The first round of the Players Championship concludes and the quarter finals begin on a relatively busy day of action inside the Guild Hall in Preston on Wednesday. Both sessions of play should guarantee snooker of the highest quality so we should be in for quite some day.
The four men who have yet to get their campaigns underway will do so in the afternoon session with a couple of huge tussles taking place and then in the evening two good friends and exciting talents will do battle.
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Afternoon Session
Mark Selby vs John Higgins
The TV table match in the afternoon session will see the tie of the round taking place as Mark Selby takes on John Higgins for the right to meet a certain Ronnie O’Sullivan in the quarter final on Friday afternoon.
Neither man has been in what you would call fantastic form this season and by their very high standards both have had indifferent campaigns thus far so both will know that now is the time to click into gear and put that right. Selby has a really poor record in the UK in the last couple of years whereas Higgins seems to be fighting with himself, although there have been signs he is on the upturn again recently.
I’m expecting quite a close battle between two extremely strong competitors here. It might not be ideal that Higgins was in India competing on Sunday but he should have had a day or so back in Britain to get ready for this match and when his competitive instinct kicks in and the adrenalin flows he should be fine so the best way to approach this looks to be over 9.5 frames.
Dave Gilbert vs Stuart Bingham
The match on the other table is a huge one as far as the remainder of the season is concerned as Dave Gilbert takes on Stuart Bingham. Whoever loses this match will be out of the final event of the Coral Series and should Gilbert lose it would make him a sitting duck in the race to be in the top 16 ahead of Sheffield.
With those sorts of implications at stake here you would expect this to be something of a nervy affair and so with that in mind betting is not especially easy. When you then factor in the fact that both men were in India last week it becomes even harder. I think the best thing to do is just watch this and see how the landscape develops.
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Evening Session
Jack Lisowski vs Judd Trump
The first of the quarter finals sees two good friends facing off against each other when Jack Lisowski takes on Judd Trump over the best of 11 frames for a place in the semi-final on Friday evening where Mark Williams or Neil Robertson will await them.
These two have met twice this season and Lisowski won in the International Championship but lost in their two Home Nations matches. Both men looked in great form in the first round and are having good seasons. Trump is a winning machine at the minute and Lisowski is back to the form of earlier in the campaign so this should be a cracker. The markets I would look to target haven’t been priced up yet though so I won’t be betting on it initially. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed and I will post something on there is a bet develops.
Tips
WON – Back M.Selby vs J.Higgins – Over 9.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
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