Snooker International Championship Preview – October 28th – November 4th, 2018
There is another big snooker tournament going down this week following straight on from the recent English Open in which Stuart Bingham was crowned champion. It is to the far-flung corners of China this week as this is the seventh ranking tournament of the 2018/19 season. Mark Selby is the reigning champion and with no O’Sullivan around it is Selby who goes at the 9/2 joint-favourite alongside Mark Williams* (Betting odds taken on October 28th, 2018 at 4:22 pm).
International Champions Snooker Winner Odds*
Mark Selby 9/2
Mark Williams 9/2
Judd Trump 13/2
Ding Junhui 15/2
Barry Robertson 14/1
Neil Robertson 14/1
Mark Allen 16/1
Ryan Day 16/1
Jack Lisowski 16/1
Alli Carter 20/1
33/1 bar
* (Betting odds taken from Ladbrokes on October 28th, 2018 at 4:22 pm)
Table of Contents
The Draw
This is a 64-man tournament going off in Daqing, China which runs between October 28th and November 4th. Mark Selby goes as the top seed in the draw which means that second seed Mark Williams is down in the opposite half of the draw.
Main contenders
It is a big field to get through so let’s start with second seed Mark Williams. The Welshman heads up the bottom half of the draw with his seeding. He was knocked out in the third round of the English Open recently against Zhou Yuelong and really hasn’t been in winning form to warrant backing to come through this field at all. He hasn’t been past the third round of a tournament since his victory at the World Open back in early August.
Mark Selby tanked at the English Open in a failure to even reach the third round as he was dumped out by Ben Woollaston. Selby did win on his last visit to China though as he claimed the China Championship back at the end of September with a win in the final against John Higgins. He hasn’t quite been dialled in since then though, but of him and Williams at the 9/2 odds to win outright odds* (Betting odds taken on October 28th, 2018 at 4:22 pm) Selby has more appeal. He has, after all, won it for the last two season.
Judd Trump was stopped in the fourth round of the English Open by Ryan Day and that followed up a run to the quarter finals of the China Championship back at the end of September. In the middle of that was a poor run at the European Masters. Trump did reach the quarter-finals here last year where he was edged out by Mark Allen in the decider. He also won the inaugural International Champions back in 2012.
Trump is in the second quarter of the draw so down the line it could be a semi against Selby. The second quarter is a tricky one with the likes of Barry Hawkins, Jack Liskwoki, Ryan Day and Marco Fu knocking around there. Mark Allen had a run to the final of last year’s edition where he couldn’t stick in there against Selby. He is a 16/1 odds each way option* (Betting odds taken on October 28th, 2018 at 4:22 pm). Allen was a poor finisher in a disappointing second-round exit against Yuan Sijun at the recent English Open.
Ding Junhui is well worth a look as a 15/2 winner option* (Betting odds taken on October 28th, 2018 at 4:22 pm). He went to the semi finals of the Shanghai Masters back in September on home soil and that was on the back of a losing finals appearance at the 6 Red World Championship. Back on home soil in China this week, he is worth a look and goes in what is arguably the easiest section of the tournament.
Predictions
Of the front-runners, we don’t usually like backing players to go out and make title defences because it is such a hard thing to pull off. But we can see Selby having a good week here again in a tournament which he clearly enjoys.
Because of the set up for the draw though, if Ding Junhui can bring the best of what he has got to the table, then there is a favourable progress ahead for him to grab. He is well worth a big mentioned in out International Championship snooker winner odds.
