THE World Snooker Tour rolls into Cheltenham on Monday for the Unibet British Open, an immediate chance for the game’s big hitters to bounce back after a week of shocks in the English Open in Brentwood.
Judd Trump, Mark Allen and Mark Selby were all knocked out by lower ranked opponents in the quarter-finals – a Freaky Friday for the formbook – while plenty of other top stars were eliminated long before this stage.
But there’s no time for licking wounds with another big prize up for grabs this week and day one features a plethora of attractive matches, including the capacity for a couple of surprise results.
Gary Wilson to beat Mark Allen – 11/8
The draw has not been kind to Allen, who began the new season as only the 12th player in snooker history to occupy the world no.1 position but is yet to produce the sort of snooker this term which justifies that status.
Allen, who has now slipped to third in the rankings, has been a consistent winner over the last two seasons, collecting six trophies, but is lacking firepower so far this season and has his work cut out against Wilson, who deserves more credit for becoming one of the circuit’s most improved players of recent years.
Wilson originally turned pro in 2004 but fell away and spent seven years off tour before returning in 2013. Two years ago he won his first title at the Scottish Open and last season defended it before adding the Welsh Open crown and becoming a mainstay of the top 16. A fierce competitor, he can sometimes get too much on his own case but in general is enjoying the best spell of his career.
Allen holds the edge in their personal head-to-head but most matches between them have been close and Monday’s encounter looks set to be similar, with Wilson well placed to punish any rustiness from his opponent.
Louis Heathcote to beat Ryan Day – 13/8
Heathcote is a fantastic potter who seems to be growing in confidence. The Leicester man fell agonisingly short by a couple of frames of reaching the Crucible last season, losing 10-8 to Stuart Bingham in the final round of qualifying for the World Championship.
Day has a quarter of a century of experience on tour but has become increasingly inconsistent. 18 months ago he made a maximum and a ’16-red’ total clearance with the aid of a free ball in the same match at the Tour Championship, but last season reached only one quarter-final and is yet to pull up any trees in the current campaign.
Day won the British Open two years ago but in what is likely to be a very open match could find Heathcote too hot to handle.
Treble: Mark Williams, Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins
The celebrated ‘Class of ‘92’ are all nearing 50 but remain at the top of the game and their legendary status is enough to instil fear into many opponents, so an acca involving these three Gods of Snooker is not just a sentimental punt.
Williams is using a new cue despite the old one helping him to within a few balls of winning the recent Saudi Arabia Masters. Despite this, he should bring the hammer down on Malaysia’s Rory Thor, who lacks big match experience.
O’Sullivan is going through a spell of playing mainly left-handed, claiming he is struggling right-handed. This seems bizarre to most observers but there is often method in the Rocket’s madness and he will have to play well below his best to lose to Manasawin Phetmalaikul, who has only won one match since turning professional last year.
Higgins has had little in the way of form of late but made his 1,000th career century last week and remains capable of winning matches while not at his best. His opponent is Ross Muir, a fellow Scot who idolises him. Muir is tactically astute but there are few better than Higgins at that game.
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