With the curtains drawn on the UK Championship, all roads lead to Glasgow where the Scottish Open is scheduled to kick off on Monday.

China’s number one, Ding Junhui overcame Stephen Maguire to win the £200,000 up for grabs as well as the UK Championship trophy, his fourth career Triple Crown event.
There’s little to no time for a quick respite as the Scottish Open gets immediately underway. The third tournament in the Home Nations series is the only opportunity left in this decade for participants to lay their hands on a ranking event trophy.

Mark Allen who has had only a few days rest having being beaten in the semis by Stephen Maguire will be given the chance to defend his Scottish Open trophy when he
takes on Andy Hicks on opening day.

Former winners, Neil Robertson as well as Marco Fu are also expected to be in action as they are pitted up against Ken Doherty and Sam Craigie respectively.

As is the norm, all eyes will be on veteran Ronnie O’Sullivan who is still on the quest for a 37th ranking title, one that will help him surpass the 36 put up by legendary Stephen Hendry. The Rocket stunned many fans of the sport when he revealed his decision to play no part at the upcoming Masters at Alexandra Palace.

The record seven-time winner’s decision came as a big blow to the prestigious invitational as he revealed he couldn’t care less about the event.

That said, he is poised to take part in the Scottish Open where he will be taking on Dominic Dale in the opening round of the event.

Dale ended the jinx against Ronnie in the World Open in October, having been condemned to 10 straight defeats to the Rocket.

It would be interesting to see O’Sullivan surpass Hendry in a competition that provides a trophy to honor Scotland’s most famous snooker son.

At the Northern Ireland Open, O’Sullivan lost the trophy to world number one Judd Trump in the finals before the world number was escorted out of the UK Championship by Nigel Bond.Judd Trump is expected to return with a bang as he takes on Amine Amiri in the last-128.

Judd Trump is available at 4.05 to win the 2019 Scottish Open, while strongest rival Ronnie O’Sullivan is pegged at 4.45

Written by: Roland Arum