Welsh Open starts today.
Most of the top names have all qualified, with only Stuart Bingham (and those suspended) missing out from the top 16. Nice to see Stephen Maguire back, had a quiet time of it of late so pleased to see him make it back to the televised stages of events.
It's also mad to think that we've had 10 ranking tournaments this year and not one has been won by Trump, Robertson, O'Sullivan, Higgins or Williams. It's hard to think that will continue much longer. They're not the sort of players to go entire seasons without anything.
And my money is on Ronnie to break his duck this week. Normally I don't like picking O'Sullivan because he starts every tournament as the favourite anyway but I've just got a feeling for him in Wales. Only John Higgins has won the Welsh Open more than the Rocket and it seems like he wants every record possible, so he'll be eagerly chasing down his longtime rival.
As things stand, he's not in the Players Championship either with that only being the top 16 on the 1 year list and he's currently down at 26. But a good showing here could see him sneak into that top 16. If he doesn't then this might be the last tournament for him before the Worlds depending on whether he plays in the new WST Classic (taking the place of the Turkish Masters) or not.
It's hard to believe that John Higgins is down at number 60 on the one year list, due to his best showing in a ranking tournament this year being one last 16 round in the English Open. I think if he drops out the top 16, possibly more next season with this year's poor performances, then he'll retire - which would be a shame as he's my all time favourite player and a complete legend of the game.
Draw in full;
Joe Perry v Mark Joyce
Liam Davies v Robbie Williams
Stuart Carrington v Andy Lee
Graeme Dott v Joe O'Connor
Hammad Miah v Aaron Hill
Pang Junxu v Kyren Wilson
Julien Leclercq v Jordan Brown
Jak Jones v Mark Williams
Judd Trump v Louis Heathcote
Matthew Selt v Daniel Wells
Shaun Murphy v Peng Yisong
Anthony McGill v Sam Craigie
David Lilley v Ricky Walden
Ryan Thomerson v Jack Lisowski
Yuan SiJun v Stephen Maguire
Dominic Dale v Neil Robertson
Mark Selby v Si Jiahui
Robert Milkins v Dean Young
Barry Hawkins v Ben Woollaston
Hossein Vafaei v Ken Doherty
Cao Yupeng v Ding Junhui
Elliot Slessor v Luca Brecel
Andy Hicks v Wu Yize
Mitchell Mann v Mark Allen
John Higgins v Martin Gould
Mohamed Ibrahim v Sanderson Lam
Tian Pengfei v Jimmy White
Ali Carter v Ian Martin
Chris Wakelin v David Gilbert
Ben Mertens v Jackson Page
Matthew Stevens v Rod Lawler
Ross Muir v Ronnie O'Sullivan
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