The Champion of Champions gets underway on Monday when Group 1 of the tournament is played out across the two sessions of action inside the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. This is always a good tournament and I expect this first group to get it off to a good start.
It means we get to see the defending champion Shaun Murphy begin his title defence as he looks to be the first man into the semi-finals next weekend. Ding Junhui is also on show on Monday so we get going with a bang.
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Shaun Murphy vs Jimmy Robertson
The action gets underway with Murphy beginning his title defence when he goes up against the recently crowned European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson in what has the hallmarks of a decent starter.
Murphy wasn’t in China last week which might give him an advantage but the reason why he wasn’t there is because he got thrashed by Sam Baird 6-0 in qualifying a few weeks ago. Robertson was out there but lost in the first round 6-3. He made two centuries in the match though so there appeared to be nothing wrong with his game.
Murphy has an all or nothing record in this tournament. For four years he was dumped out in his opening group match and then last year he won the event. I don’t think he’s in that form heading into this week though so his dry run could begin again. Robertson scored so well when he won the European Masters and he has continued that since. He can come through here.
Ding Junhui vs Michael Georgiou
The second match of the afternoon is an interesting one with renowned tournament winner Ding Junhui, a player used to these one-table stages, taking on the Shootout winner Michael Georgiou who doesn’t get to feature in these sorts of events very often.
I’m expecting experience to tell on this occasion but Ding isn’t really in the sort of form that makes me want to rush to back him and we saw in that Shootout success that Georgiou can definitely score when he is on his game and under the shot clock pressures and everything that is not easy. I think Georgiou will give a good account of himself but I expect Ding to win although he is too short for me to back.
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Group Betting
I’m always partial to a little punt in the group betting in this tournament and I’m not going to swerve this group because to me there is a clear standout form horse who just so happens to be underrated by the bookmakers and priced up as the third favourite.
That is Jimmy Robertson who if he comes past Murphy in his first match will have nothing to lose in the group final. We saw him get stronger over the longer distances when he won in Belgium recently and his World Championship qualifying record suggests he relaxes when there are more frames on the schedule. At 13/2 given that he is clearly in the best form of the quartet I think Robertson is the man to be on across this opening day.
Tips
Back J.Robertson to beat S.Murphy for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Bet365
Back J.Robertson to win Group 1 for a 1/10 stake at 7.50 with Bet365
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