The second semi-final of the Players Championship is the only match taking place on a light day of action at Venue Cymru in Llandudno on Saturday as the tournament heads towards its conclusion on Sunday.
Mark Williams will meet Shaun Murphy over the best of 11 frames on Saturday with the winner going through to the final where they know they will face Ronnie O’Sullivan for the title and the huge first prize on Sunday.
New Customers can get Hamilton at an enhanced 25/1 to win the Melbourne Grand Prix. Max Stake £1. Winnings paid in free bets. Full T&Cs Apply. 18+|Gamble Aware.
Shaun Murphy
All the talk going into the tournament was about the fitness cloud over Shaun Murphy. He revealed prior to the event that he has been struggling with neck and back problems which resulted in him pulling out of the competitions in Gibraltar and Romania. Those issues have been prevalent here but have not stopped him making this semi-final.
Murphy has scored very well in the tournament to date which is a surprise. The theory was that a lack of practice would have meant that his sharpness deteriorated but that has not been the case. Although he has clearly looked in pain he has produced two good performances to see off Kyren Wilson and Anthony McGill so far.
Mark Williams
We saw some of the best snooker Mark Williams has played since the last time he was the world champion when he took care of Ryan Day in the quarter final on Thursday evening. He was getting in from distance and he made a couple of big centuries and could well have had a third one too. He is clearly hitting the ball very sweetly.
Williams has seen off Day and Yan Bingtao to make it to this stage and he has only dropped five frames in doing so. Hearing him speak after his win over Day it is clear to see he is full of confidence right now and why shouldn’t he be given that he has already won two ranking events this season. The sense is that he is going to be very tough to beat here.
Head to Head
These two have met on 25 occasions overall if we include the minor events such as the Championship League and it is Williams who holds the upper hand with 14 wins to the 11 that Murphy has. Williams has won five of the last six although most of them were in the Championship League. In frames Williams leads 78-69 so when they meet it is generally pretty close. They have shared the two semi-finals they have played against each other.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I’m already on Mark Williams at 10/1 for this match having backed him outright before the tournament began and I’m not going to go against him now. Bookmakers make him the favourite and I do too with the way he has played so far coupled with Murphy’s health struggles. With that in mind I’ll go to the side markets for a bet.
The one I’m most interested in is for Williams to hit a century which is overpriced at 13/8. There used to be a time when he wasn’t interested in centuries but the penny seems to have dropped that keeping his opponent cold can really help. With Ladbrokes offering a oner for each ton made this week to World Snooker’s charity there is even more importance and emphasis on converting breaks into centuries. I expect this to be an open semi-final and the way Williams is scoring he can put together a three figure run before this semi is done.
Tips
WON – Back M.Williams – Over 0.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
