It is Group 2 day at the Champion of Champions on Tuesday as four more players attempt to come through two matches to make it into the semi-final of the tournament at the weekend. We saw Anthony Hamilton make the last four on Monday and he’ll be joined by someone on Tuesday.
Shaun Murphy and Marco Fu set the standard in the group on Tuesday but Michael White and Mark King are here on merit so we should be in for an exciting day of action. As ever we won’t be able to preview the group final but we can look at the semi-finals.
Marco Fu vs Michael White
The day begins with the Scottish Open champion Marco Fu taking on the man who won the Paul Hunter Classic in Michael White for a spot in the group final later in the day.
Fu has struggled for results this season which is a bit of a concern for him going into this match. I always maintain you can tell the state of his game by how well he scores and he hasn’t really been scoring well this season. That is not the case with White. He is scoring nicely and playing pretty well.
Not only has White won the Paul Hunter Classic in this campaign but he was a quarter finalist in the English Open and had the benefit of not being anywhere near China last week so he shouldn’t be fatigued. I think he is decent value to come through this one against an underachieving Fu.
Shaun Murphy vs Mark King
The second group semi-final sees the Gibraltar Open champion Shaun Murphy taking on the Northern Ireland Open winner Mark King who is making his debut in the tournament in this match up.
Murphy must be fearing coming here. He has been to this venue four times and he has lost the group semi-final on every occasion. Defeats to Mark Selby and John Higgins are understandable but losses to Marco Fu and Yan Bingtao are more of a concern.
Mark King has no such worries and given that he doesn’t get to play in the one table setup very often I expect him to be inspired here. Whenever these two have met over the seven frame distance Murphy has always won but he’s only ever won 4-3. King won their last meeting so this could be tighter than the odds would suggest.
King won’t need inviting twice to win this and if he can remain close Murphy’s mind will go back to previous matches here. I think the +1.5 frame start King gets is the line to side with in this one.
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Group Betting
I would have chanced Michael White to win this group at around the 9/2 mark but having backed him to win the tournament there is no point in that. In fairness Shaun Murphy should win the group but even in jest he acknowledges that his record in this tournament is terrible. White actually looks in the best of form so if he has seen off Fu earlier in the day I already have more than enough interest in him coming through the group final.
Tips
WON – Back M.White to beat M.Fu for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with Coral
Back him here:
Back M.King (+1.5 frames) to beat S.Murphy for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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