We are back in Yushan for the prestigious World Open, which begins on Monday morning. James Cooper recommends two bets.
Snooker betting tips: World Open
1pt Stan Moody to win Quarter One at 18/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes)
0.5pt e.w Thepchaiya Un-Nooh to win the World Open 66/1 (General 1/2 1,2)
A mere two-week break post Welsh Open feels like a hiatus given the bunched nature of the snooker schedule but we are firmly at the business end of the 2025/26 season, with Sheffield now on the horizon.
The World Open is the penultimate ranking event before the World Championship and the top dozen on the one-year list aside (who will contest the Players Championship), it’s the final chance to bag vital prize money/points that will have both Tour survival and Crucible seeding implications.
As has become the norm these days, a plethora of withdrawals have already been announced, with Barry Hawkins, Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire, Dave Gilbert, Jak Jones and Chris Wakelin omissions at the time of writing.
Four of the aforementioned sextet were due to be housed in the top quarter of the draw and while there’s still the heavyweight trio of Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Shaun Murphy present, it’s a slightly weaker section than it could have been.
With Luca Brecel impossible to back with any confidence at present and O’Sullivan also difficult to weigh up, this looks ripe for a TO WIN QUARTER ONE bet and at 18/1, STAN MOODY makes plenty of appeal.
Moody may not have climbed the rankings with the same alacrity several judges expected but with each passing season on tour, he looks increasingly like he belongs on the big stage.
His well-documented issues with the yips are hopefully behind him now and having banked just 15k in prize money in 2023/24, Moody trousered just shy of 75k last season and is on course to surpass that total this time round.
His scoring in the balls is excellent if not quite elite but the most impressive part of Moody’s game for me is his ability to dish in high-pressure situations, a trait that separates the top 16 from the rest.
I suspect there will be an element of treating this as something of a free-roll too given Jiang Jun should definitely have won their qualifying match (the tweet below shows why) and that piece of form had a welcome boost given Jiang’s impressive subsequent showing in Wales.
Due to his spot right at the head of the draw, defending champion Higgins, who is likely to be Moody’s opening opponent, will clearly be a tough early examination but he’ll only have to beat a maximum of one out of Murphy and O’Sullivan later in the quarter, the former something of a master versus pupil scenario given Murphy’s work to hone Moody’s skills when he got on tour.
The 18/1 available with Coral/Ladbrokes looks a shade too big to ignore.
Out with the old, in with the Un-Nooh
Judd Trump heads the betting with most firms at a best price of 3/1 but following a fairly low-key start to the campaign, a sustained period of excellence from Zhao Xintong sees him a close second in the market.
Both have favourable draws but it’s best-of-nine matches up to and including the quarter-final and even with a slightly depleted field, there are enough potential obstacles to leave the pair alone at those odds.
I must confess, THEPCHAIYA UN-NOOH has never really been on my list when thinking about potential winners of a tournament but I suppose his sole ranking win coming in the Snooker Shootout does make a fair bit of sense given his profile.
The raw talent has never been in question and while his ability to play the correct shot when the situation demands is not always there, if the popular Thai player is to double his tally, I suspect it will come in China where the pockets are generally a bit more forgiving, making the early long pots in frames of paramount importance.
This season has been a steady accumulation of points rather than peaks and troughs and while he’ll need to raise his game a touch to go deep in Yushan, his 50+ break scoring ratio has been at an impressive level, suggesting Thep can do just that.
With Selby out of quarter four, the man of the moment Xintong is a best priced 11/10 to win this segment, with Ali Carter and Gary Wilson next in the betting.
Of course, Xintong will take plenty of beating, particularly as he should be refreshed having looked jaded in Wales, coughing and spluttering his way through a couple of matches before the petrol gauge ran to zero.
There’s a horse racing saying about never fearing a solitary opponent and that kind of rings true in this quarter so with that in mind, Un-Nooh could be the answer.
I’d expect him to beat David Grace in the opening round and while Michael Holt will certainly be buoyed by a bye given he would have been a pretty big price to beat Selby, Un-Nooh will certainly fancy his chances in that encounter, too.
The general 66/1 available on Un-Nooh looks too big given the make-up of the draw at a venue where he reached the semi-final stage back in 2017, so a small each-way wager is advised.
Posted at 17:15 GMT on 14/03/26
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