BREAKING OFF

The first tournament of 2013 is the Arcaden Munich Open, also known as Betfair European Tour event 6.

This is the end of the Players Tour Championship series. The top 25 at the end of the tournament will join the top seven from the Asian order of merit to contest the Grand Finals, which will be back in Galway in March.

There has already been pre-qualifying so a field of 32 will gather in Furstenfeldbruck including seven members of the game’s top 16 – Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Stephen Maguire, Graeme Dott, Matthew Stevens, Ricky Walden and Mark Davis.

Maguire won this event last season. He began the current campaign by winning the first UK PTC and finishing runner-up in the second so was able to pick and choose which further events he played in to a greater extent than some other players.

Maguire faces Anthony Hamilton, sheriff of that well known snooker stronghold Pottingham, and a player it’s good to see back on our screens.

Anthony is one of the heaviest scorers the game has ever seen but never quite got his hands on a ranking title. His career hasn’t been helped of late by injury so it’s encouraging that he’s qualified. He’s also 34^th in the order of merit so has a chance to make the finals.

It’s nice to see some younger faces too. Michael Wasley will meet Mark King while Kyren Wilson, an amateur, tackles Selby.

In addition there are three Chinese players in the field, plus an Indian and a Thai.

Who wins may depend on who has been practising over the festive period. The five previous European Tour titles have been won by Selby, Robertson, Mark Allen, Judd Trump and Ding Junhui, so it would be a surprise if another big name didn’t come away wit the trophy.

All matches will be live on British Eurosport, with extensive coverage also on Eurosport International. It all starts today at 12pm GMT.