In-form Stephen Maguire has a chance to shine in Glasgow

Day one
Eurosport 1, from 1pm Monday (Starts 10am)

With Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Allen hard at it in the final of the Betway UK Championship on Sunday night and world's top two Mark Selby and Mark Williams giving the Scottish Open a miss this week, there's a chance we could see some surprise results in Glasgow.

Cao Yupeng was a 250-1 finalist at the Emirates Arena last year and had a big chance to take the title against Neil Robertson, who edged out the Chinese player without being anywhere near his best.

The Australian is the top seed this year as a result. He's perform­ing better now but is priced on the short side to retain the title.

O'Sullivan, John Higgins, who was unhappy with his game in York, Allen, Ding Junhui and 2016 Scottish Open hero Marco Fu are all in the bottom half of the draw and if either side looks weaker, it could be the top half.

Judd Trump, Barry Hawkins, Shaun Murphy, Robertson, Kyren Wilson and Stuart Bingham are the top-ranked contenders in the upper section but it could be worth having an interest on Stephen Maguire coming up trumps in his home city.

Maguire is certainly playing well enough this season. He made the quarter-finals of the UK Championship last week – he is one of the best players not to have won a Crucible title – and if he can find similar form in Scotland then he could navigate a path through the shorter best-of-seven-frames outings.

Zhao Xintong started the campaign well and could enter calculations for a title triumph, but the Chinese talent is in the bottom half of the draw and makes slightly less appeal than might otherwise be the case.

The same remark applies to Scott Donaldson, an improving Scot who could be tough to stop in his early outings.

Irish Londoner Martin O'Donnell is 170-1 after some superb efforts in the first half of the season but the UK quarter-finalist has a potentially difficult opener against Chris Wakelin.

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