Scotland was once the powerhouse of world snooker. In 1996, they won the World Cup with the dream team of Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Alan McManus.
27 years on, Higgins is still going strong close to his fifties, McManus is retired and you could call Hendry as semi-retired though in the middle of a comeback on tour which he calls ‘not a comeback’!
Graeme Dott, Chris Small, Stephen Maguire and Anthony McGill are the only other ranking winners from North of the Border. It’s hard across the board in the U.K. to breakthrough in the game given the junior game is non existent in comparison to the late 90s/early 2000s. English duo Stan Moody and Liam Pullen have impressed as rookies this season, however. They clearly have a big future ahead of them.
Scotland have their own prospect in first-time pro and reigning European Under-21 champion, Liam Graham and an emerging talent from West Fife called Jack Borwick who is competing as a wildcard this week coming to the Scottish Open in Edinburgh. The left hander only took the game up properly during lockdown and won the European Under-16 Championship in March.
Hendry was the last and only Scottish winner of their national Open back in 1999. They are thus well overdue a Scot lifting the trophy named after the 7-times World champion.
Mark Selby – 7/1
The headline pick this week comes from the 4-time world champion, Mark Selby who loves his trips up here, though it’s a mere 300 miles from his home. The Jester will be looking to add more silverware to the mantelpiece after winning two ranking titles last season in the WST Classic and the English Open – two identical formats to this event.
Though without a title to his name this season, he’s played with plenty of promise to warrant thinking his turn is around the corner. In the first three events he went deep. He lost to the eventual winner in each: semi-final at the European Masters to Barry Hawkins, semis in Shanghai to Ronnie O’Sullivan and the final of the British Open to Mark Williams.
A very underrated scorer of nearly 800 career centuries, Selby surprisingly is only on 14 for the season so far. That will not concern a true master of his craft on the green baize and a master of this format. He’s won four Home Nations events in the last four years, including two in this event, back-to-back in 2019 and 2020.
He clearly has a bit of a soft spot for this tournament as it was his first ranking final back in 2003 when he lost to David Gray.
Selby opens with an O’Sullivan in his heldover match. Not Ronnie, however. Sean who hit the first 147 of the 2023/24 season. In a quarter that is more than likely to open up with Ronnie pulling out (having a breather after the U.K. exploits), Selby can capitalise. He’s won a ranking title before Christmas in five of the last seven seasons and can become the most prolific Scottish Open winner in history with a third title next Sunday.
Ding Junhui – 14/1
In the bottom half and bottom quarter, I’m very happy to take on World champion, Luca Brecel and I’m drawn towards China’s finest ever player, the U.K. Championship runner-up, Ding Junhui.
First the negatives. Ding’s record in the Home Nations events is pretty poor for a man of his stature. His best event is at the Welsh where he won in 2012 and made the final in 2014 though since it became a series in 2016, from 23 appearances, the best he’s done is a quarter-final on three occasions, all ending in defeats.
The positive is his form this season. He made the quarters in Brentwood at the English Open and in Tianjin at the International Championship then two better at his favourite venue, the Barbican Centre in York at the U.K. where he lost in the final to O’Sullivan after coming through qualifying.
He won’t require qualifying in April for the World Championship considering he’s currently sat in 8th in the Race to the Crucible and 6th on the one-year list. That should mean a more relaxed Ding which makes him very dangerous.
The aforementioned Brecel might meet Ding on route. However, the Belgian has lost all eight previous meetings with ‘the Dragon’. Ding has a very good record against Tom Ford who he might meet in the last 32, leading the head-to-heads 9-2.
Ding was under the weather in York yet found something within which you can only applaud as he’s gone down with a whimper when feeling fine in the past. It wasn’t like he had an easy run either beating Mark Allen, Tom Ford, Mark Williams and Judd Trump. It goes to show Ding is still amongst the elite and surely comes in refreshed having done his usual of missing the Shoot-Out.
I would not be surprised if he continued his upturn in form in Edinburgh and go one better than York to win a 15th ranking title.
Scottish Open Preview
*Odds subject to change.
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