Tournaments
ROYAL LONDON WATCHES GRAND PRIX
October 13 - 21
Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre
Defending Champion – Neil Robertson
Field – Top 32 plus 16 qualifiers
This tournament has an uncanny habit of throwing up more than its fair share of ‘shock results’. A player from outside the top 16 has reached the final roughly half the times the contest has been played, and few of those have gone on to become consistent stars.
‘Shock results’ might be a thing of the past though, as the ability of players further down the rankings is steadily improving and the established ‘top players’ have less dominance.
Robertson defeated Jamie Cope in the final last time around, and Cope is our outsider choice to go one better this year.
The round-robin group stage is not to the liking of some traditionalists and can affect their performance. Hendry, Williams, and Doherty might struggle as a result.
One of the emerging players in the top 16 should go well in Aberdeen – we like Shaun Murphy, Ryan Day and Ding Junhui.
