After a month long absence, snooker returns tomorrow with the professional rounds of the Riga Open. This will be the first European Tour event of the season, and the first ever snooker tournament to be held in Latvia.
WHAT'S THE FORMAT?
As with any PTC event, the format is best of seven all the way to the final. This means there will be shocks on the way, as is to be expected. Often top players underestimate their opponent, or make a slow start which they don't have time to correct. Don't be surprised to see big names fall early. The professional rounds (Round 3 onwards) start at 9.30 local time in Latvia on Friday morning, with six matches to get to the final, with the first three rounds being played on Friday and Saturday, with Sunday starting with the last sixteen players. The final will be on Sunday evening.
WHERE CAN I FOLLOW IT?
Eurosport and Eurosport 1 will have TV coverage of the main TV table all weekend. We will be tweeting regular updates throughout the tournament also, @TopSpinBlog147.
HOW DOES THE DRAW WORK OUT?
The full draw can be found at http://livescores.worldsnookerdata.com/RoundList/Draw/13752
The Riga Open sees a fairly strong line-up, with only two players from the top sixteen missing, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Ding Junhui. Several Chinese players will miss this event for visa reasons. There are lots of interesting ties in the opening round, including Marcus Campbell vs Michael Wasley. Dominic Dale taking on Joel Walker also catches the eye. Whilst the top names will expect to ease through the first round or two, they know that they will come up against real tests fairly early on. The second round sees the possibility of Peter Lines vs Judd Trump, and Barry Hawkins vs Robin Hull. Marco Fu could play Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in an all Asian encounter.
WHO'S A GOOD TIP?
It's a very tough tournament to predict for a few reasons. Firstly, because it is a PTC event, and so there are bound to be lots of shock scorelines and results. But also because there has been such a long gap in between the end of the Australian Open, and the start of this tournament. There has been no competitive snooker since Judd Trump's win in Bendigo, and so it is really hard to know who will turn up in good form and who won't. The usual suspects will fancy their chances, and it is a strong field. The higher ranked players will be really motivated for this event, partly because the season starts again now, and also because they will be looking to book their place in the PTC Grand Finals in March - if they can do that soon, they won't necessarily need to turn up for later PTCs, giving them more time to focus on bigger events.
Neil Robertson is certainly a good pick for any tournament and it's no different here, he is the 11/2 favourite, with Mark Selby and Judd Trump following. All three are way apart in the draw, so the potential for big name clashes in the latter stages is there. Barry Hawkins is one of the most consistent players about now, and as the 2014 PTC Champion, will fancy his chances. At 20/1, he is good odds. John Higgins is a surprisingly long shot at 25/1, whilst Stuart Bingham, Ricky Walden and Joe Perry can all be had at 33/1, very appetising odds. Further down the field the likes of Mark Davis, Robert Milkins, Michael White and Jack Lisowski are all at good odds, and all know how to get into the late stages of tournaments.
Daniel's Riga Open winner - Barry Hawkins
Daniel's three to watch - Joe Perry, Mark Allen, Ryan Day
Sean's Riga Open winner - Shaun Murphy
Sean's three to watch - Luca Brecel, Michael Holt, Jamie Jones
Enjoy the tournament!
Daniel Daykin and Sean Collins
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