The first Cazoo Tour Championship semi-final takes place on Friday when two of the greatest in the game meet for a place in a very lucrative final as Neil Robertson goes up against Mark Selby over the best of 19 frames.
Both these men had much easier paths into the semi-final than they were expected to have but you sense they will both need to be in this match for the long haul in order to book their spot in Sunday’s final.
Neil Robertson
Robertson went into the tournament under a bit of a cloud of poor form but he soon put those doubts to bed with a convincing win over Jack Lisowski in the quarter final, although in saying that, Lisowski matches up well for Robertson and was having tip issues throughout the contest so those who want to doubt whether Robertson is in any sort of nick still have those questions live and able to be asked.
You always judge the game of Robertson on how well he scores and three centuries and four 50 breaks is pretty decent scoring for the opening round of an event. He’ll probably need to up that here though because you wouldn’t give him much of a chance if he allows this to become a scrappy, bogged down affair. Robertson has the knowledge that he has beaten Selby three times this season but you sense things are not as clear cut here.
Mark Selby
The same questions about form and the state of his game were being asked about Mark Selby going into the tournament as well, although maybe not quite to the extent that they were about Robertson. Selby emphatically put those to bed though when he thrashed Kyren Wilson in the quarter final. Wilson might not have been at his best in the match but a lot of that was down to the pressure that Selby had him under.
Scoring isn’t generally the part of the Selby game that we focus on but he scored very well against Wilson. He made a centuries and another eight 50 breaks in a very dominating performance and when the Jester is scoring like that you could be forgiven for thinking you have problems if you come up against him. Selby has never made the final of an ITV event so that might be something that spurs him on greatly here.
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Head to head
These two have met on 21 previous occasions and it is Robertson who holds a 13-8 lead, an advantage he has extended by winning all three of their matches this season. He is in front by 125-115 on the frame count which suggests that a number of those Robertson wins are fairly tight. Indeed two of their three meetings this term have gone to a deciding frame to back that up. Robertson is a lot more convincing in their semi-final battles though. They have played five matches at this stage of a tournament and the Australian has come out on top on four occasions. History appears to be on the side of Robertson here.
Betting
History might be with Neil Robertson but I’m still not convinced he is playing anything like his best and I fancy he’ll need his best here if he is to deal with Mark Selby. If this match is anything like as good as their Champion of Champions semi-final we are in for a quality day of snooker because they were knocking in centuries for fun in that match but I fancy Selby will keep Robertson tied down much more over the two sessions of this one and turn it into a real battle and you just can’t fancy the Australian if he gets dragged into that.
Selby has shown he can score well and if he gets ahead early he can have Robertson under pressure and then we’ll truly find out about his form and whether his game is in the shape he wants us to believe it is. Selby can win this from the front or from behind, he can mix it in a scoring battle and dominate a tactical one. Robertson can’t win a tactical match and I’m not convinced he can come from behind either so the even money on Selby looks the best bet here.
Tips
Back M.Selby to beat N.Robertson for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with BetVictor
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