2018 World Grand Prix

[JimMalone]

In the tournament, in which just the best 32 players of the season qualify to compete, we have some prominent names missing, which just shows how many surprises this season had to offer so far. Barry Hawkins, Marco Fu and Liang Wenbo are only the three most notable players, who didn't made it to the Grand Prix, but also Anthony Hamilton and Zhou Yuelong did not qualify. As opposed to Mark Joyce, Cao Yupeng or - thanks to the Shoot-Out - Michael Georgiou.

Ranking points/Prize Money:
Winner: £100,000
Runner-up: £40,000
Semi-final: £20,000
Quarter-final: £12,500
Last 16: £7,500
Last 32: £5,000

Draw:
Ronnie O'Sullivan (1) - Robert Milkins
Martin Gould (16) - Yan Bingtao
Mark Allen (9) - Xiao Guodong
Ali Carter - John Higgins (8)

Shaun Murphy (5) - Ricky Walden
Jack Lisowski - Ryan Day (12)
Stephen Maguire (13) - Li Hang
Michael Georgiou - Luca Brecel (4)

Judd Trump (3) - Michael White
Joe Perry - Graeme Dott (14)
Neil Robertson (11) - David Gilbert
Jimmy Robertson - Mark Selby (6)

Ding Junhui (7) - Mark King
Mark Joyce - Kyren Wilson (10)
Anthony McGill (15) - Cao Yupeng
Stuart Bingham - Mark Williams (2)

Number in Parenthesis is the Seeding, which is based on the season-best-list.

[Bigmeek]

Why is this a ranking event when its only top 32? Thought a ranking event had to be open to all tour players? Never sure of the rules nowadays.

[jonny66]

Why is this a ranking event when its only top 32? Thought a ranking event had to be open to all tour players? Never sure of the rules nowadays.

I was thinking that myself, surely if this is a ranking event The Masters should be too.

[vmax]

I believe The Grand Prix is a qualify in one season event, unlike The Masters which uses ranking points from previous seasons, hence Ronnie is seeded (1) and Mark Williams (2).

[JimMalone]

Why is this a ranking event when its only top 32? Thought a ranking event had to be open to all tour players? Never sure of the rules nowadays.

I think we had this debate already last year with the Grand Prix and the Players Championship as well. I also think it's kinda strange to have tournaments, where only some players can garner points. Surely you can make an argument, that they had to qualify for this over the course of the whole season and maybe this is the try to include tournaments who don't have the same format as every other one, but it still has a bad taste.

[JimMalone]

A small preview:
The first two-rounds are Best-of-7, so very much can happen there. Then it goes with Best-of-9 in the quarterfinals, Best-of-11 in the semifinals and Best-of-19 in the final. We only had the Masters (with only the world's Top 16 playing there) and the German Masters, so it will be interesting to have a new indicator for the players form two months before the World Championship.


First Quarter
I'm pretty convinced that O'Sullivan will win his opener, but Gould or Yan could be tricky in round two. And then Ronnie could meet either John Higgins or Mark Allen. O'Sullivan and Higgins have already met in three ranking events this season with the Englishman winning the first two, while he also won the more meetings in non-ranking events. But at the Scottish Open, their most recent meeting, he lost heavily with 0-5. And of course O'Sullivan lost the only encounter with Allen at the Masters 1-6. This will be O'Sullivans first tournament since that match and it will be interesting to see, in which shape the best player of this season will turn up.
Of course a duel with Allen or Higgins isn't a gimme, cause Allen would have to beat Xiao Guodong first, who had some good results lately with quarterfinal-runs at Glasgow and Berlin and my gut feeling is that he will take out Allen. Higgins plays Ali Carter in his opener.

Second Quarter
Shaun Murphy is the most prominent name here and it will be highly interesting which of the "two Shauns" will turn up in Preston. Cause at nearly every tournament this season Murphy has either reached at least the semifinal or suffered a very early exit. There is almost no middle for Murphy. He plays Ricky Walden first, who slowly recovers from his back problems, so it wouldn't be to surprising if Murphy goes out early again. Of course the other way is possible as well, cause with Lisowski or Day as possible second-round-opponent it wouldn't surprise either if Murphy wins his first two matches comfortably. On the other side Luca Brecel, who is the #4 seed here, mostly due to his win at the China Championship (where he of course beat his possible quarterfinal-opponent Shaun Murphy in the final) and his semifinal at the World Open, has one of the easier draws. He is heavy favorite against Michael Georgiou, who only qualified thanks to his win at the travesty called the Shoot-out. Next to this pairing are Li Hang and Stephen Maguire. Li like Brecel had his best results at the start of the season, but hasn't done much lately, while Maguire was playing at his best in December, making the semifinal at the UK Championship and the quarterfinal at the Scottish Open. So maybe the Scotsman is the favorite here, but he is so inconsistent, that it is really tough to say. Inconsistency is the key word for this quarter in general.

Third Quarter
This is a highly intriguing part of the draw. The top seed here is Judd Trump, the seasons third best player, who suffered a disappointment recently though, as he lost already in the qualifiers for the China Open, one of the rather rare occasions, where he lost to a player, he should clearly beat in person of Jak Jones. He has a tougher opponent here in Michael White, but is again the favorite and could meet Graeme Dott then, who almost sensationally made the final of the German Masters in January.
On the other side we have the world number one, who is rather playing like a world number 35 for most of the season. The time to get the right form for the World Championship gets less and less so once again Mark Selby would be happy to at least get a few matches here I guess. Two wins against the Robertsons surely would be nice. He plays Jimmy first and could meet Neil Robertson, who plays David Gilbert in his opener, in the next round. A few seasons back this would be a classic, but right now it would be a match between to opponents in search of their form.
And of course a Trump - Selby quarterfinal or also a Trump - (Neil) Robertson one would have a good ring.

Fourth Quarter
Also here we have a player in search of his form. I guess Ding Junhui really needs matches as well. I can't explain in another way, why he of all the top six players is the only one to participate in the Gibraltar Open, while the Chinese usually is the one who hardly plays in the little events. As opposed to Selby for example Ding showed flashes of life at Berlin and made the quarterfinal there before losing to Trump. I actually expect him to make one further step and win his two first matches against Mark King and then likely Kyren Wilson again. In the quarters he could meet Mark Williams, who right now seems to be the in-form-player, winning two of the last three real ranking events he entered (I won't call the Shoot-Out among them). But he has quite an inconvenient opener against Stuart Bingham, who is only seeded that low, because of his ban for breaching the betting rules. The Welshman than would have to play Cao Yupeng or Anthony McGill.

My picks:
Quarterfinals
O'Sullivan - Higgins
Murphy - Maguire
Trump - N. Robertson
Ding - Bingham

Semifinals:
Higgins - Murphy
Trump - Ding

Final:
Murphy - Trump

Winner:
Trump

[motorhead]

match fixing

Breaching betting rules.

[JimMalone]

Breaching betting rules.

Indeed. Thanks, I was already to tired when I wrote this I guess. That's a big difference.

[OmaMiesta]

LOL how many times has Ronnie whitewashed Milkins, seems like every time they play...

[motorhead]

LOL how many times has Ronnie whitewashed Milkins, seems like every time they play...

Haha true. Way to throw a match for Day, Jack gave him so many chances.

[MrRottweiler]

Can't believe Judd just tried to double the pink and in to a corner pocket at such a late stage of the frame and match when he's 3-1 behind. He didn't even think about it and trusted it would run safe but that sums up his questionable shot selection. He lost a frame earlier when he ended up low on the black which made him miss the pot. He was using the rest but didn't have much to do with the red but just hit it wrong. Sometimes it feels like he doesn't give the shots the time and concentration they deserve and thinks it's better to play as fast as possible.

[andy-w]

Judd Trump’s game is shot. I just don’t think his head is in the right place at the moment and hasn’t been for a few months now.

[Csmith]

LOL how many times has Ronnie whitewashed Milkins, seems like every time they play...

I thought it would be fun to check. This is the 4th white wash. Robert has one recorded match win out of 10, and that match was in the snooker shootout (which shouldn't count).

In total frames, Ronnie is leading 48-7. I took a look at his records against other top players, and although he wins more frames he doesn't seem to do very well against them in general. Perhaps some overthinking when he comes up against them?

[Tommykiid]

Judd Trump’s game is shot. I just don’t think his head is in the right place at the moment and hasn’t been for a few months now.

I think he had laser surgery at the start of the season should be fine now tho unless he didn't take to it all that well

[OmaMiesta]

I thought it would be fun to check. This is the 4th white wash. Robert has one recorded match win out of 10, and that match was in the snooker shootout (which shouldn't count).

In total frames, Ronnie is leading 48-7. I took a look at his records against other top players, and although he wins more frames he doesn't seem to do very well against them in general. Perhaps some overthinking when he comes up against them?

interesting, thanks for stat check!