The second day of the World Championship sees two more first round matches begin inside the Crucible Theatre as well as four matches end in what could be an intriguing day in the city of Sheffield.
Saturday Recap
This already looks like being a dramatic World Championship and we have already had our first major shock of the tournament with the defending champion Mark Selby shot out of the event when he lost 10-4 to Joe Perry. Ronnie O’Sullivan is in big trouble too as he trails Stephen Maguire 6-3 while two other seeds, Marco Fu and Ali Carter, are also losing by the same scoreline to Lu Haotian and Graeme Dott respectively. Kyren Wilson is 7-2 up on Matthew Stevens.
In Play Betting
In truth there is nothing in the matches that are already underway that interests me. I’m looking good to win a couple of bets in the Haotian match while Carter only needs to win the next seven frames 4-3 to being the frames over in that match and we’ve had half of the 50+ breaks we need in the O’Sullivan match so I’ll focus on the Sunday matches for a bet.
Mark Allen vs Liam Highfield (Sunday 10am & Monday 10am)
The first match to begin on Sunday sees The Masters champion Mark Allen taking on a Crucible debutant in Liam Highfield. Both these men saw Mark Selby go out on the opening day of the competition and given that the winner was due to play him they have received an excellent boost already.
It is fair to say that Allen’s form has not been the best since he won at Alexandra Palace but he showed in that tournament just how much of a class act he is and I expect to see that from him here. Highfield did wonderfully well to come through the qualifying tournament but I just don’t think he has the tools to go with the Northern Irishman here. I’m with Allen on the -3 Asian line.
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Shaun Murphy vs Jamie Jones (Sunday 2.30pm & Monday 2.30pm)
The only other match to get going on Sunday is the one between the former champion Shaun Murphy and the man who causes a massive surprise in whitewashing Liang Wenbo in qualifying in Jamie Jones.
Jones is a very competent opponent over this sort of distance although if Murphy is on his game then even the Welshman could have problems living with the 2005 champion. The key question though is whether Murphy is on top form because we know he has been having neck and back issues and he was thrashed 6-0 by Chris Wakelin in China in his last outing. I’ll watch the first session of this I think and assess once we know the condition of Murphy.
Tips
WON – Back M.Allen (-3 frames AH) to beat L.Highfield for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with Bet365
Back him here:
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