We are down to the last 16 in the China Championship and this is where the tournament really begins to get serious. Those who weren’t playing well but did enough to get through have fallen away and we’re left with those ready to win the tournament.
In the main the big names have mostly made it through although illness put paid to Neil Robertson while Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson were edged out on Wednesday but we’ve still got some great players left in and some good matches to look forward to.
Morning Session
We are down to four matches per session which means that half of the competition is on the TV tables on Thursday. Those tables will be occupied by the last two world champions as the current winner of that crown Judd Trump takes on Joe Perry while Mark Williams, the man he replaced as champion of the world, goes up against the former winner of this tournament in Luca Brecel.
The other two matches in this session have a competitive look to them. Anthony McGill’s reward for beating Jack Lisowski on Wednesday is a clash with Hossein Vafaei, a man who had a good result himself when he saw off Kyren Wilson. Dave Gilbert will look to take a step towards a first major title when he meets the Thai player Noppon Saengkham in the other game in this morning session.
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Afternoon Session
Two more men who have lifted the world title will grace our screens on the TV matches in the afternoon session on Thursday. Mark Selby, defender of this title, is one of them and he’ll take on Chris Wakelin for a place in the quarter finals while Shaun Murphy will look to continue his form when he meets the Indian Open winner Matt Selt in what is probably the pick of the matches in this session.
We have a couple of big names on the outside tables in this session as well with Barry Hawkins and John Higgins plying their trade out in that part of the area. Hawkins has the tricky task of overcoming Zhao Xintong while Higgins takes on the aggressive Norwegian player Kurt Maflin who has started the season pretty strongly and who has already seen off one Scot this week in Graeme Dott and will be looking for a double here.
Betting
Both my bets on Thursday comes from the earlier session with the first of them being on Hossein Vafaei who is clearly going well to have come through this week. He beat Tom Ford in the first round after his opponent had already had a match on the tables while in the second round he saw off a Kyren Wilson who confessed prior to that match that he was delighted with his form. To be fair, just quietly Anthony McGill might be fancying his chances here but I sense he’ll have to up his game if he is going to win this match. He has done well to come through but Jack Lisowski was below par in the last round. Vafaei must be going well to have made it this far. I think he wins this.
I took Mark Williams on to no effect on Wednesday but I sense he is there for the taking and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it is Luca Brecel who takes him. Brecel has an affinity with this tournament having won it in 2017, his biggest career title to date, and he has gone along nicely so far this week. Williams gave Honghao a number of chances in his win on Wednesday and if the Belgian gets the same amount you would think he will take more of them. Brecel is just a little overprice here for my money.
Tips
WON – Back H.Vafaei to beat A.McGill for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betway
Back him here:
Back L.Brecel to beat M.Williams for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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