Free tip Snooker China Open Betting Preview & Tips
John Higgins – a ‘no brainer’ in China
The China Open snooker starts during the early hours of Monday. This is the final ranking tournament of the season, before its finale, the Betfred World Championships. With a total prize-pool of £1 million, including £225,000 to the winner, this is major event in itself.
The flagship tournament in China is back and on Quest! The #Snooker #ChinaOpen is here from Monday pic.twitter.com/EHX7Ws0Gi6
— Quest (@QuestTV) March 30, 2018
Mark Selby is the defending champion and he went on to take the World title a year ago. But as his 8/1 China Open snooker odds indicate, he is not in good form at present and is quickly passed by when looking for an outright winner.
Naturally, Ronnie O’Sullivan tops the China Open snooker betting but while he has won five ranking tournament this campaign, even the top price of 5/2 (at Boylesports) offers little appeal. ‘The Rocket’ has to win a qualifying match before making it into the main draw and then his first round opponent will be Elliot Slessor who beat him 4-1 the last time they met – in this season’s Northern Ireland Open.
If Ronnie is too short at 5/2, surely John Higgins is too big at 7/1 (again with Boylesports). The four-time World Champion has been in blinding form this year and last week he defended his Championship League title with some remarkable performances.
Over four days he qualified for the final of the competition with four wins from six games in the round-robin stages of his group and then won a semi and final (against Judd Trump).
In the ‘winners group’ Higgins proceeded to win five of his six round-robin matches, a semi-final against Mark Selby and final against Zhou Yuelong. Amongst those 16 matches (all being a ‘best of 5’ format) he posted seven century breaks including a 146, 138 and 137. On this kind of form, he is a genuine ‘no brainer’ at that tasty 7/1.
Hawkins hitting form and the semis?
Higgins is in the second quarter of the draw where his chief rivals look to be Ding Junhui and Kyren Wilson. In the fourth quarter Ronnie O’Sullivan is 4/9 (Ladbrokes) win to the bracket. But Barry Hawkins, at 5/1, could be value in this market. The pair cannot meet until the quarter-final so there could be some back-to-lay value here.
More importantly Hawkins tends to peak as the ‘big one’ draws closer – he has been a World Championship quarter-finalist, three times a semi-finalists and also a finalist during the past five years – and given he made the decider of the Welsh Open less than a month ago, he’s a likely improver.
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