The 2008 Grand Prix is underway from the SECC in Glasgow and this year features a very exciting (in my opinion) new format.
Gone is the ill-fated round robin that graced our screens in 2006 and 2007 much to the annoyance of spectators and players alike. I don’t knock anyone for trying and World Snooker also fit into that equation, what is also great is that they have taken advice from players and fans and done away with it.
Now the new format is very exciting, the first round is seeded as usual but every subsequent round is re-drawn with no seedings, this means the top two ranked players culd draw each other opening the door for lower ranked players to progress. It is akin to the FA Cup of Snooker!
Already booked into the open draw are 51 year old Steve Davis who showed awesome battling qualities and a lot of patience in his 5-4 victory over Neil Robertson. Davis has undergone somewhat of a resurgence of late and has realised that the strongest part of his game is the safety, so is trying to outwit opponents rather than out pot them. This was very evident in the Robertson match and could well have accounted for his 1/4 final run at the Shanghai Masters. That run in China moved The Nugget up one place in the provisional rankings to number 28, with the open draw anything can certainly happen and Davis will be one to keep your eye on.
The other results from the first round are below along with the remaining first round matches:
- Ali Carter (Eng) v Dave Harold (Eng)
- Joe Perry (Eng) 5-3 Barry Hawkins (Eng)
- Ryan Day (Wal) 5-4 Ricky Walden (Eng)
- Stephen Hendry (Sco) 5-4 Dave Gilbert (Eng)
- Judd Trump (Eng) w/o Graeme Dott (Sco)
- Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng) v Liang Wenbo (Chn)
- Neil Robertson (Aus) 4-5 Steve Davis (Eng)
- Mark King (Eng) v John Parrott (Eng)
- Ding Junhui (Chn) 5-0 Jamie Burnett (Sco)
- Mark Allen (NI) 1-5 Michael Holt (Eng)
- Stephen Maguire (Sco) 1-5 Jamie Cope (Eng)
- Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Adrian Gunnell (Eng)
- Peter Ebdon (Eng) v Simon Bedford (Eng)
- John Higgins (Sco) 5-0 Anthony Hamilton (Eng)
- Marco Fu (HK) 5-2 Jimmy Michie (Eng)
- Mark Selby (Eng) v Andrew Higginson (Eng)
