While last week marked the start of the season with the first PTC event of 2011/12, Monday sees the start of the qualifiers for the new Australian Goldfields Open. Well except for Kurt Maflin and Lucky Vatnani who play their pre-qualifying round tie on Sunday. Click below for a few of my thoughts on the draw…
The Top Quarter
Kicking off the top section of the draw is a mouth-watering tie between young duo Sam Baird and Luca Brecel, the latter making his début at this stage of a full ranking event. Given the hype surrounding him as well as an impressive whitewash of Anthony Hamilton at the first PTC last week, eyes will be on Luca to perform again this week. In Sam Baird however he has an opponent who possesses a strong all-round game given his lack of experience on the tour and if he can play as well as he did when I last saw him during the World Championship qualifiers in March will pose a real threat.
Looking further along the section, Adrian Gunnell is a player who having risen as high as 36th in the rankings as recently as 2008, is without a win in ranking event competition in 2011 and needs to get some wins under his belt in order to restore some lost confidence.
Next up will be Matt Selt, another player with points to defend at this stage of the season following his strong start to 2009/2010 as he looks to consolidate his place inside the top 48, while Ricky Walden awaits in the final qualifying round having slipped out of the top 16 following his Crucible defeat to Rory McLeod.
Ricky Walden
Section two begins with something of a Pink Army play-off as Andrew Pagett and Adam Wicheard will fight for the chance to play Jimmy Robertson in the second round. From there the winner plays Pink Ribbon winner Mark Joyce before a clash with Martin Gould on Thursday. I would fancy either Mark or Martin to come through here but having both made it to the Crucible earlier this year neither Andrew or Jimmy can be discounted.
The third pathway in this quarter is highlighted by the appearance of the ever-popular Jimmy White who despite his ranking is currently playing as well as he has done for a while. With few points to come off this season, he is well in the fight for a top 48 place should he continue to win matches and he will begin this event with a clash with either Paul Davison (who White beat 3-1 at last season’s World Open), or Ireland’s David Hogan.
Also in this section are two players of somewhat contrasting styles, firstly the methodical Rory McLeod before the winner meets White’s fast-paced On Q stable-mate Robert Milkins who has been moved up a seeding bracket thanks to the non-entry of Marco Fu. In all likelihood I would expect one of these final three players to eventually make it through to a tie with Peter Ebdon in Australia but as to which one I think that it could be any. Very evenly matched.
Liu Chuang
Opening up pathway four meanwhile will be Bjorn Haneveer and Andrew Norman, two experienced players who will be hoping to come through to a tie with China’s Liu Chuang, ranked up inside the top 64 for the first time in his career. A player who tends to perform better in the longer matches, Liu will now be hoping to push on further and repeat these performances more often under the shorter-formats.
Further ahead, both Jamie Burnett and Andrew Higginson are more than capable players, though Andrew will be looking to improve upon a poor finish to last season which saw his bid for a top 16 place fizzle out during the last couple of events.
Second Quarter
Opening section five is a battle between Northern Ireland’s tour returnee Joe Meara and Q School qualifier David Morris from the Republic of Ireland who having initially slipped off the tour last season due to a series of poor results, will be hoping for improvement this campaign.
Thereafter however comes a trio of players with 60 years worth of experience between them in Rod Lawler, Mike Dunn and Marcus Campbell. Again all are fairly evenly matched despite the differences in ranking, though it is Marcus who has made it through to the most venues in recent years which is why he is currently comfortably up inside the top 32. Rod I would suggest is currently ranked a little lower than his performances in the full ranking events would suggest he should be, largely as a result of his lack of points from the PTC while Mike is more than just a Twitter comedian!
Marcus Campbell
Onwards and we have a clash that appears to be intriguing on paper as Welsh youngster Michael White who recently impressed at the Pink Ribbon takes on China’s Yu Delu. Whoever wins will then meet Joe Swail, a man who has struggled for form since his run to the Welsh Open final back in 2009 but is always capable of finding some form seemingly from nowhere!
Fresh from his run to the semi-finals of last weeks PTC is Joe Jogia in the next round while Welshman Ryan Day awaits in the final qualifying round. Having finished last season playing much more like his old self than he did for much of 2010, it will be interesting to see whether Ryan can mount a challenge for a top 16 spot once again this year.
The next section sees a first round clash between Robin Hull and Thailand’s Dechawat Poomjaeng, a tie that a week ago I would probably have made Robin a significant favourite for given his vast experience on the main in comparison to his opponent. Now however perhaps it is somewhat harder to call given Dechawat’s superb victory against John Higgins last week at the PTC1 event at the same venue.
Awaiting the winner will be Jack Lisowski, a man celebrating his 20th birthday today (Saturday), and who will be hoping to build upon his impressive début season as a professional in 2011/12 by moving up into the top 48 at the first mid-season seedings revision. Following Jack will be Tom Ford, a winner in the PTC last season of course, while On Q’s Gerard Greene will be hoping to improve upon a campaign which saw him make just two venues from seven last year, despite his position inside the top 32.
Kurt Maflin
The final path in this quarter begins on Sunday as Kurt Maflin takes on India’s Lucky Vatnani in the preliminary round tie necessary as a result of the decision to award three wildcard spots in addition to the regular 96 places on the main tour this season. With Maflin beginning as favourite to come through this one against the main tour debutant, his second potential match would also come against a tour newcomer in the form of China’s Cao Yupeng.
From there however comes the experience, Peter Lines awaiting in round two with recent Pink Ribbon finalist Michael Holt to follow. Both Peter and Michael struggled for form for much of last season so both will be hoping to get some much needed points on the board this time around.
The highest-ranked player in this section is Stuart Bingham, the man who came so close to moving up inside the top 16 at the end of last season only to be denied by a late comeback from Ding Junhui, funnily enough the seed who awaits the qualifier here in Australia.
Third Quarter
Sam Craigie is a player who you could be hearing a lot more of in the coming years if his professional form is anything like that he has shown in the junior tournaments in recent years and he opens his Australian Open campaign with a clash against Leeds’ David Grace, beginning his second season on the tour.
As with the previous section however, then comes the experience as Liu Song and then Fergal O’Brien and recent On Q recruit Joe Perry in particular know their way around a snooker table. Following his run to the final of the PTC1 event Joe will be hoping to continue what has been a generally positive 2011 for him and make it through to another venue.
Next up come Tian Pengfei and India’s Aditya Mehta who open up pathway number ten in the draw. The winner will then potentially face a pair of Anthony’s as messrs McGill and Hamilton await before a final round clash with Mark Davis. In the case of McGill in particular he will be hoping to arrest a run of defeats in 2011 which has seen his rise up the rankings stall somewhat, while I will be interested to see how Davis gets on this year as having moved consistently up the rankings in recent times, for the first time he now has a sizeable number of points to defend.
Ben Woollaston
Moving on, the recently married Ben Woollaston begins his quest for a top 64 place against tour newcomer Adam Duffy in the first round, Duffy hoping to get some points in the bag early during his professional career. Looking ahead this section looks to be one of the most open in the qualifying draw with Ian McCulloch and particularly Liang Wenbo both short of any sort of form, while Welshman Jamie Jones has impressed during the PTC events without making it through to venues. Will this be where Liang ends his losing streak in full ranking events that stretches back over one full year now?
Finally in this section, Scotland’s Scot MacKenzie and Grimsby’s Stuart Carrington open up what is otherwise an experienced path as tour veterans Andy Hicks, Tony Drago and Ken Doherty lie in wait ahead. This is actually the third successive tournament where Tony Drago has been paired with Doherty but on both previous occasions the man from Malta was to lose his last 64 clash against Issara Kachaiwong and Jimmy Robertson respectively.
The Bottom Quarter
Opening up the bottom quarter are Polish youngster Kacper Filipiak and China’s Li Yan, the latter a recent conqueror of Mark Williams at the PTC. From what I saw of Kacper at the Pink Ribbon recently he is certainly talented but at just 15 years of age it will be a tough ask for him to shine on the tour this season and I would be impressed to see him come through this one.
Further ahead in the draw come Alan McManus and Nigel Bond, two household names of the 1990’s who share a wealth of experience before Barry Hawkins awaits in the final round. A consistent player at the qualifiers having won five of his seven matches last season, I would expect Hawkins to come through here but nothing is guaranteed at this level.
Steve Davis
The next section meanwhile sees Simon Bedford and Liam Highfield open proceedings with Xiao Guodong, Steve Davis and Dominic Dale further ahead. This is a big season for Steve given his lack of results last season and one that must see him improve if he is to retain a place inside the top 48. With the majority of his points to come off at the final cut-off point in May however following the removal of his World Championship quarter-final points, he does at least have time to get some wins on the board.
The penultimate pathway sees the entrance of David Gilbert, a player seemingly reborn following his relegation from the tour last season and subsequent reprieve at the Q School in May. He opens his campaign with a tie against Thailand’s Passakorn Suwannawat with Alfie Burden, Dave Harold and Mark King potentially to follow.
Finally, the bottom section of the draw begins with a clash of youth against experience as Daniel Wells meets Thai veteran James Wattana at the first round stage. Next up comes Matt Couch before a potential clash with another player coached by Steve Feeney, Norwich’s Barry Pinches. The clear man to beat in this section however is undoubtedly Stephen Lee who having won all but one of his qualifiers last season is closing on on a return to the top 16 after a couple of seasons away.