It is the final day of qualifying for the World Championship or Judgement Day as it is being called. Each of the 16 matches in the final round will conclude on a day packed with tension, drama and emotion at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on Wednesday.
By the end of the double session day we will know the identity of the 16 men who will be gracing the Crucible Theatre next week and we will lose 16 men whose season will be finished in heartache and disappointment.
Tuesday Recap
We went into Tuesday with four match bets running and two of those look good in the form of Peter Ebdon who leads Michael Holt 6-3 while Jamie Jones leads Graeme Dott 5-4. Work is needed from Dominic Dale who trails Luca Brecel 6-3 and Jimmy Robertson who will begin 5-4 down to Rod Lawler.
We also had two bets on players to qualify still alive. Hossein Vafaei leads Tom Ford 5-4 but Michael White trails Gary Wilson 6-3. Elsewhere Mark Williams will need to overturn a 6-3 deficit to Stuart Carrington to qualify while Northern Ireland Open champion Mark King is in a bigger mess. He is 8-1 down to Xiao Guodong.
Morning Session
The matches which set off on Tuesday morning will conclude in this session where Guodong will look to polish off King while Wilson, Brecel and Ebdon will also look to stamp home 6-3 advantages. That is the same for David Grace too against Akani Songsermsawad while Martin Gould takes a 5-4 lead into the final session against Yu Delu. Yan Bingtao leads Alexander Ursenbacher 6-3 and Lawler will resume 5-4 up on Jimmy Robertson
Afternoon Session
All eyes will be on Mark Williams to see if he can come back from 6-3 down. Stephen Maguire carries a 7-2 lead into the final session against Li Hang while Rory McLeod has the same lead on Hammad Miah. Dave Gilbert is 6-3 up on Fergal O’Brien and Lee Walker is 6-3 up on Noppon Saengkham.
There are close looking matches with Jamie Jones and Graeme Dott, Hossein Vafaei and Tom Ford and Zhou Yuelong and Ben Woollaston with the first named player each holding 5-4 advantages in match which could go the distance.
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Betting
I’ve already got a monetary interest in plenty of these matches but there is one more bet I like and it comes in the shape of Noppon Saengkham even though he trails Lee Walker 6-3. We saw Walker get very nervy in the previous round when he led Reanne Evans 6-0. He eventually fell over the line 10-6 but he wasn’t in a good state by the end.
I’ve no doubt some of that was the pressure of playing a woman but even so it doesn’t bode well. In the first round Walker led Matthew Stevens 7-2 but again fell over the line 10-8. Noppon Saengkham has already come through one battle against Anthony Hamilton which tells me he can handle the fight. If Walker does get finish line fever the Thai is definitely not done yet. Saengkham is the better scorer of the two so could rattle off frames in a comeback quickly. At 7/2 he’s the bet for me.
Tips
WON – Back N.Saengkham to beat L.Walker for a 2/10 stake at 4.50 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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