Coral Tour Championship: Snooker betting preview, free tip & where to watch

Free snooker tips, best bets and analysis for the Coral Tour Championship in Milton Keynes on Saturday.

Where to watch

ITV4, 1.30pm Saturday

Best bets

Shaun Murphy to win Coral Tour Championship
1pt each-way 15-2 Hills, Sky Bet

Stephen Maguire to beat Neil Robertson
1pt 7-2 general

Tournament preview

The Championship League served as a tasty appetiser for snooker punters but it’s time for the main event when the Coral Tour Championship gets underway on Saturday.

It’s back to the Marshall Arena, but four-frame round-robin matches are out the door as the top-eight players on the one-year ranking list meet in Milton Keynes. The first-round is played over a best-of-17-format and that should give plenty of time for the cream to rise to the top.

Judd Trump heads the seedings, as you’d expect given he currently holds six ranking titles, but perhaps he would have hoped for a kinder draw.

John Higgins gets in at number eight and the Scot has beaten Trump on nine of their previous 15 meetings. That’s not to suggest that the Ace struggles to produce his best against Higgins, more a measure of the Wizard of Wishaw’s ability.

The prospect of a clash against Higgins in the first round and Neil Robertson or Stephen Maguire in the semi-finals is reason enough to swerve Trump at the prices.

Shaun Murphy looks to have been handed a more charitable run and he is worthy of each-way support at 15-2.

The Magician kicks-off against Mark Allen in the opening round and that would usually be considered a tricky path to negotiate. However, Allen has been in poor form and excluding the short-format Championship League the Pistol has won just five matches in the last seven events he has entered.

That’s a pretty awful run of results for a class cueman and defeats to Lu Ning, Gerard Greene and Dominic Dale raise major question marks about his chances.

Murphy is the number two seed courtesy of wins in the Welsh Open and China Championship as well as reaching the final in the International Championship and semi-final runs in the Players Championship and German Masters.

Take Trump out of the equation and Murphy has been the standout performer this season and the Magician can cast a spell on his rivals.

Maguire grabbed a place in the event only after Ding Junhui’s withdrawal but the Scot could make the most of the opportunity by beating Robertson in the opening round.

Mags has enjoyed a welcome return to form this season and that was evident when the Glasgow cueman made the final of the UK Championship in December. The season also yielded a win in the Six Reds World Championship, a low-key event, but a confidence booster nonetheless.

Maguire wasn’t in action in the recent Championship League and Robertson did make the journey, but it’s difficult to see 12 frames against Ashley Carty, Ken Doherty and Kurt Maflin proving much of an advantage to the Aussie, especially when you consider he managed only one win.

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