharav vs. Jimmy White
Gary Wilson vs. Ken Doherty
Robin Hull vs. (Rodion Judin (a) vs. Chen Zhe)
Alex Borg vs. Zhang Anda
Hammad Miah vs. Tom Ford
Quarter Final Winner: Anthony McGill vs. Gary Wilson
Jimmy Robertson vs. John Astley
Jamie Curtis-Barrett vs. Andrew Higginson
Stuart Bingham vs. Mark Davis
Sam Craigie vs. Jamie Jones
Jack Lisowski vs. Matthew Stevens
(Daniel Ward (a) vs. Neil Robertson) vs. Lukas Kleckers
Oliver Lines vs. Christopher Keogan
Stephen Maguire vs. Gerard Greene
Quarter Final Winner: Stuart Bingham vs. Neil Robertson
Hossein Vafaei vs. Mark King
Paul Davison vs. Zhou Yuelong
David Gilbert vs. Joe Perry
Tian Pengfei vs. Ben Jones (a)
Robert Milkins w/o Wang Yuchen
Barry Hawkins vs. Ryan Day
Craig Steadman vs. Chen Zifan
Ben Woollaston vs. Kyren Wilson
Quarter Final Winner: David Gilbert vs. Barry Hawkins
Nigel Bond vs. Jackson Page (a)
Xiao Guodong vs. Mark Joyce
Noppon Saengkham vs. Cao Yupeng
Sam Baird vs. Michael White
Alexander Ursenbacher vs. Elliot Slessor
Robbie Williams vs. Ashley Carty (a)
Mark Williams vs. Peter Ebdon
Luca Brecel vs. Lee Walker
Quarter Final Winner: Michael White vs. Luca Brecel
Winner: Anthony McGill vs. Barry Hawkins
