World Grand Prix Preview
Monday (16) sees the start of the World Grand Prix, a new tournament with ITV coverage which counts with the Top 32 players in a Ranking based on the events after the 2014 World Championship, and runs until Sunday (22). It's gonna be the biggest event ever made in North Wales (Llandunno to be exact), what's a good thing to make even more sure Wales is still in love with Snooker.
ITV started to show Snooker again with the Champion of Champions with it's inauguration in 2013. The tournament counts with the 16 Tournament Champions for the 12 months before the event, and it had an amazing success, with the one table set-up event won by Ronnie O`Sullivan, who defended his title last year.
In front of such a big success, ITV decided to create another tournament, and this one in particular looks like will reach to an even better standard as the players in there have done something in the last 10 months, they're in great form, most of them living the peak of their careers, like Ronnie O`Sullivan, Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby.
This tournament will have a two table set-up, and I think only one will have live broadcast by ITV, but anyway I expect a great tournament, and another great coverage by the ITV team once again.
Here comes my preview:
(All matches up and including the Quarter Finals are the best of 7 frames, Semi Finals are the best of 11 frames and the Final is the best of 19 frames).
Seeds in bracket
Semi-Final 1
Mark Selby (1) v Michael Holt (32)
Martin Gould (16) v Alan McManus (17)
Stephen Maguire (9) v Xiao Guodong (24)
Shaun Murphy (8) v Peter Ebdon (25)
Ricky Walden (5) v Ding Junhui (28)
Mark Williams (12) v Ryan Day (21)
Joe Perry (13) v Ben Woollaston (20)
Judd Trump (4) v Dominic Dale (29)
In any other tournament we should say, looking to this part of the draw, that this is the harder one, but this tournament only counts with players on fine form, and believe or not this is the easier way.
It feature Masters Champion Shaun Murphy (who's the best in the World right now in my opinion), Judd Trump who recently reached both Champion of Champions and UK Championship finals and is one of the bests now, World Champion Mark Selby, International Champion Ricky Walden, in form Mark Williams and many others.
It's hard to predict someone is going to do a good run at this tournament because everyone plays best of 7 matches until the Semi-Final and the level is so hard, opening the tournament, but I still think the Top Boys will overtake it as it's a good preparation for the World Championship. There are 32 players as well so the draw won't look so much different than this, maybe 3 or 5 different names in the max for the World Championship.
I expect Shaun Murphy to keep his form and go on to reach to the Final, but he will have a tough way, possibly facing Mark Selby in the Quarter-Final.
My other contender for this one is Judd Trump, but he's got a tough draw, can face recent Welsh Open Finalist Ben Woollaston in the last 16 and Ricky Walden or Mark Williams in the quarters, two in form players. We have to consider Ding Junhui as well, but he's not up for it in my opinion. He's lost in the first round of the Indian Open last week, where he was defending Champion, and has failed so far to defend any of the 5 -record equaling- Ranking Event Titles he got last season, might be at this tournament thanks to a victory in a small Asian Tour, so I think he won't have so many chances against Ricky Walden, who is in the semi-final of the Indian Open (by the time I write this) and don't use to throw away many chances for his opponents. In a tournament with the level like this, you can never say a result is a surprise, and of course it's not fair say a Ding's loss should be normal, but I can't see him in the second round. However if he plays his best, he is hot favorite in any tournament he plays on, just like everybody there.
Mark Selby (1) v Michael Holt (32)
Martin Gould (16) v Alan McManus (17)
Stephen Maguire (9) v Xiao Guodong (24)
Shaun Murphy (8) v Peter Ebdon (25)
Ricky Walden (5) v Ding Junhui (28)
Mark Williams (12) v Ryan Day (21)
Joe Perry (13) v Ben Woollaston (20)
Judd Trump (4) v Dominic Dale (29)
In any other tournament we should say, looking to this part of the draw, that this is the harder one, but this tournament only counts with players on fine form, and believe or not this is the easier way.
It feature Masters Champion Shaun Murphy (who's the best in the World right now in my opinion), Judd Trump who recently reached both Champion of Champions and UK Championship finals and is one of the bests now, World Champion Mark Selby, International Champion Ricky Walden, in form Mark Williams and many others.
It's hard to predict someone is going to do a good run at this tournament because everyone plays best of 7 matches until the Semi-Final and the level is so hard, opening the tournament, but I still think the Top Boys will overtake it as it's a good preparation for the World Championship. There are 32 players as well so the draw won't look so much different than this, maybe 3 or 5 different names in the max for the World Championship.
I expect Shaun Murphy to keep his form and go on to reach to the Final, but he will have a tough way, possibly facing Mark Selby in the Quarter-Final.
My other contender for this one is Judd Trump, but he's got a tough draw, can face recent Welsh Open Finalist Ben Woollaston in the last 16 and Ricky Walden or Mark Williams in the quarters, two in form players. We have to consider Ding Junhui as well, but he's not up for it in my opinion. He's lost in the first round of the Indian Open last week, where he was defending Champion, and has failed so far to defend any of the 5 -record equaling- Ranking Event Titles he got last season, might be at this tournament thanks to a victory in a small Asian Tour, so I think he won't have so many chances against Ricky Walden, who is in the semi-final of the Indian Open (by the time I write this) and don't use to throw away many chances for his opponents. In a tournament with the level like this, you can never say a result is a surprise, and of course it's not fair say a Ding's loss should be normal, but I can't see him in the second round. However if he plays his best, he is hot favorite in any tournament he plays on, just like everybody there.
Semi-Final 2
Neil Robertson (3) v Luca Brecel (30)
Marco Fu (14) v Mark Davis (19)
Barry Hawkins (11) v Matthew Selt (22)
Stuart Bingham (6) v Anthony McGill (27)
Mark Allen (7) v Liang Wenbo (26)
John Higgins (10) v Graeme Dott (23)
Robert Milkins (15) v Michael White (18)
Ronnie O`Sullivan (2) v Rod Lawler (31) - 16 March (Monday) at 20:00 Local Time
As I said before, this is the hardest part of the draw, counting with former World Champions Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Graeme Dott and Ronnie O`Sullivan - all them in great form - plus Shoot-Out Champion and Indian Open Semi-Finalist (by the time I write this) Michael White, recent Welsh Open Semi-Finalist and full of confidence Luca Brecel.
Neil Robertson hasn't been playing one of the best season of his life, but recently won the Gdynia Open and comes for this event seeded 3. He'll have a tough tie against Luca in the first round but if he gets through the next round, then I see him as favourite to reach the Semis. In the bottom draw we have Welsh Open Champion John Higgins and of course Michael White, but for me the man to beat is Ronnie O`Sullivan, winner of the UK Championship and Champion of Champions. He has been playing great Snooker and he clearly can get better, let's see how motivated he is for it, and then if he can/want perform he's got to be my favorite to win the tournament.
Neil Robertson (3) v Luca Brecel (30)
Marco Fu (14) v Mark Davis (19)
Barry Hawkins (11) v Matthew Selt (22)
Stuart Bingham (6) v Anthony McGill (27)
Mark Allen (7) v Liang Wenbo (26)
John Higgins (10) v Graeme Dott (23)
Robert Milkins (15) v Michael White (18)
Ronnie O`Sullivan (2) v Rod Lawler (31) - 16 March (Monday) at 20:00 Local Time
As I said before, this is the hardest part of the draw, counting with former World Champions Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Graeme Dott and Ronnie O`Sullivan - all them in great form - plus Shoot-Out Champion and Indian Open Semi-Finalist (by the time I write this) Michael White, recent Welsh Open Semi-Finalist and full of confidence Luca Brecel.
Neil Robertson hasn't been playing one of the best season of his life, but recently won the Gdynia Open and comes for this event seeded 3. He'll have a tough tie against Luca in the first round but if he gets through the next round, then I see him as favourite to reach the Semis. In the bottom draw we have Welsh Open Champion John Higgins and of course Michael White, but for me the man to beat is Ronnie O`Sullivan, winner of the UK Championship and Champion of Champions. He has been playing great Snooker and he clearly can get better, let's see how motivated he is for it, and then if he can/want perform he's got to be my favorite to win the tournament.
It's the kind of a tournament that we can't say we're gonna enjoy whatever happen because it's an inauguration, but I'm a Snooker lover and I love to watch it no matter who, when or where. Let's hope we have a good inauguration and that ITV can do a good work again.
I might comeback during this week in the blog to post about what's happening in Llandunno, North Wales, but be sure you like our Facebook Page to follow every second of action there!
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