Snooker Tournament Preview: 2012 China Open at Beijing University Students Gymnasium – Part 1
Top dogs of snooker world have reached Beijing where they will take part in the 2012 China Open snooker tournament being held at the Beijing University Students Gymnasium. The tournament is expected to produce some of the most thrilling snooker games because
the current season has featured many new faces who clinched major ranked tournaments to place themselves in the top 16.
First Quarter
The first quarter of the 2012 China Open snooker event line up possesses the defending champion, England’s Judd Trump, the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open winner Stuart Bingham, the 2012 Players Tour Championship (PTC) winner Stephen Lee and the former World
Snooker Champion, Scotland’s Graeme Dott.
The competition looks tough because all these cueman have played outstandingly in the current season and they have that spark to shine at the arena and claim the title. However, the defending champion may face some tough resistance in the first round because
he might be facing the former six-time World Snooker Championship runner up, the People’s Champion Jimmy White.
The duo has played each other only once, in the 2011-12 PTC 9 where Trump beat White by a close score line of 4-3. Both potters are in a bid to win the tournament because White has been dormant for the past couple of seasons and wants to hit back while Trump
has some sweet memories with this event because he won his first major ranking title here in Beijing last year. Thus, he has his own affiliation with the tournament.
The first round clash is important for White of course but in order to set up Judd Trump as his opponent, he needs to clear the wild card stage where he is up against the Syrian cueist, Omar Alkojah. Despite the fact that the wild card clash seems a piece
of cake for the Whirlwind but still he must pull up his socks before entering the arena because the current season has witnessed many major upsets.
Another match that can turn into a tussling clash is the opening round contest between Stephen Lee and Tom Form. Both Englishmen have played against each other a couple of times before and are aware of the situation that might happen during the game. Lee
has an advantage over Ford because he has recently won the PTC Grand Finals and is in a good form.
On the other hand, Lee is one match victory ahead of Ford in their head-to-head stats which gives him a psychological advantage too over his opponent. By the looks of it, the competition seems quite thrilling and entertaining as both players need a break
in their career.
The former champ, Dott will meet the winner of wild card round match 2 which will be played between England’s Mark King and China’s Zhu Yinghui. The clash will be interesting if King qualifies for the initial round because he has played impressively from
the start of the season and his performance is quite sharp at the moment so he can cause trouble to Dott.
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