We already know that Chris Wakelin is in the final of the International Championship and on Saturday we will find out who he will face off against for the title when the second semi-final between Xu Si and Ding Junhui will be played out.
We already know that Wakelin will face a Chinese player in the final and most will expect it to be the best to ever do it from this part of the world in Ding Junhui but Xu Si is having the week of his life so far and won’t want it to end here.
Xu Si
Chinese snooker is very much on the up this season and Xu Si has raced to take advantage of that. Having already seen the likes of Wu Yize, Si Jiahui and Xiao Guodong reach ranking event finals from outside the top 16 in the world rankings this term, he is looking to add his name to the list by winning this semi-final, the maiden last four clash in a full ranking event of his career. There is no question that he is playing well enough to do some damage so long as the occasion doesn’t get the better of him.
Xu Si had to ride his luck a little at the beginning of the week when he needed a deciding frame to overcome Stan Moody but he has run a top 20 gauntlet since then disposing of Ryan Day, Judd Trump and Gary Wilson to make it into this semi-final. He made a first career maximum against Day and will now compete in a major semi-final for the first time. He needs a good start in this match but if he can get it and build some scoring confidence he could be a danger.
Ding Junhui
There is no doubt that Ding Junhui is a huge favourite to win this title for a second time from here on in. He is the only top 16 player at the start of the tournament remaining in the competition and he faces one opponent here who has never won a title in his career and he’ll face one who hasn’t won a full format ranking event in the final should he get there. Ding was only plodding along this term upon arrival in Nanjing but he has come alive big time since he’s been here.
Ding has come through the main draw part of the tournament for the loss of just eight frames, four of which went to the world champion Kyren Wilson in what was arguably the match of the week so far in the quarter final. He also thrashed Hossein Vafaei 6-0 earlier in the competition and looks to be hitting form. In recent years we haven’t seen Ding go deep in too many events but the trend is generally when he does he goes very close to going all the way and he can treat this as just another match as he has been here and done it many times which might help him.
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Head-to-Head
These two men have met on four previous occasions and as you would probably expect it is Ding Junhui who has won three of those matches. Xu Si has beaten Ding once but the frame score between the two is 16-6 which highlights just how well Ding has won his matches when you consider he has only won two more than his younger opponent. This will be their third meeting in China with Ding having won the previous two but it will be the first time they have met either in a semi-final or over two sessions. Ding won their previous meeting which was in the Wuhan Open last month when he came out on top 5-0. History is with Ding in this one.
Betting
When you consider it was only last month that Ding Junhui beat Xu Si 5-0 I’m a little surprised that the handicap line is only 2.5 frames here. You would think that the longer this match goes the more his class will tell and him winning 9-6 or easier feels like it has every chance. Xu Si has been excellent this week but he was 5-3 down to Gary Wilson in the last round and while he made three excellent breaks to win it, I think Ding is playing better than Wilson was.
The other thing to consider is that Xu Si has had a day of waiting for this match so the occasion has had time to catch up with him so it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world if in the biggest match of his career he makes a slow start. If he does he could be in a bit of trouble because Ding is as good as there is when it comes to frontrunning. The way Ding made back-to-back centuries after Kyren Wilson had come back at him in the quarter final to wrap up the match tells us he is feeling good and I just expect the Chinese star to have too much here.
Tips
Back D.Junhui (-2.5 frames) to beat X.Si for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Coral
