James Cooper has previewed the latest renewal of the World Grand Prix, hosted in Hong Kong for the first time.
Snooker betting tips: World Grand Prix
1pt e.w. Xiao Guodong at 16/1 (General 1/2, 1/2)
0.5pt e.w. Stuart Bingham at 66/1 (General 1/2, 1,2)
0.5pt e.w. Elliot Slessor at 80/1 (Star Sports 1/2, 1,2)
The World Grand Prix leaves Britain for the first time with the impressive Kai Tak Sports Park in Hong Kong allowing a bumper crowd to witness its inauguration.
It’s probably fair to say that some of the lustre of the tournament has been lost by the omission of defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, albeit we are now accustomed to his absence in events.
Indeed, with O’Sullivan ineligible to take part in either the Players or Tour Championship, his sole remaining competition this campaign, health permitting, will be the big one in Sheffield.
O’Sullivan was due to play in the top section this week alongside Judd Trump, who has subsequently hardened to a top price of 7/2 to record what would be a record fourth win in the World Grand Prix.
This seeded event pitches the number one seed against the player ranked 32, two against 31, 16 against 17 and so on but as we all know it’s not quite as simple as that, with the likes of Mark Allen, Shaun Murphy and recent World Open winner John Higgins all having double-digit seedings to their name.
What is clear is that Trump does have a good-looking section to attack from with opening opponent Gary Wilson really struggling for form, while what was once a very close head-to-head record with good friend Jack Lisowski now has a different complexion with Trump winning the last seven encounters.
Trump is equally as likely to play Zhang Anda in the second round should he advance himself but you’d have to expect Trump to navigate his way through that tie, as he did when banging in four tons in a 6-2 win at York en route to the title there.
Based over in Dubai these days, Trump has understandably played a slightly reduced schedule this season and while he’s established himself as the dominant player in recent years, I feel the second part of the season has seen Trump focus solely on doubling his World Championship tally.
That’s not to say he can’t win in Hong Kong this week and he undoubtedly deserves to be favourite but we are increasingly seeing in these short-format best-of-seven early encounters, a ropey half an hour or inspired play from an opponent can see a match disappear in the blink of an eye.
With that in mind, I’m prepared to swerve Trump at 7/2 this week.
Neil Robertson has drifted out to 14/1 but having come unstuck siding with him at shorter odds a couple of times this season, I’m not totally prepared to trust the 2020 winner of this event to deliver the goods.
Higgins would surely have been one of the more popular winners of the season so far, albeit not with me as I was on an English winner and I’m still not sure how he survived against firstly Zhou Yuelong and then Zak Surety, the latter in particular a sickening reversal.
In the aforementioned Robertson section are XIAO GUODONG and ELLIOT SLESSOR and I think both are too big at 16/1 and 80/1 respectively.
Only Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson and John Higgins are above Guodong on the one-year list such is the excellence of the Chinese player this season.
Guodong has reached the quarter-final on no fewer than six occasions this term, the highlight being a ranking-title breakthrough in the Wuhan Open.
He also reached the final of the Champion of Champions in what was a golden period of snooker during the autumn, seeing off no less than Messrs O’Sullivan, Selby and Allen before coming unstuck against Williams in the final.
That level of form is as good as almost anyone can produce and while Guodong hasn’t been able to keep that going, he found only eventual winner Wilson too strong in the German Masters semi-finals in early-February.
I’ll put Guodong’s 5-4 loss to Duane Jones from 4-2 up last week as an aberration and with the conditions in the Far East holding no fears, he looks the way to go at the prices.
As his odds suggest, Slessor is a more speculative pick but 80/1 looks insulting to me from a reasonable berth in the upper section of the bottom-half of the draw.
Yes, if all things go to plan, he’ll play Guodong in the second round but I’ve made the case in the match article for Slessor against his opening opponent Lei Peifan.
A four-time ranking finalist and a fairly exposed profile wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea for outright betting purposes but I believe Slessor is actually going the right way in his career, as a 22nd place on the one-year-list illustrates.
I’d be a little concerned were the pockets to play generous again as Slessor’s strength is his tactical game over his potting/break building, although he’s more than capable of trading blows in the latter department and as I’ve already alluded to, it increasingly looks the play to side with those at bigger prices in these quick-fire tournaments.
I’ll complete the staking plan with one more big-priced runner in the shape of STUART BINGHAM.
Much like first-round opponent Williams, Bingham has been tinkering with headgear in a bit to recapture his form, chopping and changing regarding glasses in what is the twilight of his career.
Now this shout really does feel a shade flimsy when you consider Bingham has lost 14 of the last 15 frames he’s contested (Championship League aside).
It may just be, though, that this is the right time to take on Williams, who is struggling to reach his usual heights in 2025 and what we’ve seen throughout Bingham’s career is that he is capable of casting aside a wretched run of form to go very deep in an event, with last year’s World Championship semi-final appearance a case in point.
It’s very much expect the unexpected here, but quotes of 66/1 could be well wide of the mark if he can get a foothold in the tournament.
Posted at 0840 GMT on 03/03/25
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