The first round of the World Championship concludes on Thursday and the second round gets underway inside the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on a day where no fewer than three former champions grace the two tables.
We will see Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins concluding their first round matches over the course of just the two sessions of action on Thursday while Judd Trump will be among the four players getting their second round matches underway.
Day 5 Recap
It was another day of drama at the Crucible Theatre on Wednesday with two tight finishes in the four matches to conclude over the course of the day. The first of those came in the morning session where Jack Lisowski eventually converted his 5-4 overnight lead into a 10-9 win over Ding Junhui. Over on the other table Kyren Wilson completed a routine 10-1 over Dominic Dale while Mark Allen saw off Robbie Williams 10-6. The remainder of the drama came late in the night when Ryan Day edged out Barry Hawkins 10-8. Two matches are at the halfway point of proceedings. Ronnie O’Sullivan leads Jackson Page 8-1 while John Higgins has a narrow advantage over Jamie Jones. He leads 5-4.
It was a good day for us betting wise on the bets that have been settled with our punt on Ryan Day to hold onto his overnight advantage getting cashed to give us another odds against winner for the tournament. We’re not going to get any joy from the Jackson Page handicap bet unless there is an extremely unlikely turnaround but Jamie Jones only needs three more frames to bring his handicap line in when he resumes with John Higgins.
In Play Betting
There are two outstanding matches that are at the halfway point heading into Thursday but I’m not going to bet on either of them because I already have bets on them both from before they began. If I wasn’t already on Jones both on the handicap for this match and indeed to win the quarter then I would probably get involved in him winning from here at a decent price. Recent history has shown that if you stick with Higgins over these longer matches you can nab him at the death and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens here, especially when you consider he outlasted Neil Robertson in the last qualifying round. The other match sees Ronnie O’Sullivan leading 8-1 and there is no bets to be had in the remainder of that one.
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Dave Gilbert vs Robert Milkins (Thursday 1pm, Friday 10am & Friday 7pm)
The first match of the second round of the tournament sees two outsiders battling it out for a spot in the quarter finals when the man who took care of the defending champion in the opening round, Dave Gilbert, takes on a Robert Milkins who was the last seed into the draw.
Both these men had to come from behind to come through in deciding frames in the first round and I don’t think anyone would be too surprised if this one ends up being tight just purely because of the opportunity that is in front of both men. I’m hoping that Gilbert comes out on top here because he is my outright bet in the tournament and his half of the draw is beginning to open up with every session that is played in this event. I do think he’ll win this. He looks the more assured to me at the minute but the bet I like in this one is for the highest break in the contest to be under 124.5. These two aren’t frequent century makers and there hasn’t been a century in any of their last three meetings, two of which have been behind closed doors in the Championship League where the pressure isn’t as intense as it is here. They only hit one century between them in their first round matches and that wouldn’t have covered this line and combined they have only put together 31 centuries all season. The century line here is only 2.5 for this match and if that isn’t covered then we only need to worry about two breaks potentially damaging us. I expect plenty of 50 breaks in this one but based on the season so far and the nerves that might get into this one I will take the chance that we don’t see anything near a total clearance here.
Judd Trump vs Tom Ford (Thursday 7pm, Friday 2.30pm & Saturday 10am)
The second match to get underway in the last 16 sees the former winner Judd Trump taking on a Tom Ford who was a pretty impressive victor in the opening round albeit one which went under the radar with his first session clashing with the demise of Luca Brecel.
Trump was involved in a high profile clash with Hossein Vafaei in the first round but the Iranian didn’t really show up so you have got to think that the man who has won copious titles this season will be given a much sterner test here. Ford can relax a bit now. He has his 30,000 ranking points on the board which will continue to see him in the top 16 for the foreseeable future and for him this is a cracking chance to have a go at a big name knowing that if he can overcome him he will face an unseeded runner in the last eight. These two have twice met here in the first round in the past and Trump won both matches 10-8 so Ford clearly doesn’t fear his man on the big stage and he might have noticed that Trump only had one break over 72 in beating Vafaei which might suggest he isn’t firing on all cylinders yet. I’ll be intrigued to see the first session of this one as it might tell us plenty about how this tie is going to go but for now I’m happy to take a watching brief and look again heading into the second session on Friday.
Tips
Back D.Gilbert vs R.Milkins – Highest Break Under 124.5 for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Coral
