The Scottish Open has reached the semi-final stage with both matches taking place across two sessions of action inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes as the penultimate Home Nations event of the campaign heads towards a conclusion.
We saw two pretty big shocks in the quarter finals on Friday and as a result of that we have a couple of heavy favourites in these semi-finals and a couple of underrated outsiders. It will be intriguing to see if the favourites progress to the final on Sunday.
Afternoon Session
Li Hang vs Ronnie O’Sullivan
The opening semi-final of the competition should have been Judd Trump against Ronnie O’Sullivan but nobody seemed to tell Li Hang that and instead it is he who will take on the world champion for a place in Sunday’s title showdown.
To be fair to Hang he held himself together well against Trump and managed to get the match played on his terms for the most part and if he can do that here he would have every chance of frustrating O’Sullivan into submission. To be fair to Ronnie he has done well to make it through although Ding Junhui probably should have put him out in the quarter finals. Ronnie has been struggling with his tip all week though and pulled another one off after that last eight win over Ding so although he will be expected to come through, he is naturally likely to give up chances to Hang here. That should keep the match competitive enough for over 8.5 frames to land safely enough.
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Evening Session
Mark Selby vs Jamie Jones
The second semi-final will see Mark Selby looking to maintain his record of having never lost in the Scottish Open when he takes on a Jamie Jones for whom there is a bit of redemption after his issues of the not too distance past.
This should be a competitive enough semi-final between two men who like a battle. Selby has been very good this week and if you look at his scoring you could argue he is hitting the ball as well as ever but that didn’t stop him needing a final frame in his quarter final. Jones will be feeling good about things after walloping Kyren Wilson in the previous round and this week, combined with the fact he has qualified for the World Grand Prix next week and will provisionally be in the Players Championship after his run here, means that he has basically done the job for keeping his tour card with a season and a half still to play.
That means Jones can attack this match with a bit of freedom and lay it down to Selby and so I fancy this will be a better semi-final than it looks. You can get strong odds against on over 6.5 50 breaks in this match and with Selby scoring like he is and Jones a decent scorer naturally anyway, that feels a big price to me. When you get to this stage of a tournament frames need to be won in one visit and I fancy we’ll see seven of those here.
Tips
WON – Back L.Hang vs R.O’Sullivan – Over 8.5 franes for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfair
Back M.Selby vs J.Jones – Over 6.5 50+ breaks for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfair
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