It is quarter final day at the Romanian Masters on Friday with the entire round of four matches being played across two sessions out in Bucharest. The winners of these matches will be two wins away from a morale boosting title and with the event blown wide open in the first round, Friday’s action should be interesting.
The very top names such as Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ding Junhui and Mark Selby either didn’t show up or have been knocked out already but we still have a decent cast list to enjoy on Friday as the tournament gets serious.
Afternoon Session
Ali Carter vs Stephen Maguire
The opening match of the round sees two men who powered to first round wins take each other on when Ali Carter faces Stephen Maguire for a place in the semi-final on Saturday. Carter stormed past Mark Williams in the first round while Maguire eased by Mark King.
Generally Carter has the better of things when these two meet and if he plays like he did against Williams he is going to have every chance of winning this match too but Maguire banged in a couple of tons against King and his form is clearly improving, as we saw in Preston recently when he was a semi-finalist. This is a tricky one to call so I’m going to sit this out.
Liang Wenbo vs Stuart Bingham
Two more men who overcame the odds in the first round meet in the second quarter final when Liang Wenbo takes on Stuart Bingham over the best of seven frames for a spot in Saturday’s semi-final.
Wenbo took care of the world champion Mark Selby in fairly ruthless fashion while Bingham came from needing a snooker in the decider to dump Neil Robertson out of the tournament. Both men looked in good touch in that first round although I thought Bingham looked more composed of the two and I think he’ll win this. I’m on him outright though and he’s only 8/11 to win here so I’ll avoid another bet and just hope he comes through to make the weekend very interesting.
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Evening Session
John Higgins vs Ryan Day
The evening session begins with the last two tournament winners colliding when John Higgins takes on Ryan Day for a spot in the other semi-final on Saturday. These two recently met in the quarter final of The Masters which Higgins won easily and he’ll be hoping for similar here.
Since that battering Day has won in Gibraltar and he is on quite some run over the best of seven frames but Higgins played plenty of those sort of matches when he won the Welsh Open recently so both men will fancy their chances here. I think Higgins will probably have enough to get the job done but the prices reflect that and not a whole lot interests me here really.
Kyren Wilson vs Judd Trump
The last match in the quarter final round is a repeat of The Masters semi-final when Kyren Wilson takes on Judd Trump. Wilson won what was an epic battle at Alexandra Palace in a deciding frame so Trump will want revenge here.
Trump battered Luca Brecel in the previous round courtesy of a couple of centuries to open up proceedings but I’m not sure how much we can take from that because Brecel has completely lost his form and his game. Wilson beat a much more solid Mark Allen in the first round to gain revenge for his defeat in the final of The Masters.
Wilson actually has a decent record over Trump. He has won three of their last four matches in proper competitions and I fancy he can win here too. He can keep things at long distance and wait for his chances and when they come he is scoring well enough to take them. At 2/1 the value is very much with the Masters finalist here.
Tips
WON – Back K.Wilson to beat J.Trump for a 3/10 stake at 3.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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