FORMER world champion Graeme Dott believes that structural changes will see more surprise winners of snooker's second-most prestigious tournament than ever before.
The upcoming UK Championship traditionally forms part of the sport's 'Triple Crown' along with the World Championship and the Masters.
The format was altered last year, with all matches up until the final played in a quick-fire best-of-11 format.
But Dott thinks the shorter format has been detrimental to its previously lofty reputation.
“You're probably going to get more shock winners of the UK Championship than you've ever had,” said the Scot.
“You couldn't really get a shock winner when it was first to nine, but the standard is so high nowadays and first to six isn't really that long.
“That's just the way it is and we need to get on with it, but I think it does devalue the tournament.”
Despite his reservations about the format, the 38-year-old reached the quarter-finals in York last year.
He narrowly missed out on a place in the last four after a final frame decider against world champion Stuart Bingham.
“Fingers crossed I do well again,” he added. “I'm feeling good but you need a bit of luck, sometimes it doesn't matter how well you're playing.
“I'm not getting the results that I think would merit the way I'm playing. I'm playing okay but I'm throwing in a bad match here and there.
“I don't know if it's due to age, but you seem to do that the older you get.”
Dott does battle with veteran Englishman Nigel Bond in the first round on Thursday.
He said: “It's a very tough draw, there are a lot of players that you'd rather have had before Nigel. I know I'm going to need to play well to win.”
Four-time world champion John Higgins faces a potential banana skin in his opening round clash with Irish amateur Leo Fernandez, whilst Glasgow's Stephen Maguire goes up against fans' favourite Jimmy White.
Rising star Anthony McGill takes on James Cahill and two-time ranking event winner Alan McManus plays fellow Scot Eden Sharav.
Other first round matches involving Scottish players: Michael Holt v FRASER PATRICK, Tom Ford v SCOTT DONALDSON, Gerard Greene v MICHAEL LESLIE, Mark King v ROSS MUIR, JAMIE BURNETT v Sanderson Lam.
Meanwhile, world champion Stuart Bingham says snooker is missing last year's winner Ronnie O'Sullivan, who will not defend his UK title as his hiatus from the game continues.
“His last competitive match was that famous win for me in Sheffield,” said Bingham, who beat the Rocket in the World Championship quarter-final.
“We don’t know when or if he will be back. The game is missing him, and he is probably missing the game.
“Any important win over Ronnie always felt like a final, so if that was his swansong it would be even more special as an occasion if it was me that finished him off!
“It would be weird if I turned out to be the man that finished Ronnie’s career with that win at the Crucible.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here