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
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China Open 2018 - £1 million prize money
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Ryan Day is the next prominent victim, losing 2-6 to Lyu Haotian.
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Terrific win for young Chris Totten. First year on the tour and he gets a 6-2 win V Matthew Selt.
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China Open 2018 - £1 million prize money
Stuart Bingham wins his first match back
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Originally Posted by neil taperell View PostAny one got the prize money breakdown ? World Snooker were still showing the old breakdown . I believe that it is £5k , then £11k and then £18k or winning your third match . But can’t seem to find the rest .
Could be a huge tournament for money players as it is near the cut off point for rankings . Big money for winning a few rounds in this and then a few rounds at the Worlds .
Winner: £225,000
Runner-up: £90,000
Semi-final: £45,000
Quarter-final: £27,000
Last 16: £18,000
Last 32: £11,000
Last 64: £5,000
Indeed being in form at the end of the season can pay off highly now.
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Any one got the prize money breakdown ? World Snooker were still showing the old breakdown . I believe that it is £5k , then £11k and then £18k or winning your third match . But can’t seem to find the rest .
Could be a huge tournament for money players as it is near the cut off point for rankings . Big money for winning a few rounds in this and then a few rounds at the Worlds .
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China Open 2018 - £1 million prize money
nice steal by Jimmy White to go 2-2 for the MSI
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Originally Posted by Mr Snooker View PostAny free live streams for the qualifiers please
thanks
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Judd Trump is out of the tournament, as he lost 5-6 to Jak Jones. Didn't expect this.
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Great result for Scott Donaldson V Zhang Anda. Possible match v Mark Selby next.
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Anthony Hamilton was already down 2-5 against David John, but now he leads in the decider.
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China Open 2018 - £1 million prize money
yeah they don't advertise the free one much do they
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