The second day of the Champion of Champions sees another group of the tournament being played out inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on a day where four stars of the sport come out to play in the ‘Group of Death’.
We have four very classy operators on show on Tuesday, each of whom could make mincemeat of the rest in this group. One thing is for sure, we are set to have three matches which are absolutely full of quality.
Kyren Wilson vs Jack Lisowski
We begin Group 3 with the Shanghai Masters winner Kyren Wilson beginning another Champion of Champions campaign when he goes up against the last man into the field in the form of the Northern Ireland Open champion Jack Lisowski.
Wilson did well to win in Shanghai earlier in the season but things haven’t gone fantastically well for him since then with just a couple of quarter final appearances in Saudi Arabia and Northern Ireland to his name and it was Lisowski who beat him in the latter. It is easy to forget that this will be the first time Lisowski has played in this tournament. He has been around so long you would have thought he would have played in the event before but his win in Northern Ireland was the first time he had lifted a trophy and therefore he makes his debut here. That might make a difference but I don’t think it will do. My hunch is that Lisowski will win this but it is only a hunch and it isn’t a strong enough one to bet on so I’m happy to take a watching brief of the opener.
Mark Allen vs Zhao Xintong
The second group semi-final on Tuesday sees the reigning world champion Zhao Xintong on show when he goes up against the man who won an epic English Open earlier in the season in the form of Mark Allen in what should be another tasty clash.
Xintong had been having a quiet season up until last week when he reached the semi-final of the International Championship but he was well beaten in that last four clash and you wonder if going so deep in that event will be to his detriment in this one. He was still in China as recently as Friday and you wouldn’t imagine he could have begun travelling back until Saturday and we saw Shaun Murphy, who was beaten two days earlier last week, really struggle on Monday here. Allen doesn’t have any of those problems. He wasn’t in China at all last week so he should be fresh as a daisy and best prepared of the two for this match. He also has the ability to make this scrappy and you would imagine if he can get Zhao into a tactical battle there is only one winner. The table was tough on Monday so that will play into the Allen hands too and at odds against I think the value is on the English Open champion here rather than the world champion.
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Group Betting
The other market to look at going into Group 3 is the group outright one where we have joint favourites in the form of Kyren Wilson and Zhao Xintong. I certainly can’t be having Xintong here. He won’t have been in the country for very long at all by the time he plays here and it would be no surprise if he struggles. There is a case to be made that neither Wilson nor Xintong will make it into the group final so I wouldn’t want to be backing either at the prices.
In truth, I don’t really want to back anyone for this group. I do think Mark Allen will beat Xintong so if I had to bet on the group then I would go with him but I don’t think we can predict with any assurance that any of these four men will definitely win two matches in this company. Other than backing a close final whoever is in it, I’m happy to leave the group markets alone and save my money for the Allen match bet.
Tips
Back M.Allen to beat Z.Xintong for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
Back him here:
