The fourth day of action at the Players Championship at the Waterfront in Southport sees the next two quarter finals of the competition being played, as the second Coral Series event of the campaign heads towards the business end of proceedings.
We saw the world champion Judd Trump make it through to the semi-final on Wednesday evening and on Thursday the likes of Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire, Yan Bingtao and Joe Perry will be looking to join him.
Afternoon Session
Stephen Maguire vs Mark Selby
The first of the two quarter finals on the day sees the former world champion Mark Selby looking to go a step closer to adding to his English Open and Scottish Open titles when he takes on the UK Championship finalist Stephen Maguire for the right to face Judd Trump in the semi-final.
These two men had very different routes to this quarter final with Maguire having to come through a deciding frame to dump out Ding Junhui, while Selby eased past Mark Williams without dropping a single frame. I wouldn’t necessarily say Selby was that much better than Maguire in their respective games so I’m expecting a close contest here. Selby just doesn’t convince me that he is back to anything like his true form. He can still win of course but I sense Maguire is up for this week. I go back to the UK Championship where he commented on underachieving and then him coming back from 5-1 down to Neil Robertson to win 6-5 when he could have chucked it in. I never like taking Selby on in deciders so I’m going to take Maguire to keep that bit between his teeth and at least force a decider, if not win the match.
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Evening Session
Joe Perry vs Yan Bingtao
The second quarter final to be played on Thursday sees two men who were outsiders for their first round matches colliding for the first time in their careers, when Joe Perry takes on the Riga Masters champion Yan Bingtao for a place in Saturday’s semi-final.
Perry had a brilliant win over Neil Robertson in the first round, and while he fell over the line, nobody can deny that he deserved to win the game. Bingtao was in complete control throughout his win over Kyren Wilson to maintain the strong form he had coming into the tournament. Although Perry went into a 5-1 lead against Robertson, the Australian gifted him some chances and I’m not so sure Bingtao will do likewise the way he is playing right now.
I’m already on Bingtao to win this tournament and I’m not going to swerve him now, but at the same time I don’t need to back him either. I will take him to knock in the highest break here though. Bingtao has been knocking in some good breaks in recent times and now that he is into the tournament I expect his scoring to get stronger. I think he’s the better scorer of the two anyway and at 17/20 he’s a more than fair price to make the highest break.
Tips
WON – Back S.Maguire (+1.5 frames) to beat M.Selby for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with 888sport
WON – Back Y.Bingtao Highest Break vs J.Perry for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with 888sport
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