The Bahrain Snooker Championship
The popularity of snooker around the world is overgrowing and the newest event on the calendar, the Bahrain Snooker Championship, gets under way on Saturday.
The big favorites dropped out of the tournament. Ronnie O’Sullivan pulled out due to fatigue and Mark Selby, John Higgins and Ding Junhui all miss the Bahrain Snooker Championship as a result of their Premier League obligations.
If we take a look at the betting list, Stephen Maguire is the main favourite followed by Ryan Day, Ali Carter and Shaun Murphy.
The second half of the draw looks particularly weak and big-hitting Jamie Cope could be the man to take advantage. The Stoke potter has steadily improved as the season has gone on, going out in the last 32 in Northern Ireland, the last 16 in Shanghai and then in the quarter-finals of the Grand Prix.
The ‘Shotgun’ loves to make big breaks and made a maximum 147 in defeat in Shanghai in September. But in Glasgow last month he managed to grind out wins over Stephen Maguire and Peter Ebdon, showing a different side to his game.
He starts off against Michael Holt, a man he made a 147 against just over a year ago in Aberdeen at the Grand Prix, but his main rivals in his section of the draw are Ebdon and Stephen Hendry, two players who are certainly past their best.
Cope has already beaten two big guns in Maguire and Ebdon in Glasgow, which should mean that he is fully confident coming into this one. Therefore, betting on Jamie Cope to win here in Bahrain looks good value at 18/1.
As O’Sullivan dropped out only last week, the first quarter of the draw looks weak with Marco Fu, Ryan Day, Dominic Dale and Dave Harold the main threats.
The bottom half of the draw is much stronger containing the likes of Shaun Murphy, Mark Allen, Ali Carter, Joe Perry and Stephen Maguire.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment