Where to watch the Xi’an Grand Prix
Matchroom TV from 3am Monday morning
Best bets for the Xi’an Grand Prix
Ronnie O’Sullivan to win the title
2pts 3-1 general
Pang Junxu to win the third quarter
1pt 16-1 Hills
Xi’an Grand Prix predictions
The inaugural edition of the Xi’an Grand Prix begins in the early hours of Monday morning, with a bumper £850,000 prize pot attracting snooker’s biggest names to north-west China.
The winner alone gets £177,000, which may provide the necessary motivation for Ronnie O’Sullivan.
The Rocket has made it clear that at the veteran stage of his career he prefers overseas tournaments with big prize pots.
He reached the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters last time out, when he was outplayed by Judd Trump, but that performance will have blown away any cobwebs and he should be ready for this competition.
There are not many dangers lurking in O’Sullivan’s second quarter, with Neil Robertson’s powers appearing to be on the wane in recent years. The Rocket, meanwhile, has had the better of battles against Si Jiahui, Hossein Vafaei and Tom Ford in recent times.
Trump is the obvious danger to O’Sullivan lifting the trophy but Mark Selby, Jack Lisowski, Gary Wilson, David Gilbert, Jak Jones and Pang Junxu are all housed in his section, posing a genuine challenge.
Pang could be underrated by the market. The youngster has been one of the most progressive players in snooker in recent seasons and beat Gary Wilson and Mark Allen en route to the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters.
The 24-year-old will be cheered on playing in front of his homeland fans and could be overpriced to win the third quarter.
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Publish date : 2024-08-17 15:31:50
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Publish date : 2024-08-18 05:01:10
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