The second quarter final forms the schedule for the Cazoo Tour Championship on Tuesday as the competition continues inside the Celtic Manor Resort as we get closer to crowning the winner of the penultimate event of the campaign.
Neil Robertson is the big name on show on Tuesday. The UK Championship winner will pit his wits against Jack Lisowski who continues his quest to land a first major title after going so close three times this season already.
Neil Robertson
These kind of events are generally what Neil Robertson relishes. He doesn’t need to make any secret of the fact that he lives for the bigger tournaments in the season so we should expect him to be bang up for this one, but in truth apart from a couple of weeks when he landed the UK crown, he has rarely looked like he has been up for much at all while the crowds have been away and the sport has continued behind closed doors.
That might be a little harsh given that he made the final of the English Open and the Champion of Champions prior to winning the UK Championship but a spark seems to be missing with the Australian and his form in 2021 is very worrying indeed. He has only won one match in the five he has played since he won that UK crown so he really needs a performance here and a win just to boost his confidence heading to Sheffield.
Jack Lisowski
If there is a concern over the form of Neil Robertson there certainly isn’t over that of Jack Lisowski. Since Robertson won his UK crown at the beginning of December, Lisowski has been in three ranking event finals in the World Grand Prix, German Masters and Gibraltar Open so there is no doubt that he is playing decent snooker. All that is missing from his season now is a trophy to show for his efforts and he’ll be hoping that comes here.
The one concern you would have over Lisowski is that he doesn’t have too much experience of two session matches and the ones he has aren’t overly pleasant as the majority of them have been in finals which he has lost. That form will come though the more he competes in these matches. Lisowski is making all these finals because he has dramatically improved his safety play without compromising his attacking play.
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Head to Head
Away from the Championship League these two have played four times in all and it is Neil Robertson who has won on all four occasions. He hasn’t really been troubled in any of those matches either it must be said. That is evidenced by the fact that Robertson leads 29-14 in the frame count. Two of their matches have been over two sessions. Robertson won those 9-7 and 11-4. The latter of those two matches was their last meeting which was in the final of the China Open but that was fully two years ago now. This will be the first tie they have met in a quarter final.
Betting
I backed Jack Lisowski outright for this tournament because I thought he had the plum draw in the out of form Neil Robertson so while I don’t like backing outrights in matches and run the risk of losing two bets should that player have a bad day, I’m kind of priced in here at 12/5. The form of these two men is chalk and cheese over the last few months and as long as Lisowski gets off to a solid start I expect him to pull away from Robertson, who seems to be century breaks or nothing these days.
I’ve already made plenty of the fact that Lisowski has lost most of the two session matches he has played but in terms of the finals he has lost, the two this season were to Judd Trump and two others were against Mark Selby while another was against Robertson so he hasn’t been expected to win those matches against elite players who were clearly in good form that week. That isn’t the case with Robertson here though so if Lisowski establishes himself in this match early he should be favoured to win.
Tips
Back J.Lisowski to beat N.Robertson for a 3/10 stake at 3.40 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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