A busy but excellent week of snooker at the Scottish Open comes to an end on Sunday when Neil Robertson takes on Cao Yupeng over the best of 17 frames in the final of the event at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
Both men have looked in excellent touch this week and have taken care of some dangerous opponents so they fully deserve their shot at the £70,000 first prize and the Stephen Hendry trophy that is awarded to the winner.
Neil Robertson
It was only a matter of time before Neil Robertson came good again and he has certainly done that this week. He has scored brilliantly in the competition and his safety play when he has had to play it has been of a decent enough standard to create the chances for him to score big. That is never a bad combination.
Robertson had taken advantage of an easier part of the draw this week but that changed when he came up against John Higgins in the semi-final but he blew him away with a flurry of breaks to set himself up nicely for this final. He will be a huge favourite but he has won so many events that he is used to that.
Cao Yupeng
The week could hardly have got off to a better start for the Chinese star Cao Yupeng. He made a 147 in the third frame of the tournament and now he will end it in his first ranking event final. This day always looked like coming along when Cao burst onto the scene but when his form took an alarming dip people wondered if he was purely a flash in the pan.
This season though his best has returned and having had a taste of the one table set up in Belgium earlier in the year he showed his comfort in the situation in beating Judd Trump in the semi-final. Even when Trump came from 3-1 down to level at 3-3 Cao held his nerve to win 6-4 and set up the biggest day of his career.
Head to Head
These two have met on two previous occasions with Robertson winning both of them but Cao was competitive in both. Robertson won 4-2 and 5-4 but their last meeting was in 2013 so how much relevance they have here remains to be seen. Yupeng is inexperienced over two session matches against the top players.
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Betting
I’m already on Neil Robertson to win this final at 16/1 as he was my outright bet before the tournament began and based on what we’ve seen this week I’m happy with that position as I believe he is a very worthy favourite even though I completely respect Cao who has made me a few quid in this tournament.
The bet I like in this final is for Robertson to hit more than 1.5 centuries. He made two in the first round and in the last 16 which were only over the best of seven frames. He then ploughed in three centuries in the quarter final and two more in the semi. He is scoring brilliantly and as he settles into the job here I expect two more tons to come from his cue.
Tips
Back N.Robertson – Over 1.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
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Hi Kev,
Thank you for making me aware of this possible bet (and many others in the past).
Neil has played a total of 27 frames so far and scored 10 centuries. On average that’s about one century per three frames in this Scottish Open. If he is to win 9 frames to get over the line tonight, one would expect him to score at least 3 centuries. The odds of 1.72 for over 1.5 centuries look quite generous indeed.
Well spotted, and I hope your outright bet goes through as well.
An avid reader (since a couple of weeks ago, when I first discovered your website!)