Ricky Walden looks the pick in the Wuxi Classic Snooker

Wuxi Classic

Snooker
Published: 20/06/2013

The first Snooker ranking event of the 2013/14 season gets underway in the early hours of Monday Mornng from the Wuxi City Sports Park Stadium, in Wuxi, China. The Wuxi Classic will be the first tournament that takes place under the new rules where every player (including the top 16 ranked players) will feature from the first round. Here then is our guide to the best of the bets for the tournament.

Wildcard matches usually have little to no interest not this time though. One of these games in the Wuxi Classic will have more eyes on it than normal as Reanne Evans will take on Zhu Yinghui in a match. Evans has become the first female ever to reach the final stages of a ranking snooker tournament. The 27-year-old is the complete outsider for the tournament 1500/1 (BETVICTOR) and is the 13/8 (paddy Power) outsider for the game with Yinghui. If Evans can get the win in this match then up next will be a massive game with former World Champion Neil Robertson.

Speaking of Roberton he is the pre-tournament favourite at 11/2 (boylesports/paddy Power). The event is missing a number of big names with Ronnie O’Sullivan withdrawing for personal reasons while Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy both failed to qualify. The Australian will not be carrying my money at that price especially with memories still fresh of his first round World Championship exit to Robert Milkins.

Other names that feature prominently in the betting are Judd Trump at 15/2 (boylesports), Ding Junhui at 10/1 (BOYLESPORTS), Mark Allen at 10/1 (BETVICTOR/paddy Power/STAN JAMES) and John Higgins at 12/1 (ladbrokes). Allen and Junhui are both previous winners of this event while Higgins is in good form having won a recent tour event in the Bulgarian Open.

Ricky Walden won this event in 2012 and looks value to go close again at 28/1 (sportingbet) who are paying ½ the odds on the finalist. Walden is in a very weak quarter with Stuart Bingham, Mark Williams, Graeme Dott and Robert Milkins likely to be the only players to stop him en-route to a place in the last four. Walden ended the last year in good form reaching the semi-finals of the World Championships before coming undone by Barry Hawkins. When you have a player in good form, in a tournament that he has won before, in a quarter that does not feature any of the big five in the betting then a price of 28/1 looks a steal. It also makes sense to take Walden to win his quarter (the first quarter) at 6/1 (BOYLESPORTS/BETVICTOR/paddy power).

One final bet I like the look of is in the first round match betting where I like Joe Perry to beat Jamie Cope. Perry enters in great form after winning the Yiking Open the last event on the tour. dropping just nine frames in seven matches. His opponent Jamie Cope who has slid to 38th in the World after a poor season last time out and come up against the red-hot Perry is unlikely to help him here. Take the 11/3 (BWIN) are offering.

BEST OF THE BETS

GOLD: Joe Perry to beat Jamie Cope, 11/13 (BWIN)
SILVER: Ricky Walden to win the first quarter, 6/1 (BOYLESPORTS/BETVICTOR/paddy power)
BRONZE: Ricky Walden to win the Wuxi Classic, EW 28/1 (sportingbet)

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Any odds displayed within this article were correct at the time of publishing (20/06/2013) but are subject to change.

20/06/2013     © Frixo 2024

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