The 2013 China Open snooker tournament,
held towards the end of March, will be the penultimate stop on the
2012/13 snooker season. Only the 2013 Snooker World Championships will be to
follow, before the best in the world hang up their cues for a while
after touring around the world. England’s Peter Ebdon is the
defending champion at the tenth ranking snooker event of the season,
which will be held in Beijing, and Ebdon will go as top seed. All of
the big guns will be in attendance, aside from Ronnie O'Sullivan, who
did announce a return to the game to defend his World Championship
title. Ebdon had a superb run to the title last season, taking out
former World Champion Neil Robertson, home favourite Ding Junhui and
then Stephen Maguire in the final itself.
The 2012 China Open was Ebdon’s last
ranking tournament victory and his only one since 2009, so he is not
going to be high at the top of the pecking order.But has has actually
won two of the last four editions and therefore you never know. He
could make a good fit for an outside shot at the event, just on the
basis of that alone. But generally it will probably be worth looking
for players who performed well at the World Open, the ranking
tournament prior to the China Open. After a bit of a slump from the
big four in the world leading up to the 2013 World Open, there was a
definite strong showing from all of them at the World Open. Judd
Trump, John Higgins, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson all hit the
quarter finals so it suggests that they are all gearing up for a
strong finish.
So what correlations could you draw
between current form and what happened at the China Open last year?
Of the big four in the world of snooker at the moment, it was only
Judd Trump and Neil Robertson who made it the semi final stage at the
2012 China Open. So it could be worth looking at those two to have an
impact when the 2013 edition rolls around at the end of March. It is
likely that there will be a close race ran at the event. Judd Trump
won the event back in 2011, beating Mark Selby in the final and only
John Higgins out of the big four has triumphed before at the event.
However, the win for Higgins came all the way back in 1999 when it
was the China International.
The draw itself for the 2013 China Open
will have a big bearing on things and the bottom half of the draw
does look the easier of the two. Masters winner Mark Selby and Judd
Trump head up the two quarters of the bottom half of the draw and
therefore do make likely candidates for a strong semi final clash.
The top half of the draw is far more competitive, as defending
champion Peter Ebdon, Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui, Stephen Maguire
and John Higgins are all going to be jostling for position. That is a
pretty tough top half of the draw, but the expected semi final
showdown would be between John Higgins and Neil Robertson, who will
avoid each other until then. Will it be the easier bottom half of the
draw producing a winner? Judd Trump is there, and had good form at
the World Open and was a winner there two seasons ago. He should be
the main contender.
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