The Coral series gets under way this week with the World Grand Prix taking place in Cheltenham - Richard Mann previews the action.
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Ronnie O'Sullivan kicked off his World Grand Prix campaign with a hard-fought 4-3 defeat of David Gilbert on Monday evening, a classy century in the deciding frame getting him over the line.
Despite only winning one event so far this season and skipping the Masters in January, O'Sullivan looked far from a spent force pre-Christmas and while a little rusty in his opening match here, there were enough flashes of brilliance to suggest he ought to be leading contender for the title this week.
Having won two of the three Coral series events last term, O'Sullivan will certainly be confident of making his mark in Cheltenham and for all his absence from the Masters caused a stir, there is every chance that a good break could set him up for a strong second half of the campaign.
O'Sullivan currently edges favouritism with Sky Bet at 5/2, with world number one Judd Trump next best at 7/2 and Neil Robertson priced up at 4/1.
Trump arrives in Cheltenham having outpointed Robertson in a high-class final of the German Masters on Sunday with the latter maintaining his strong run of form following victory at the European Masters in Austria only a week earlier.
Of that trio, it is Robertson's draw that appears the kinder with Trump housed in the same quarter as Kyren Wilson, Jack Lisowski, John Higgins and Stuart Bingham while things don't get any easier for O'Sullivan after his first-round victory over Gilbert; the likes of Mark Allen and Xiao Guodong standing in his way before the semi-finals.
A heavy recent workload and plenty of travelling is just enough to stop me from striking an outright bet on Robertson but it should't be forgotten that he made four consecutive finals around this time of year last term.
The Australian is right at the top of his game at present and seems sure to go well again this week.
From the first-round action, Scott Donaldson has to be backed to maintain his recent stranglehold over Ding Junhui at 7/4.
At first glance this would appear to be an easy opener for Ding but since his brilliant victory at the UK Championship in December, he has been some way from his best with a couple of defeats coming at the hands of Donaldson.
The rapidly-improving Donaldson is developing a really solid all-round game and saw off Ding twice in the space of seven days in January, 5-2 at the European Masters and 5-4 at the German Masters.
With his confidence buoyed and Ding holding no fears for him, Donaldson looks capable of causing another shock and is just too big to ignore at the prices.
Having been very keen on Jack Lisowksi's chances at the Masters, it was most disappointing to see him crumble in the face of a stirring Kyren Wilson comeback in London and it will be interesting to see if he can extract his revenge when the pair renew hostilities on Wednesday.
This season has been one of frustration for Wilson and given's Lisowski superior head-to-head record, the latter is sure to interest many at odds against.
Nevertheless, Wilson would be advised to turn this into a dogfight and should he manage to do that, he might well have too much nous for Lisowski once again.
With that in mind, I'm happy to sit this one out in favour of backing Kurt Maflin to beat Graeme Dott at 7/4.
As Norwegian success stories go, Maflin has some way to go in order to match the likes of Morten Harket and Harry Hole but he remains a dangerous operator who has reached the semi-finals of the Riga Masters and China Championship already this term.
A run to the fourth round of the UK Championship was ended by a cruel final-frame defeat at the hands of Allen and, although Dott ran out a comfortable victor when the pair met last month, Maflin came out on top in their meeting in China in September and there is very little between the two in their head-to-head record.
Dott himself has been in really good form of late and, as always, will be a hard man to beat but Maflin has a very good record in best-of-seven frame matches and strikes me as the type of character to be spurred on by his first appearance at the World Grand Prix.
The 7/4 odds probably underestimates his chances in a match that should be closely contested and I'm happy to make the value play again for a player I remain convinced can make a big splash at some point.
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