The second semi-final of the International Championship will be played on Saturday as the last two world champions meet over two sessions and the best of 17 frames to determine who will face Ding Junhui in Sunday’s final.
This is the second Chinese semi-final in a row that Stuart Bingham and Mark Selby have contested. Selby prevailed in a deciding frame in their Shanghai Masters semi and he is the favourite to make it through to the final here too.
Stuart Bingham
You could forgive Stuart Bingham if his nerves are shot after his quarter final win over Michael Holt. Initially it looked like he was going to cruise into the semi-final when he powered to a 4-0 lead in that match but Holt came surging back to level at 4-4 before eventually going down in a titanic decider.
Prior to that Bingham had played some good stuff and his emphatic win over Ali Carter was particularly eye catching and if he has that form with him here he will be a tough nut to crack. It goes without saying that against someone like Selby he will need to score well because chances come at more of a premium.
Mark Selby
Selby has also had to overcome a deciding frame in this tournament. His came in the last 16 against Liang Wenbo who really laid the challenge down to him but as has so often been the case in his career when Selby’s back was against the wall he delivered the goods to come through. He followed that up with a win over Joe Perry in which he made two centuries.
If Selby has his scoring boots with him then that signals a tough night for Bingham as the safety game of the world number one is as good as anything in the game right now. Selby has genuine big game conkers too and you just know he isn’t going down without a significant fight.
Head to Head
There have been 20 previous meetings between these two with Selby currently holding an 11-8 lead with a draw between them as well. Their recent matches have tended to be very close. Nine of their last 11 matches have had a winning margin of two frames or less which suggests they bring the best out of each other when they play.
Betting
All the recent evidence of when these two have met suggest that we’re in for a tight semi-final here and I think that is likely to be the case. Bingham seems capable of creating chances against Selby and we all know that Selby will fight to the bitter end so that bodes well for a tight match.
Bingham has been in decent form for a while now. He made the semi-final in Shanghai and again at the English Open and he did absolutely nothing wrong in either high quality match. It might be that he is edged out again here but I think if he loses he will only be edged out not well beaten. Selby is rarely well beaten so I like over 14.5 frames here with 9-6 or closer either way providing us with the winning ticket.
Tips
Back Over 14.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with Coral
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