It is semi-final day at the English Open on Saturday with both matches taking place over the course of the one day as we determine who will compete in the final of the last ranking event of 2022 inside the Brentwood Centre on Sunday.
Often in Home Nations events we get some surprise packages through to this stage of the event but that isn’t the case here. We have four class acts remaining so whoever lifts the Steve Davis Trophy on Sunday will be fully deserving of the title.
Afternoon Session
Neil Robertson vs Mark Selby
The opening semi-final sees Neil Robertson looking to take his title defence down to the final match when he goes up against the former winner Mark Selby, who will be looking to extend his run of years with a title over the course of the weekend.
Robertson goes into this semi-final off the back of a brilliant win in the quarter final against Mark Williams in what was one of the highest quality matches of the entire year. Robertson scored like a dream but he did elude to the fact that he isn’t happy that he is giving opponents chances to get at him and you wonder if he might rein things in a touch here. The positive for Robertson is he has won the last seven meetings against Selby and that statistic has been trotted out for a while with these two having met in the two previous Home Nations events this season. Selby has looked better this week though and is more than capable of beating anyone on his day. Usually I’d be all over the over 9.5 frames here and I still think that lands but that recent record Selby has in this matchup is enough to sway me from getting involved.
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Evening Session
Luca Brecel vs Mark Allen
The second semi-final involves two men who are no stranger to being at this stage of a tournament over the last 12 months or so as Luca Brecel goes up against the form player of the campaign so far in Mark Allen.
Allen will be looking for a place in a fourth final of the season with a win here having featured in the title match in the British Open, Northern Ireland Open and the UK Championship. Brecel himself has been in a final this term although the Championship League is lower down the scale of important events. When the Belgian fancies the job though he is a match for anyone and can win anything as he showed around this time last year when he made the UK Championship final before winning the Scottish Open the next week. In that tournament, which ironically was in Wales, he beat Anthony McGill 6-1 at this stage and then John Higgins 9-5. Allen has been the player of the season but with the exception of Ding Junhui who fell apart when he was 3-1 up on him, the Northern Irishman hasn’t really played anyone of note here. Brecel has just taken Judd Trump apart and with the confidence of having won the last two matches against Allen, if he starts well here I think he is producing the sort of snooker that wins this one too. Allen has won a couple of titles this term but since the British Open we haven’t really seen too much of his best stuff. He gets beat if we don’t see it here.
Tips
Back L.Brecel to beat M.Allen for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with Betfred
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