China Open 2018 - £1 million prize money

[JimMalone]

Ryan Day is the next prominent victim, losing 2-6 to Lyu Haotian.

[JimMalone]

We are three days away from this seasons second highest paid ranking event. I'm just hoping that we will see another winner that Ronnie O'Sullivan this time, but I guess his chances are pretty good again and he has to be made the favorite.
In the last test before the World Championship I'm especially looking forward (but I'm already since weeks) if Mark Selby, Ding Junhui and to a lesser extent Neil Robertson and maybe Barry Hawkins will finally hit a good form.
Most of the biggest names made it to Beijing, but there are still noteworthy absentees in person of Judd Trump and Ryan Day, who both lost their qualifiers, and Marco Fu, who didn't enter the event due to health problems.
Another aspect is the race to the Crucible here. Day at the moment sits in the 16th and last place, which would mean having a fix place at the World Championship, but Mark Allen would push him off already with a win in the first round. Stephen Maguire has a small chance to get in there over both of them, but therefore he would need to make at least the semifinal of the China Open. Of course the tournament will also determine the seeding for the World Championship and who will land in which part of the draw at the Crucible. So far only Mark Selby and Ronnie O'Sullivan are guaranteed the #1 and #2 spot.

First four rounds are Best-of-11, Semifinals Best of-19 and Final Best-of-21.

Selby, O'Sullivan and Ding among others have still to play their qualifiers.

The Draw

Quarter 1
Selby/Wang - Donaldson
Woollaston - Walker
Lyu - Highfield
Maguire - O'Brien

M. Davis - Holt
Un-Nooh - M. Williams
Maflin - Yan
Saengkham - Allen

The first quarter may already be the most interesting of the draw. The big question is looming: Will Selby finally find his form? He can prove it here right from the start. In round one he would meet Scott Donaldson, who knocked him out of the UK Championship sensationally, in round two he could have a rematch against Lee Walker, who beat him at the World Open this season. And in the third round he could run into Stephen Maguire, who has lost a bit of the form he had at the beginning of this year though. In think an early loss here again for Selby would mean bad news so close to the years biggest tournament.
The other half of this section is a pretty stacked one. There is Mark Williams, who is this season’s second best player and there are Youngster Yan Bingtao as well as Mark Allen. As stated before his opener against Noppon Saengkham (also not the easiest match) is very important for the Northern Irish Man. If he wins he is probably safe for the Crucible. In round two he could meet again Yan Bingtao, whom Allen defeated heavily twice this season at important tournaments. 9-2 at the International Championship and 5-2 at the Shanghai Masters. Would be interesting to see if Yan, who plays Kurt Maflin first, has come closer to Allen.

Quarter 2
Higgins - O'Donnell
Hamilton - Lisowski
Carter - G. Wilson
Perry - Totten

Ebdon/Zhang/Chang - King
Higginson/Chen Feilong/Fan - K. Wilson
J. Robertson - Xiao
Steadman - Ding/Georgiou

There actually three very prominent names here as well – if Ding makes the main draw, which is not guaranteed these days. And some intriguing first rounders as Hamilton – Lisowski and Carter – G. Wilson. The winner of the latter match would likely play Joe Perry, which would also make up a nice second rounder. The favorite of this section has to be John Higgins though despite him not showing up at the Players Championship. But with Lisowski and Carter or Wilson or Perry in his way, I could see an early upset here. Carter and Perry didn’t have great form recently, but Wilson reached the semifinal oft he Welsh Open.
In the other half going by names you would expect a third-round clash between Ding Junhui and Kyren Wilson. But there are certainly sleepers like Xiao Guodong, who made already three quarterfinals this year, or the often dangerous Mark King.


Quarter 3
J. Jones – Bond
Zhou – Chen Zhe
N. Robertson – R. Williams
Gould – Craigie

Akbar – Walden
M. Stevens – Bingham
Joyce – Dott
Wakelin – Murphy

This section is a bit thin. Partly cause Judd Trump lost here, partly because Neil Robertson, another of the seeds here, is in search of his form and also the lower ranked players don’t seem as dangerous here as in the upper half.
Who can take the chance to get to the quarterfinals in the first half of this quarter? Robertson is still the favorite, but Martin Gould and Zhou Yuelong are both due to a good result after a weak streak, especially in the Chinese‘ case, which was of course partly caused by personal problems. The other five players would certainly qualify as a surprise here, but Robbie Williams also got the the quarterfinals at the International Championship this season.
In the down half the eyes should be on Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham, though the latter one lost recently to his opening opponent Matthew Stevens, when he fell to him in the third round of the Welsh Open. He still isn’t in his rhythm after his supsension, but I think he will get better. Murphy of course had troubles with his back recently, but they didn’t hinder him to get to the final of the Players Championship. But he has been this seasons third best player, so he should be the clear favorite here.

Quarter 4
Hawkins – Baird
M. White – Davison
Brecel – Cao
Gilbert – Dunn

D. Jones – Liang/Clark
Eltahan/Honghao/Carrington – McGill
Ford – Yuan
Slessor – O’Sullivan/Muir

In the last quarter there is the big favorite with Ronnie O’Sullivan and his way could be more difficult. The only big obstacle I see in his way to the quarterfinals is Anthony McGill. The Scotsman has had quite close matches against the world number two in the past (the last one was a 4-6 at the 2017 English Open), but so far Ronnie has won all their four ranking event duels. And McGill will probably have to beat Liang before a new encounter with O’Sullivan, though the Chinese has been well below his best for the whole season (like most of the Top 20 players, not?)

The upper half there features one of the most exciting openers with Brecel vs. Cao, two of this years „most improved players“. Right now I’d probably give the edge to Cao here, cause the Belgian has faded away a bit lately. Still my guess is that Barry Hawkins will make a step more in the right direction here after reaching the final of the Welsh Open recently and get to the quarters.


Predictions for the quarterfinals
Selby - M. Williams
Perry - K. Wilson
Zhou - Murphy
Hawkins - O'Sullivan

[gavpowell]

I'm surprised O'Sullivan is attending this event - I thought he'd want the extra rest before Sheffield, but perhaps he's trying to keep himself busy.

[JimMalone]

I'm surprised O'Sullivan is attending this event - I thought he'd want the extra rest before Sheffield, but perhaps he's trying to keep himself busy.

And I guess the 225.000 pounds that are the winners share look convincing as well.

[narl]

I'm surprised O'Sullivan is attending this event - I thought he'd want the extra rest before Sheffield, but perhaps he's trying to keep himself busy.

Probably needs more "school fee" money since he was made skint a few years ago.

[golferson123]

odri vs jim malone, FIGHT

[Odrl]

odri vs jim malone, FIGHT

It's been an exhausting day, so I think I'll concede this one. At least until Sunday... :wink:

[ken147]

£225K for the winner, impressive but at what cost? I bet the sponsors are going to price out the fans and there'll be loads of empty seats.

[JimMalone]

odri vs jim malone, FIGHT

What fight?
I'm always looking forward to Odrls preview and thoughts and enjoy reading them.

[Odrl]

What fight?
I'm always looking forward to Odrls preview and thoughts and enjoy reading them.

Thank you, likewise. :smile: I only wish more people would be interested in discussing tournaments on here, the Chinese ones in particular usually get very few comments. I realize internet forums are slowly dying out in favour of Twitter and Facebook and stuff like that, but I think TSF is still the best place to have a meaningful discussion about snooker. I hope more people join in over the next couple of weeks, with the two major highlights of the season still ahead of us. :smile:

[JimMalone]

Thank you, likewise. :smile: I only wish more people would be interested in discussing tournaments on here, the Chinese ones in particular usually get very few comments. I realize internet forums are slowly dying out in favour of Twitter and Facebook and stuff like that, but I think TSF is still the best place to have a meaningful discussion about snooker. I hope more people join in over the next couple of weeks, with the two major highlights of the season still ahead of us. :smile:

Thanks.
Yeah, it's the best place to discuss Snooker. And thankfully it's a sport and a place, where you can talk in peace and without insults as opposed to another place where I tried to post about football and tennis once. Also contrary to football with Snooker it's quite difficult to discuss it among my friends (with one exception) as most people I know here in Vienna are not that interested in this sport.

[Odrl]

Thanks.
Yeah, it's the best place to discuss Snooker. And thankfully it's a sport and a place, where you can talk in peace and without insults as opposed to another place where I tried to post about football and tennis once. Also contrary to football with Snooker it's quite difficult to discuss it among my friends (with one exception) as most people I know here in Vienna are not that interested in this sport.

Yeah, I've had a similar experience. It was very difficult to find anyone to discuss snooker with when I first started following the sport a little more closely, and there were very few tournaments compared to today, so I needed TSF to satisfy my snooker craving. :smile: Originally I thought I would only take part in the prediction contest The Statman used to run on here, but as you can see, the urge to get involved in tournament discussions was too strong. Eleven years later, I have no regrets. :smile:

[Sitting Room Snooker]

I'll be tuning in early Monday morning, looking forward to it. I usually SKY+ tournaments so rarely watch them live (and therefore won't post much). The one advantage of no-one being seriously interested in snooker where I work is I can watch stuff a day or so after the event!

[MrRottweiler]

Yeah, I've had a similar experience. It was very difficult to find anyone to discuss snooker with when I first started following the sport a little more closely, and there were very few tournaments compared to today, so I needed TSF to satisfy my snooker craving. :smile: Originally I thought I would only take part in the prediction contest The Statman used to run on here, but as you can see, the urge to get involved in tournament discussions was too strong. Eleven years later, I have no regrets. :smile:

Is The Statman no longer around here? I don't think I've seen him post for a while?

Were you a member of the BBC snooker forum? I can't remember what it was called but it closed about 10 years ago because the funding was pulled and the whole website was being redesigned and I think a lot of the members then found TSF, myself included.

[Odrl]

Is The Statman no longer around here? I don't think I've seen him post for a while?

He is still around, I think, but rarely posts these days.

Were you a member of the BBC snooker forum? I can't remember what it was called but it closed about 10 years ago because the funding was pulled and the whole website was being redesigned and I think a lot of the members then found TSF, myself included.

I was, yes, but I'm not sure I ever posted anything in the snooker section. I might have posted once or twice in the cycling section, I don't remember. :smile: I was pessimistic about TSF at first, so I didn't make the move along with everyone else in the summer of 2006, but eventually it just had to be done. :smile: