Judd in right frame to come up trumps in Crawley

Starts 10am Monday
Eurosport 1, 12.45pm Monday

Ronnie O'Sullivan is undefeated this season having won the only tournament he has entered, last month's lucrative Shanghai Masters.

It was an efficient rather than emphatic performance from the Rocket in the Chinese port city as he successfully defended that title and he reappears in Crawley this week as he looks to keep his hands on another crown, the English Open.

He heads the betting but is easily overlooked.

In order to justify his price he must win four best-of-seven-frames matches, a best-of-nine and a best-of-11 (each played over just one session), before winning the best-of-17 final.

There is no value in the Rocket given the short format, even though he lost just once in 17 best-of-seven matches last season, while in recent seasons, O'Sullivan has looked noticeably more focused in more valuable tournaments.

Judd Trump, who was runner-up in 2016, has had a quiet start to the season but performed well on Thursday to qualify for the International Championships later this month.

He came through 6-4 in a high-quality affair with Lu Ning, notching three of five centuries in the match as well as breaks of 90 and 54.

World number five Trump will take much confidence from that impressive showing and can continue to improve as this tournament progresses.

His form has been a little inconsistent over the last few seasons but the eight-times ranking-event winner may be turning a corner and could be set for a big couple of months with some huge prize money up for grabs.

Masters champion Mark Allen is surprisingly much further down the betting after he showed up well in the qualifiers last week. The Pistol whitewashed Paul Davison 6-0 on Friday and is a little overpriced.

Anthony Hamilton is a tricky first-round opponent, but if that hurdle can be overcome, Allen can enjoy a smooth passage to the quarter-finals with an out-of-sorts Shaun Murphy unlikely to cause much resistance should the duo clash in the last 16.

He would then provide strong opposition for anyone in the tournament's closing stages.

Recommendations
J Trump
1pt each-way 12-1 general
M Allen
1pt each-way 40-1 Coral, Ladbrokes

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