The last 16 of the China Championship takes place on Thursday with the eight matches being played out in the round taking place across two tantalising sessions of action out in Guangzhou in China.
The tournament is heading towards the business stage now with the seeded players being able to play each other for the first time this week. The weekend is in sight as is the big money so things are beginning to get real now.
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Morning Session
Wednesday might have been a wipeout for a number of the top names but we still have a fair few stars on show in this morning session. Judd Trump is the big star and he is on one of the main tables against the talented Yan Bingtao while on the other TV table Shaun Murphy will be bidding for a quarter final spot when he takes on the Chinese youngster Lu Haotian.
Two more huge players will be competing away from the spotlight. It is not every day that John Higgins is away from the cameras but that is the case on Thursday when he goes up against Scott Donaldson in an all-Scottish clash. The other match sees Martin O’Donnell competing in one of the bigger matches of his career when he plays the home hope Liang Wenbo.
Afternoon Session
It is all about the present and former world champions on the main tables in the afternoon session. The current occupant of the title, Mark Williams, faces another Chinese youngster in Zhao Xintong while the other TV table will see Mark Selby taking on the talented and dangerous Hossein Vafaei who is looking for a breakthrough week.
Away from the spotlight two more men who have gone well at the World Championship collide when Barry Hawkins takes on Graeme Dott for a place in another major quarter final while the other match is a big one for both Mark King and Yuan Sijun with both men looking to back up big wins on Wednesday when they do battle.
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Betting
It is another day of a bet in either session for me with my punt in the opening one coming in the all-Scottish clash between Scott Donaldson and John Higgins. Higgins has not got going at all in this tournament yet. That could be down to the tricky conditions which are a big leveller as we’ve seen a few times already. Donaldson has had no such problems and he has already seen off a couple of competent opponents this week in Stephen Maguire and Jack Lisowski so his confidence will be high and while this might be a step too far for him to win there is no doubt that being on the outside tables will help him. I think he can ride his 2.5 frame start in this one.
Another man who could be benefitted from being away from the TV tables is Graeme Dott. He is up against Barry Hawkins who has been used to the bright lights in recent times and as such has not really got going this week in the heavy conditions of the outside tables. He has only made two 50 breaks all week so far and nearly bit the bullet against Noppon Saengkham in the previous round when he was 4-2 down only to recover to win 5-4. Dott is playing some lovely snooker this week and conditions won’t affect him. At 2/1 he looks fair value to come through this one.
Tips
WON – Back S.Donaldson (+2.5 frames) to beat J.Higgins for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back him here:
Back G.Dott to beat B.Hawkins for a 3/10 stake at 3.00 with Betfred
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