After an unusually quiet week in snooker with no professional action taking place, this week sees the conclusion of the 2012/13 Players Tour Championship, with the Grand Finals returning to Galway for a second successive season.
With a field of 32 this year and important ranking points up for grabs ahead of the upcoming seedings revision prior to the World Championship, click below for my thoughts on the draw…
- Click here to view the tournament drawsheet
- Click here to view the latest projected seedings
- Click here to view my look ahead to the next seedings revision
The Top Quarter
In previous seasons the PTC Grand Finals have been missing a number of the big names, but with just six absentees (including the suspended Stephen Lee, who had already qualified for the finals prior to his ban), from the top 26 in the latest projected seedings, there is no shortage of quality this time around.
Heading the draw is world number two Mark Selby, who topped the Order of Merit having won both the ET1 and ET6 events in Germany earlier in the season. The Leicester man lines up against young Jack Lisowski, who was a tricky yellow away from winning the first UKPTC event of the season in Gloucester against Stephen Maguire.
Mark will naturally be the favourite to progress, but it should not be forgotten that Jack does have a winning head to head record against him, having twice beaten him at PTC events, both in deciding frames.
Awaiting the winner will be either 2011 Grand Finalist Martin Gould, or Tom Ford, both of course part of Steve Feeney’s Sight Right stable and meeting in a repeat of last season’s PTC11 final, won by Ford in a decider.
In the other half of this section, UKPTC4 event winner John Higgins takes on reigning German Masters champion Ali Carter in the last 32, while Marco Fu meets Mark Joyce, Fu having won their only previous meeting at the Shanghai Masters qualifiers earlier this season.
The Second Quarter
Adding to what is a somewhat ‘loaded’ top half of this PTC Finals draw, Neil Robertson and Judd Trump can both be found here, with opening round matches awaiting them against Jamie Burnett and Alfie Burden respectively.
In fact, Robertson’s meeting with Burnett is a repeat of this season’s ET2 final in Poland, which saw Jamie give the Australian a real scare, before Neil eventually prevailed in a deciding frame. Judd and Alfie meanwhile meet for the third time, the world number one having won both of their previous encounters.
Also in this section, Australian Goldfields Open champion Barry Hawkins will meet Chinese former professional Li Hang in the opening round, while former world champion Graeme Dott will also face Chinese opposition, in the form of Xiao Guodong.
The Third Quarter
While there are a number of big names in the top half of the draw, the third section is not without quality either, with Stephen Maguire and Mark Allen poised to meet as early as the last 16 stage, if they can negotiate their openers against Joe Swail and Mark Davis respectively.
Win or lose, it will be good to see Swail back in action this week as an amateur and hopefully a good performance will convince him to take up his main tour place next season, earned as a result of his early-season efforts in this competition.
Maguire though will fancy his chances against the Northern Irishman and should he set up a second round clash with Allen, will be hoping to end a four-match losing streak against the recent Haikou World Open champion in all competitions.
Elsewhere, ET5 champion Ding Junhui can be found in this section with Andrew Higginson awaiting him in the first round, while the winner of that match will meet either Robert Milkins or Anthony McGill, the latter having lost to Ding in that Ravenscraig final.
The Bottom Quarter
For me the most open quarter in the draw, the bottom section should see recent Welsh Open finalist Stuart Bingham enter as the favourite to reach the semi-finals, but with the likes of former world champions Ken Doherty and Mark Williams also lurking, he can take nothing for granted.
Though not as consistent as in years gone by, Doherty has enjoyed what has generally been a strong season in 2012/13, but faces a tricky opening round match against the high-scoring Kurt Maflin, whose goal will be to replicate some of the performances that he can produce in the Cubicles on the big stage. Mark Williams meanwhile has struggled of late and will be hoping to hit some form against Leicester’s Ben Woollaston.
Surprise UKPTC3 winner Rod Lawler takes on Cao Yupeng in this section, with the impressive Chinese player having won just one match since the UK Championship qualifiers back in November, a surprise given his exceptional record in 2012 up to that point.
Predictions
Semi-finals: Robertson def Selby, Allen def Bingham
Final: Robertson def Allen