The UK Championship begins on November 28th and runs through to December 10th. This is the eleventh ranking event of the 2017/18 snooker season and going back to defend his title at the Barbican Centre in York is Mark Selby. The winner of the tournament this year will collect £170,000. It is a massive 128 man field stepping out in action for the UK Championship and at the head of the market, it is Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan who are joint 4/1 at sponsors Betway.
It was a showdown between Selby and O’Sullivan in last year’s final and it was another great battle between the two of them. Selby had won six of the eight afternoon frames to race out to a big lead, but as expected, O’Sullivan came out blazing and fought his way back into contention, but was edged out 10-7 in the end. That was Selby’s second UK Championship title, denying O’Sullivan his sixth title at the event.
UK Championship Betting 2017 Winner Odds
Mark Selby 4/1, Ronnie O’Sullivan 4/1, Judd Trump 6/1, Ding Junhui 9/1, John Higgins 10/1, Neil Robertson 16/1, Shaun Murphy 22/1, Barry Hawkins 25/1, Marco Fu 25/1, Kyren Wilson 33/1, Mark Allen 33/1, bar 40/1
UK Championship Snooker 2017 Seedings
Each of the top eight seeds for the Betway UK Championship draw will each going into a different section of the draw. As top seed, Selby goes at the very top of the draw in section one and second seed Ding Junhui goes at the very bottom of the draw so the top seeds would stay apart until the final. The full top eight seedings in order are Mark Selby, Ding Junhui, Judd Trump, John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Marco Fu.
The Draw
So the set up for the draw in terms of which seeds could potentially fall against another in the knockout stages is all important to have a look at. In the top half of the draw, there is Mark Selby in the first section, Marco Fu in the second section, Shaun Murphy in the third second and John Higgins in the fourth section. So that isn’t a bad prospect for Mark Selby at all. It means that if he were to get through this quarter, his quarter final tie could be against no-one ranked higher than Marco Fu. Third seed Judd Trump has to be happy with his draw in the top section of the bottom half of the draw, but it all does leave the prospect of a quarter final showdown between O’Sullivan and Fu and the winner of that could have to meet Trump in the semis.
Mark Selby
So Selby has been here before and won it. History is a little bit against him though as no player since Stephen Hendy back in 1996 has managed to successfully defend a UK Championship title. That does show how hard it is. But then Selby does go into the event on the back of decent form having won the Haining Open and the International Championship recently. While he doesn’t have anyone higher than 16th seed Mark Williams in his section of the draw, there could be a tricky quarter final ahead through against Marco Fu (former finalist) or perhaps Neil Robertson (former winner). Just the fact that the title is so hard to defend, may deter punters.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
O’Sullivan could become the joint-most successful player ever in the history of the UK Championship by winning his sixth title. Only Steve Davis has done that before. O’Sullivan’s last title at the event was just back in 2014 and he was back in the final last year where he just came up short. But with a win at the English Open and a run to the final of the Champion of Champions (losing to Shaun Murphy) and another final under his belt at the Shanghai Masters, he does appear to be dialled in and will have appeal as a 4/1 shot at Betway.
Judd Trump
With a run to the final of the Shanghai Masters, Trump gave his form a nice boost which could put him back in contention for a decent challenge at the Barbican. Trump has hit a ranking win this season with a win at the European Masters last month and on top of that, he has a pretty decent track record at the UK Championship as well with a title in 2011 and a runners up spot in 2014 to O’Sullivan. Looking at the bottom half of the draw, you think, if not O’Sullivan, then probably Trump.
Ding Junhui
The 2005 and 2009 champion won the World Open back in September for his big ranking win of the season. He only made it back to the Last 32 in last season’s UK Championship challenge where he was stopped by Welshman Jamie Jones, just the when the draw was wide, wide open for him. He wasn’t at the recent Champion of Champions nor the Shanghai Masters. It may be too tall of an ask for him to go all the way and has the tougher quarter where Trump and O’Sullivan oppose him.
John Higgins
Scotsman John Higgins won’t be counted out of this one at all by anyone who is lining up again him in the draw. He will be happy that he is avoiding O’Sullivan by going in the opposite half of the draw to him and that’s because Higgins has fallen to a loss against The Rocket at the Champion of Champions and the Shanghai Masters in his last two tournaments. The draw that Higgins has it pretty straightforward and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see him in the last sixteen and then the highest seed that he could meet in the quarter is 5th seed, Shaun Murphy. The three time winner is in with a chance.
Other contenders
Neil Robertson is a dangerous floater in section two and he could be down for a scrap with Marco Fu to get himself out of that section. But there is a potential quarter final clash against reigning champion Selby down the line. Robertson’s is 10/3 second favourite at Betway to win the 1st Quarter behind Selby at 6/5. Shaun Murphy (semi finalist last year) gave himself a confidence boost by winning the Champion of Champions tournament over O’Sullivan recently and is a good price to challenge in section three where Kyren Wilson is a big threat and they will be the strongest opposition to Higgins, who is the 13/8 2nd quarter favourite winner option.
UK Championship Snooker Predictions
We are skipping Selby just because of how tricky it has proven for winners to defend their title at the UK Championship. Ronnie O’Sullivan given the form that he has carried recently is actually looking a decent shot to go and win the event. Higgins was a quarter finalist last season at the UK Championship and with a good run in Shanghai during the build up, the Scot may be a decent each way punt to get to the finish line, the same of Shaun Murphy who went well at the Barbican last year and just got that Champion of Champions title under his bet.
