Snooker’s Welsh Open Marks the Time for the Stars to Shine
Author:
Roy Brindley
The eleventh ranking tournament of the 2022/23 snooker season is underway. The BetVictor Welsh Open is the fourth and final tournament of the season’s Home Nations Series and is also the eighth and final tournament in the season’s European Series.
Ali Carter, winner of the German Masters at the beginning of the month, tops the European Series standings and is in prime position for its ￡150,000 first prize. However, Carter’s prize-money haul is only ￡6,000 greater than second-placed Kyren Wilson.
Ali Carter will try to protect his lead in the European Series during the Welsh Open this week. ?GettyImages
Theoretically, eleven players can snatch the big cash bonus this week. The obvious contenders – those in close contention heading into the ￡80,000 to-the-winner Welsh Open – include Mark Allen, Mark Selby, Luca Brecel and Gary Wilson.
It Is a Good Time for Snooker’s Elite to Find Their Form
Not forgetting there are only three more ranking tournaments ahead of the World Championship, there is plenty to play for. Understandably, the big names of the sport have made their way to Wales, and this year – for the first time since the competition joined the calendar in 1992 – the tournament will take place in Llandudno.
Ronnie O’Sullivan was the pre-event favorite on 5/1 with sponsor BetVictor, and he cruised past Oliver Lines with a 4-0 scoreline in the opening round. O’Sullivan has won this tournament four times in the past. But, in a huge shock, he lost 2021’s final 8-9 to Jordan Brown.
With five victories, John Higgins is the most successful Welsh Open player of all time. Four of those titles came between 2010 and 2018. The Scott may now be an infrequent visitor to the winner’s enclosure, but he also cruised his way into the second round with a 4-0 victory (over Alexander Ursenbacher). The match featured two century breaks.
So Far So Good for Most Big Name Players
Another whitewash went the way of Joe Perry. The defending champion dispatched Mark King – a rival who could only muster 81 points during the match. And Neil Robertson – winner of the Welsh Open in 2007 and 2019 – dropped just one frame when eliminating Andrew Higginson. The Australian’s pre-event odds of 15/2 were left unchanged by the best online betting sites.
Kyren Wilson also booked his place in the ‘last 64’ stage with a 4-1 victory. His victim was Pakistan’s, Asjad Iqbal. Wilson, winner of the European Masters at the start of the season, registered breaks of 58, 87 and 98 during the match. He will now play 22-year-old Pang Junxu. This Chinese newcomer was a quarter-finalist in the recent German Open, so he should not be written off lightly.
But not everything went to form in the opening round. 21-year-old Jackson Page took the scalp of 2017 Welsh Open winner Stuart Bingham. The local lad registered a 131 break during the match that he won 4-1 after conceding the opening frame.
A Sprint to a Marathon Final
Action will continue thick and fast during the week ahead. The bulk of the field is already in the second round of the 128-player competition having qualified for the last 64 stages a month ago (in Barnsley’s Metrodome).
One player out of a possible eleven will walk away with ￡150,000 at the end of this week’s tournament ??
The @BetVictor Series, explained: pic.twitter.com/DhfNogMWET
— World Snooker Tour (@WeAreWST) February 13, 2023
Until the quarter-final stages, all forthcoming Welsh Open matches are a sprint to four frames. Those quarter-finals are best-of-nine frames confrontations. Semis are best-of-11 frames, and the decider will be a relative marathon, with the winner being the first to bag nine frames.
Short-format snooker can be the undoing of any player. But at least one ‘big name’ player has made the final of the Welsh Open for the past decade. That number includes Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan during the past two years.
Ronnie’s Home Nations Form Means Pin Hopes Elsewhere
However, O’Sullivan has a relatively poor record in Home Nations events – the Welsh, English, Scottish and English Opens – winning just one of the 26 tournaments he has contested. With all four of these events using an identical format, it is difficult to recommend the competition favorite.
This limits the field to 63, of which at least 20 have a realistic chance of taking the Welsh title! Our pin has fallen into a couple of big-priced contenders. One appears to be coming into form; the other is improving noticeably. They are 20/1 shot Shaun Murphy and Noppon Saengkham, who is quoted at 66/1 by the best online betting sites.
