We will complete the semi-final line up in the Champion of Champions on Thursday when Group 4 gets played out over what looks like being a mouth-watering day of action inside the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
We’ve seen the likes of Mark Selby and Judd Trump in action already this week but we’ve saved the best for this final group as Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Neil Robertson are joined by Anthony McGill in the tastiest section of the lot.
As ever there are two group semi-finals which we can preview and they are followed by the group final which we won’t have time to cover but the action should be quality.
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Neil Robertson
The action kicks off with a whopper of a contest as the English Open and Masters champion Ronnie O’Sullivan takes on the man who beat him in the Hong Kong Masters final in Neil Robertson in a real heavyweight clash.
O’Sullivan looked in awesome form in the English Open recently and to be fair he did nothing wrong in the International Championship either but ran into a monsoon of a performance from Yan Bingtao. Robertson’s season threatens to really kick into life and then he’ll throw in a shocking performance.
The Australian can’t afford anything shocking in this match though else he’ll be toast. He’ll know that so I expect his focus to be high in which case I’m confident we’ll see some nice breaks. Generally when these two meet there are plenty of 50 breaks. They made eight in nine frames between them in Hong Kong in July, five in five in their previous meeting and eight in nine frames the time before that. Both are brilliant scorers so unless this is 4-0 either way which I don’t see it being then over 4.5 50+ breaks looks a given especially with the table playing lovely.
John Higgins vs Anthony McGill
The last of the group semi-finals is an all-Scottish battle which is a repeat of the Indian Open final from earlier in the season. John Higgins got the better of Anthony McGill on that occasion and he is favourite to win this match too.
I think McGill will offer up a game here though. We saw him playing really well in the English Open where he made the semi-finals and he wasn’t a million miles from beating O’Sullivan when he got there. McGill is a serious player these days. Higgins is as well of course and as defending champion he won’t go down without a fight that is for sure.
The Asian frames line for this one is 5.75 which means if this is won 4-2 either way we’ll still get a half win and if it goes the distance we’ll get a full win. Only one match has not gone to a sixth frame this week and Brecel was in outstanding form in that. I fancy this could go all the way so I like the overs there.
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Group Betting
What a group this is! I know I’m here to tip up bets but I only tip up bets I place and to be honest I don’t want to bet on this group, I’d rather just watch it in the selfish hope that we get O’Sullivan vs Higgins on Thursday evening in a battle of the ages. If we do, they went the distance at the English Open and you should be all over what I presume would be a 9.5 frames line. If that is the final the overs will be my punt for the evening. That would be my only advice on a group which is going to take some winning given the quality that is on it.
Tips
Back R.O’Sullivan vs N.Robertson – Over 4.5 50+ breaks for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
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Back J.Higgins vs A.McGill – Over 5.75 frames for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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