Preview: China Open Snooker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The China Open starts on Monday 24th March and is the last ranking event opportunity for snooker's top stars to get some form before the World Championships in April.
Last year’s winner and 2006 World Champion Graeme Dott is looking to this event to turn around what has been an horrendous season for the Scot.
The world number 2 who is down to 13 on the provisional list has not won one of his last 13 matches on the main tour, and although he has suffered a few personal problems his form has been not even close to the form he showed in beating Jamie Cope 9-5 in last years final.
To help with snooker's popularity in China once again 8 local players will appear in a wildcard round to try and reach the main draw. They have been drawn in this round against:
Barry Pinches, Fergal O'Brien, Marcus Campbell, Mike Dunn, Dave Harold, the in-form Mark Allen and Marco Fu and Ricky Walden.
Mark Allen and Marco Fu have had terrific seasons, which has seen both players rise up the ranking list this year.
The second round of the tournament could see a re-match of the Masters final between O'Sullivan and Mark Selby, Selby winning that match having been accused of playing 'negative' snooker, something which he vehemently denies!
Ding Junhui is going to want to improve on last years showing on home soil and will certainly be a favourite in the eyes of the bookies being in his homeland. I think the name on the trophy will come from one of the players in the bottom half of the draw with Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, Junhui and Neil Robertson in this half. I think we may see a return to some decent form from Stephen Hendry who could well reach the final if he gets a couple of decent results under his belt.
China Open 2008: Draw_blackjack_300d.jpg){kind=logo}
