{"id":1770,"date":"2014-02-18T11:38:18","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T11:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2014-02-18T11:38:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T11:38:18","slug":"the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronnie the Rocket is set for Welsh Open blast off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Welsh Open Snooker championship begins at the Newport Centre tomorrow, with the world\u2019s top 128 all taking part in the opening round of matches.<br \/>\n2013 winner Stephen Maguire, who beat Stuart Bingham 9-8 in last year\u2019s final, will open up the defence of his title against Elliot Slessor in the first of 64 first round matches.<br \/>\nThe Welsh potting machine Mark Williams, who is currently outside the top 16 ranked at 18<sup>th<\/sup>, will begin his tournament against 23-year-old Michael Wasley.<br \/>\nElsewhere other major Welsh interest comes from Matthew Stevens, Ryan Day and Dominic Dale who play Adam Wicheard, Rhys Clark and Antony Parsons in their opening ties.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1771\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1771\" style=\"width: 274px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ronnieOScg.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1771 \" alt=\"Ronnie O'Sullivan cruised to the Masters title (Picture: DerHexer) \" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ronnieOScg-274x300.jpg\" width=\"274\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1771\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1771 \" alt=\"Ronnie O'Sullivan cruised to the Masters title (Picture: DerHexer) \" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ronnieOScg-274x300.jpg\" width=\"274\" height=\"300\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Ronnie O&#8217;Sullivan cruised to the Masters title (Picture: DerHexer)<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nAs ever though, all eyes will be on Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan. The Rocket was in imperious form as he cruised to The Masters title in January, losing only seven frames throughout the championship.\u00a0Four of those came in the final against Mark Selby as O\u2019Sullivan dispatched the Jester from Leicester with typical arrogance.<br \/>\nWorld number two Selby defeated O\u2019Sullivan in the 2008 Welsh Open final, and starts this year\u2019s tournament against former Crucible semi-finalist Joe Swail.<br \/>\n<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em\">In the other picks of the draw world number one Neil Robertson will face Lyu Haotian, Judd Trump plays Kyren Wilson and the Wizard of Wishaw John Higgins takes on the Maltese Falcon Tony Drago.<\/span><br \/>\nBookmakers and tournament sponsors Betvictor make O\u2019Sullivan favourite to win the competition at 4\/1.\u00a0Selby, Robertson, Trump and Ding Junhui are all priced at 10\/1 or better to win the tournament outright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Welsh Open Snooker championship begins at the Newport Centre tomorrow, with the world\u2019s top 128 all taking part in the opening round of matches. 2013 winner Stephen Maguire, who beat Stuart Bingham 9-8 in last year\u2019s final, will open up the defence of his title against Elliot Slessor in the first of 64 first round matches. The Welsh potting machine Mark Williams, who is currently outside the top 16 ranked at 18th, will begin his tournament against 23-year-old Michael [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[606,580,74,581],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport","tag-ronnie-osullivan","tag-snooker-2","tag-sport-2","tag-welsh-open"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ronnie the Rocket is set for Welsh Open blast off - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ronnie the Rocket is set for Welsh Open blast off - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Welsh Open Snooker championship begins at the Newport Centre tomorrow, with the world\u2019s top 128 all taking part in the opening round of matches. 2013 winner Stephen Maguire, who beat Stuart Bingham 9-8 in last year\u2019s final, will open up the defence of his title against Elliot Slessor in the first of 64 first round matches. The Welsh potting machine Mark Williams, who is currently outside the top 16 ranked at 18th, will begin his tournament against 23-year-old Michael [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-18T11:38:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ronnieOScg-274x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/\",\"name\":\"Ronnie the Rocket is set for Welsh Open blast off - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ronnieOScg-274x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-18T11:38:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ronnieOScg-274x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ronnieOScg-274x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2014\/02\/18\/the-rocket-is-set-for-welsh-open-blast-off\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ronnie the Rocket is set for Welsh Open blast off\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\",\"name\":\"cathyduncan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/d4d0895f6e1f7ccb86d04236a870a18b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cathyduncan\"},\"description\":\"Lecturer, Cardiff University News Journalism MA. 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