Mark Selby is the headline bet for Richard Mann at this week's Xi'an Grand Prix, a tournament featuring a stellar field.
Snooker betting tips: Xi'an Grand Prix
2pts Mark Selby to win the Xi'an Grand Prix at 7/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes)
1pt e.w. Ding Junhui to win the Xi'an Grand Prix at 18/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/2 1,2)
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It feels like MARK SELBY has been nicely bubbling away so far this season, and he is taken to reach boiling point this week and claim glory at the Xi'an Grand Prix.
Selby, who has been crowned world champion four times, has a record surpassed by only a select few of snooker’s greatest ever performers, and he has enjoyed significant success in the Far East, too.
More recently, he has reached the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters in each of the last three years, the last of which came just a few months back, while his dominance of the China Open, no longer on the calendar, was most impressive. Selby won that tournament in 2015, 2017 and 2018, having skipped the event in 2016.
But more important than that, the recent signs have been very encouraging, with Selby starting the season in good nick, that last-four finish in Shanghai followed by reaching the same stage of the English Open and then the British Open.
It feels like Selby is very close.
In those more recent semi-finals, Selby didn’t quite bring his best and was ultimately outpointed in both matches, but losing to a rampant Shaun Murphy in Cheltenham was no disgrace given the calibre of player he had made look ordinary all week.
In fact, I really do think Selby is working his way towards something very special and interestingly, the run up to Christmas has generally been fruitful for him, with a pair of wins at both the English Open and Scottish Opens in recent years suggesting he likes to have his game sharp for this busy period.
In terms of pointers, Selby appears to have a fair bit going for him and I do think the bottom half of the draw is, on paper at least, the place to be.
The two biggest names from that section are Judd Trump and world champion Zhao Xintong, but the truth is, neither of that pair have found anything close to their best form this term.
It will come, of course, but Selby’s claims look stronger at this stage and he rates the bet at 7/1.
It must be said that the top half looks much hotter, with Murphy just the type to back up his recent British Open success, as he has proven in the past. When he’s hot, Murphy is red-hot.
He merits the utmost respect, with double-figure quotes about him certainly interesting, while the presence of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Neil Robertson, already a tournament winner this season, add real depth and quality to the bottom section.
And there’s defending champion Kyren Wilson in there, too, the number one seed and with his own game looking in good shape, as illustrated by his early-season victory at the Shanghai Masters.
However, I’m going to take a swing on DING JUNHUI (18/1) who might not consistently be the force of old, but remains one of the best break-builders in the game and perhaps hasn’t had the rub of green of late.
He really should've beaten Barry Hawkins in the last-16 of the Saudi Arabia Masters, somehow losing 6-5 having played wonderfully well to lead 5-3, while his 4-3 reverse to Mark Allen at the English Open from 3-0 in front was another bitter pill to swallow.
But Allen produced great escape after great escape that week and I’d rather focus on the positives, with Ding showing up well there in an event that is very rarely his cup of tea.
More recently, Ding has been something of a passenger at those lesser events, generally coming to life for the majors – particularly the UK Championship – the big ITV events and tournaments on his home turf in China.
That was again true last season when he reached the last four of the Tour Championship, the big-money tournament before the World Championship, having won the International Championship in Nanjing in November.
Ding was tipped up on these pages for that event at 14/1, following a very similar train of thought to this year: that some shoots of early-season promise from Ding could be built on in a big tournament back on home soil.
He reached the last eight at the Shanghai Masters last season, as he did at the start of this season, which followed an identical and encouraging run in Saudi to the one he enjoyed at the beginning of this campaign.
The parallels from last year are stark and like Selby, I’m expecting Ding to play well this week.
Drawn in a quite frightening top half of the draw, things won’t be easy for the home favourite, but as we’ve seen time and time again, a bad draw, or indeed a good one, can change very quickly in snooker.
As such, I'm sticking with Ding to land another big pot.
Preview published at 1730 BST on 05/10/25
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