The third day of the World Championship snooker at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield sees yet more former world champions in action as the first round continues on another busy day.
As ever we have three sessions on the day with two matches getting underway and four more reaching a conclusion so the draw will begin to take shape as we go along on Monday.
Day 2 Recap
Ronnie O’Sullivan made it through on Sunday. He beat Gary Wilson 10-7 in a match which contained four centuries to bring our centuries bet in for that match. The other man to make it through on the day was our quarter pick Kyren Wilson. He saw off David Grace 10-6.
Four matches began on Sunday. Shaun Murphy took a 6-3 lead over Yan Bingtao while Stuart Bingham leads Peter Ebdon 5-4. Mark Allen leads Jimmy Robertson by the same score and Marco Fu trails Luca Brecel 7-2 but importantly for us he does have one of the two centuries we need from him.
I thought going into the Bingham vs Ebdon match that it had the look of a right tussle about it and I still think that is the case so I like the look of over 16.5 frames in that one now. For this bet not to land Bingham would need to win 5-2 at the worst and Ebdon 6-1. I don’t see the latter happening and given the seismic blow Bingham suffered when Ebdon won the final frame of Sunday’s session despite needing four snookers I don’t see Bingham winning this easily. That over 16.5 frames looks good to me too.
I’m also going to chance Marco Fu for a comeback. He was chronic in Sunday’s session against Luca Brecel but he let his cueing arm going in the final frame of the evening and rammed in a classy century. We saw him come from miles back to John Higgins in Scotland earlier in the season so he can do it. His arm is likely to begin quite free so if he can win the first four frames, even if it is only 3-1, we’ll find out what Luca is made of. 6/1 on Fu is just about worth chancing.
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Ding Junhui vs Zhou Yuelong
The first match to get underway on Monday is the all-Chinese battle between Ding Junhui and Zhou Yuelong. Ding will be looking to go one better than he managed last year while Yuelong will be looking for a major scalp on his Crucible debut.
Yuelong might benefit from playing someone from his own country. It might not feel so alien being sat next to Ding even though they are competing against each other. It isn’t a match I can find anything to bet on with but it will make for an interesting watch to assess the situation ahead of the second session on Tuesday.
John Higgins vs Martin Gould
The match of the round is the other match to get going on this third day when John Higgins and Martin Gould start out in the afternoon session before coming back to finish on Tuesday. After an excellent season Higgins has come through as a major contender for this tournament but Gould is no mug whatsoever.
I’m looking forward to this match. I think both men are going to give this a real good go and if their Australian Open final of a few years ago is anything to go by then this could be quite close but I’m expecting the scoring to be good in this one and I’m surprised we can get such a good price on the over 2.5 centuries. Both these men love to clean the table and both cue well so I expect to see that line cleared.
Tips
Back S.Bingham vs P.Ebdon – Over 16.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
WON – Back M.Fu to beat L.Brecel for a 1/10 stake at 7.00 with Coral
Back them here:
WON – Back J.Higgins vs M.Gould – Over 2.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with William Hill
Back it here:
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