The third day of action at the German Masters sees the second round of the tournament conclude and the quarter finals played out across the course of two sessions of action inside the Tempodrom in Berlin on Friday.
The BetVictor Series is beginning to hot up and four men will enhance their claim for the £150,000 bonus that coming with topping the money chart by the end of the day, as we finalise the semi-final card in the second event of this new series.
Afternoon Session
The four remaining second round matches form the schedule for the afternoon session here and on the main match table we will be treated to the Champion of Champions winner Neil Roberton in action. He meets Mitchell Mann and will be expected to increase his lead at the top of the BetVictor Series standings. On the other match with cameras around it Shaun Murphy will be back in action. He meets Scott Donaldson, who did well to overcome Ding Junhui in the first round.
Two matches will be taking place on the other tables around this fantastic arena and one of them should be really juicy indeed as the talented youngster Zhao Xintong takes on the scoring machine that is Gary Wilson. The other match in the session sees Robbie Williams looking to back up his fine win over John Higgins in the first round when he faces off against Elliot Slessor for a rare quarter final opportunity for both men.
Evening Session
We already know the line up for two of the four quarter finals which will be played in this session and regardless of what happens in the afternoon session it will be the world champion Judd Trump who will be on the TV table. He meets the former Shootout winner Michael Georgiou. The other quarter final which we know about sees Graeme Dott going up against Matt Selt in what should be a competitive battle.
The other two quarter finals will be determined earlier in the afternoon session and the winner of the match between Zhao Xintong and Gary Wilson will go up against the man who comes through the tie between Shaun Murphy and Scott Donaldson while the winner of the Robbie Williams and Elliot Slessor match will have a last eight clash against either Neil Robertson or Mitchell Mann for a place in Saturday’s semi-final.
Betting
This isn’t an easy day to bet on so I’m going with just the one bet, which comes along in the afternoon and sees Gary Wilson going up against Zhao Xintong in a match where I expect the semi-finalist in Austria last week to come through, and keep up his hopes of nailing that juicy bonus for winning the BetVictor Series, a quest he can do no harm with a win here given the potential for the big names to miss the last two events.
Wilson is scoring like an absolute dream at the minute. It wasn’t too long ago he had those four centuries in as many frames to come through a UK Championship match and in the first round here he banged in two tons, a 97, an 82 and a 60 break in a convincing 5-1 win. Add to that he has won every past meeting with Xintong with a bit in hand and you see why even at 8/11 I like Wilson in this match. The way Wilson is scoring, Xintong is going to have to get everything he goes for because his safety isn’t tight enough to repel the Geordie. Nobody can get everything they go at though which makes me like Wilson even more here.
Tips
Back G.Wilson to beat Z.Xintong for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
Back him here: