Ok well let us hope that the action on the table is better than my puns as just six days after the final in Shanghai, the third ranking event of the season begins this Saturday…
Format
As well as being the first event of the season to be televised live on the BBC, the Grand Prix is also notable this year for being the first ranking event in several years to use an open, ‘FA Cup’ style draw where from the last 16 onwards, a random draw will take place to decide who will play who. The higher seeds will also enjoy no protection so it is perfectly possible that we could see Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stephen Maguire meeting at an early stage in the event.
There are a number of opinions on the format but overall the reaction has been fairly positive, after all it can’t be worse than the round robins that have been used in the last couple of years. We will only know for sure next week though so it will be very interesting to see how it works out in practice…
Favourites
As is the norm these days, runaway world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan enters the tournament as favourite hoping to go one better than last year when he lost out to Marco Fu in the final. Having started the season win a title and a final, he stands as good a chance as anyone and his 6-0 win over Ding Junhui in the Premier League last night shows that he is over his defeat in Shanghai already.
That said, he could have had an easier draw in the first round as he has been drawn with the man he beat in the World quarter-finals this year, Liang Wenbo. Wenbo has already recorded impressive wins over Peter Ebdon and Mark Allen this season and with his incredibly attacking style, if he gets it right he could beat anyone on his day. I would still expect O’Sullivan to come through as if Wenbo isn’t at 100% with his potting, the top players should be able to capitalise, but you just never know.
The other obvious form player at the moment has to be world number four Mark Selby who following his semi-final in Shanghai moved up to third on the latest provisional list. Also showing strong form in the Premier League at the moment, he is playing well enough to beat anyone and will face Andrew Higginson in the last 32.
Tie of the round
For me the clear tie of the first round is clash between world number two Stephen Maguire and qualifier Jamie Cope in what is an incredibly tough match to call. Maguire has started the season as he finished the last with consistent results to reach the latter stages while Jamie Cope last week made the first 147 of the season during his 5-2 defeat to Mark Williams. I would just about expect Maguire’s superior all-round game to see him through but it would be no surprise to see Cope pull off the win either. One not to be missed.
Ones to watch
So who else is capable of winning the event? Based on what we have seen so far this season, Joe Perry, Ryan Day and Dave Harold are all in good shape and playing arguably the best snooker of their careers right now. Perry has continued from his strong end to last season with a good couple of wins in the Premier League while being unfortunate to run into O’Sullivan in the opening two ranking events this season. Day meanwhile looked good in Shanghai last week but just lost out in the quarter-finals to his good friend Stephen Maguire 6-5. Harold, the shock finalist in Northern Ireland also did well to down Ding Junhui in Shanghai before losing out to Steve Davis from a commanding position. If the draws are kind then it would not be a shock to see one of this trio in the final.
Then of course there is last week’s winner Ricky Walden who was magnificent on his way to his first title in Shanghai. It will be very interesting to see whether he suffers a hangover here and goes out early or whether he can immediately build on his success with another strong run to the latter stages. Provisionally up to 17th in the rankings, another good run should see him up into the top 16 for the first time…
Also defending champion Marco Fu is in decent shape and could be inspired by memories of his breakthrough triumph in this event last season, albeit it at a different venue. He will play Jimmy Michie in the first round.
In need of a result
Not everyone has started the season so well however and four players badly in need of a win right now are Shaun Murphy, Stephen Hendry, Peter Ebdon and Ding Junhui, all having lost their opening two ranking event matches of the season so far. Whilst Murphy is comfortably going to remain near the top of the rankings whatever happens this season, the other three are all in danger of slipping out of the top 16 if their poor form continues for too long, something which would be unthinkable for all three of them.
Four times Grand Prix winner Hendry comes up against the man he beat at the Crucible in 2007 Dave Gilbert whilst Ebdon has an intriguing tie with Simon Bedford, the man who made it all the way through the qualifiers from round one, culminating in a sensational victory over Mark Williams. With nothing to lose he could give Ebdon a real challenge if Peter performs like he has so far this season.
Last 32 draw:
John Higgins v Anthony Hamilton
Joe Perry v Barry Hawkins
Stephen Hendry v Dave Gilbert
Neil Robertson v Steve Davis
Marco Fu v Jimmy Michie
Mark Allen v Michael Holt
Graeme Dott* v Judd Trump
Ryan Day v Ricky Walden
Stephen Maguire v Jamie Cope
Ding Junhui v Jamie Burnett
Mark Selby v Andrew Higginson
Peter Ebdon v Simon Bedford
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Liang Wenbo
Ali Carter v Dave Harold
Shaun Murphy v Adrian Gunnell
Mark King v John Parrott
*Graeme Dott looks likely to miss the event due to the arm injury he sustained playing football in Shanghai. Expect this to be confirmed tomorrow.
Schedule
To view the order of play for the event, please click here.