Time to Win Big!

It's been nearly 3 months since you've heard from the blog. However, the 2017/18 season has finally got on fire and it's time for a comeback.

Last week we had in Coventry the first of the main 5 events of the season - it's all already been said how the crowd, the Ricoh Arena, Coventry and ITV have made the Champion of Champions Snooker's fourth biggest event. Bring along the 4 BBC ones and you have your stand out events of the calendar.

It doesn't mean the other events are not valuable, to win any these days is a great achievement as all have such a high quality, but the Champion of Champions, the UK Championship, the Masters, the Welsh Open and the World Championship are the ones all the top players will focus on, doesn't matter where else they're planning to deliver.

Shaun Murphy proved, yet again (and as if he needed to) why he's one of the sport's best players of all time. He beat his great rival Ronnie O`Sullivan in probably their most important clash to win the Champion of Champions, what means he has now won all of the four more important tournaments there are to win. It's of course, a great boost for him with the UK Championship coming in just a couple weeks. 

Murphy won't be favourite though. Despite the defeat, Ronnie O`Sullivan himself has made three finals already this season, having won the English Open. 'The Rocket' is the only player that have won a Triple Crown event per season since 2011/12, and he's certainly interested in keeping that record going. 

What might play against him at the UK Championship is the Northern Ireland Open. Having won in England, O`Sullivan might give that a bit more of priority as he wants to keep chasing that million pound bonus - and even if he loses early, he'll keep there working for Eurosport until the end (which will be within hours of the beginning of the UK Championship). You can't doubt Ronnie when he's in that kind of form, but those are the sort of events you want to have a proper preparation for.

However, Ronnie is not the only victim of the busy schedule. Players have been traveling from UK to China and back week after week, and most are stating tiredness. From a fan's perspective, I believe it's more than time for World Snooker to think about putting blocks in the season and reduce the continental trips. It'll help the top players to be present and better prepared in the events, what increases overall interest. As it is now, you have the players picking their priority events and leaving the rest just to hit a few balls in match play or simply skip and do self practice at the club.

Regarding to the players' form and who arrives strong to the big ones this season, I have a few names in mind. First is World No1 and World Champion Mark Selby.

The Englishman didn't have the best start to the season after breaking his toe at home, but he's off and running now - his recent title defence of the International Championship has gave him a gap of almost 1 Million points at the top of the World Ranking. There's no need to say he's favourite to every match he plays and even when he's not on his day he's tough.

Nevertheless, we have a flying youngster storming on the scene this year: Luca Brecel has won the China Championship in great style, as well as having some great performances elsewhere. He's the sort of player who can win 4, 5, 6 frames against any player in the World on the blink of an eye - Ronnie O`Sullivan, Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy are just some of the men who have suffered from that this season.

In contrast to Brecel, John Higgins is an experienced player who've won it all. The Scot won his 29th Ranking Event this season and earlier in the year was runner-up in the World Championship. We've all seen Higgins play better than he is right now, but yet the four-times World Champion is a big contender for one of the big ones this season.

As for Ding Junhui and Judd Trump, they are in a similar position. Both played the World Cup this season, getting to the Final (won by Ding alongside Liang Wenbo), and that sort of extended their 2016/17 season and delayed their actual start to this season.

Trump still got a trophy lately, defending his European Masters title, but I guess he needs to go a level up if he wants to win a Triple Crown event for the first time in six years.

Ding, has suffered from an eye infection that has took him out of some events. He still played the Champion of Champions given it's importance, but he couldn't go through round one.

The final player I want to mention is Neil Robertson. The Hong Kong Masters champion has been one of the three dominant players of this decade, but the Australian is coming through the worst moment of his career since he won the World Championship in 2010.

Defending the points he got by winning the UK Championship in 2015, Robertson needs something special urgently to avoid missing out the Masters.

It is, though, unthinkable to have a Masters without Robertson, and his form is slowly getting decent again. I feel like he's a jailed lion that will get out roaring anytime soon.

Don't forget that reigning Welsh Open champion Stuart Bingham is suspended and won't be back before the UK Championship and the Masters. I have not much to say about that apart from the fact that I think his ban is fair - players know they can't bet, Bingham is a huge name in the sport, he's got a team behind him and yet he did bet for years and years (not to mention that according to the WPBSA, at first he didn't admit everything he'd done, later stated by them). It's sad really as I never could imagine Bingham doing that, but I hope it sends the message.

That is it for now, thanks for reading and sorry for the absence. We'll be back much sooner now with the big events flowing around. Do not forget to like Ronnie O`Sullivan Brasil on Facebook to follow daily updates on the sport! 😉