The first round of the World Championship concludes and the second round of the tournament gets underway on a slightly truncated day of snooker inside the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
The second round matches see us move up to the best of 25 frames and three sessions which should create even more excitement and drama.
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Day 5 Recap
It was not a day to be a seed on Wednesday. We had waited a while for a shock in this tournament and like London buses three came along at once. We witnessed one of the biggest shocks in Crucible history when Rory McLeod took care of Judd Trump while Ali Carter and Ryan Day were beaten by qualifiers in the form of Graeme Dott and Xiao Guodong respectively.
Sadly for us Ryan Day offered little in the way of a fight so we lost the overs in his match but there has been a century in each of the matches held over to Thursday. Neil Robertson leads Noppon Saengkham 8-1 in one of them and Barry Hawkins holds a 7-2 lead on Tom Ford. I expect both Robertson and Hawkins to complete routine wins on Thursday.
Stuart Bingham vs Kyren Wilson
The first match of the second round sees the former champion Stuart Bingham taking on Kyren Wilson in what looks like being a tight affair. These two have met twice away from the Championship League and Wilson has won on both occasions.
It is fair to say that neither man completely impressed in the first round but nerves and tricky opponents could be one of the reasons for that. I’m expecting significant improvements from both of them now they have three sessions to settle in and find their rhythm.
I’m not sure Wilson’s wins over Bingham have been a fluke and I fancy he can repeat that here. I think he matches up well to Bingham with a better safety game and he is an underrated scorer so he is well worth backing but I also like over 2.5 centuries. We only need one century a session for this to come in so this one should be automatic too.
Shaun Murphy vs Ronnie O’Sullivan
The tie of the second round kicks off in the evening session when Shaun Murphy takes on Ronnie O’Sullivan in what should be an absolute classic. This is the third time the two will have met over the best of 25 frames with O’Sullivan winning the previous two 13-10 and 13-3.
Much has been made of the comments that O’Sullivan made after his first round win but for my money not enough was made of his performance in that match where he played some of his best snooker of the season. Murphy was very good in the first round too so we should get a classic here.
I’ll see the first session before I get involved in this from a match betting point of view but there is one bet I like and that also comes in the centuries. The line is 3.5 here but between them they made five in the first round and both looked to be scoring really well. I’m expecting a high quality encounter and I think that line will be covered.
Tips
WON – Back K.Wilson to beat S.Bingham for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back S.Bingham vs K.Wilson – Over 2.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Bet365
Back S.Murphy vs R.O’Sullivan – Over 3.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
Back them here:
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