Shanghai Masters Betting Preview: Higgins can get season off to a winning run

Snooker / David Hendon / 09 September 2009 / Leave a comment

David Hendon foresees success for a pair of wily, old Scots as the season starts in Shanghai

"Great names in any sport shouldn’t be written off and Hendry has, very quietly, been putting in hour upon hour on his own at his snooker room in Auchterarder, his new base since his old club in Stirling closed down."

The new season begins at the Grand Stage in snooker-mad Shanghai but John Higgins has the sort of draw that could see him pick up from where he left off at the game's spiritual home in Sheffield. Four times in the last decade, the player ending one season as world champion has begun the new one by capturing its first ranking title and Higgins, who is [8.4] in the Shanghai Masters winner market, produced one of his best ever performances to land a third Crucible crown last May and can become the fifth.

The Scot starts out in China against Chinese wildcard Shi Hanqing or Matt Selt, who was the only player to qualify for Shanghai having started in the very first round at the prelims in Prestatyn last month. Defeat to either of these is pretty much unthinkable and Higgins would be heavy favourite to beat the erratic Joe Swail [60.0] or former world champion Mark Williams [42.0], who will be playing with a plaster cast on his right wrist after breaking it following a fall at his house a few weeks ago.

After that, the draw gets tougher but Higgins will still be on a high after his Crucible success and, in that sort of form, is more than a match for anyone. The only warning sign is that he is not always the best traveller, or rather tends to motivate himself only for the really big events. The Shanghai Masters carries ranking points but does not mean as much to him as the World Championship, UK Championship or Wembley Masters. Even so, he is worth supporting.

His compatriot Stephen Hendry [24.0] is beginning his 25th season as a professional but his first in 22 years outside the top eight in the rankings. Many observers and fans believe Hendry is on a slippery slope and unlikely to challenge for titles, but they probably would also have scoffed at the notion that Tom Watson could have a putt to win this year's Open. Great names in any sport shouldn't be written off and Hendry has, very quietly, been putting in hour upon hour on his own at his snooker room in Auchterarder, his new base since his old club in Stirling closed down.

If Marcus Campbell gets past wildcard Tang Jun, he will face Hendry for the first time since his incredible 9-0 whitewash of the game's greatest ever player in the 1998 UK Championship. That was an aberration that is unlikely to be repeated and Hendry is worth backing for an extended run.

What of Ronnie O'Sullivan's [4.6] chances? As with every other tournament ever played, your guess is as good as mine. He was runner-up to Ricky Walden last year but does not have the kindest draw this season. He is likely to meet Graeme Dott in the first round, not an occasion O'Sullivan will relish considering Dott has won their last three meetings. He won't look forward to a probable last 16 meeting with Marco Fu either - the man from Hong Kong has beaten him eight times in 13 previous meetings.

In the corresponding preview last year, I wrote the following: "A live outsider could be Ricky Walden ([20.0] this year), the world no.35 who has long been tipped as a future top player without really making a breakthrough." He duly went on to win, but who could follow suit this season? Of the qualifiers to watch, the experienced Stephen Lee [80.0] could give local hero Ding Junhui [8.0] plenty of problems, Barry Hawkins can take advantage of Stephen Maguire's off table pressures while Jamie Cope [32.0] beat Joe Perry at the World Championship and will fancy the job again.

But the strongest qualifier to follow may be Ken Doherty [21.0], who has slumped to 44th in the rankings having been world number four only two years ago. Doherty has fallen about as far as he is going to and there are signs he is finally on the way back with strong performances under his belt in a series of minor tournaments in the build up to the new campaign. The Irishman struggled badly in the qualifiers last season because they were an alien environment to him and it took some getting used to but he has always been a big occasion player, is match tough and full of determination to haul himself out of the mire. He starts out against Indian wildcard Adiyta Mehta and will be a handful for Australian Neil Robertson in the first round.

Tags: Barry Hawkins, Jamie Cope, John Higgins, Ken Doherty, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Shanghai Masters, Stephen Hendry, Stephen Lee