Two rounds of matches in the European Masters on Friday whittled the field down from 32 to eight and on Saturday those eight players will be bidding for a place in Sunday’s final when they are back on the baize inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
The quarter finals of the tournament take place in the afternoon session while the semi-finals are in the evening. They are the best of 11 with the quarter finals the best of nine. Time restrictions will deny us the chance to preview the semi-finals but we do have an outright still running in Martin Gould so hopefully he can make it through and give us an interest in them.
Main Tables
Judd Trump vs Kyren Wilson
The quarter final on the TV table is a repeat of the World Championship quarter final from last month as Judd Trump takes on Kyren Wilson with the world number one potentially looking for a bit of revenge after ‘The Warrior’ ended his Sheffield title defence.
Both men have made it through to this stage relatively comfortably. Trump has lost two frames to get to this stage although he hasn’t really faced anyone of note and certainly not anyone of the class of Wilson. Wilson has only dropped five frames and in Martin O’Donnell and Anthony McGill he has faced competent challengers. We know Wilson isn’t scared of Trump but I sense Trump is playing very well here and I’d favour him to come through but not enough to back him.
Neil Robertson vs Shaun Murphy
The streamed table on Saturday afternoon sees two former world champions going at it when Neil Robertson continues his title defence when he takes on Shaun Murphy for a place in the semi-final of the first event of the season to be completed.
Robertson looked in trouble in the first round of his title defence when he trailed Sunny Akani 3-1 but after escaping there he hasn’t really been troubled too often albeit he hasn’t played anyone likely to trouble him in the way that Murphy will. Murphy himself has had to come through a couple of real battles. He was 4-3 down to Liang Wenbo in the first round and got pushed close by Alan McManus and Tom Ford as well. He has lived to tell the tale but his recent record against Robertson isn’t the best. The Australian isn’t really much of a price here though so I’ll sit this one out.
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Outside Tables
Ding Junhui vs Mark Selby
One of the outside tables has two of the very best in the game battling it out which shows how strong this quarter final line up is as Ding Junhui takes on Mark Selby in a battle which sees two players who currently hold three ranking titles between them facing off against each other.
Selby did what Selby does in the last 16 when he came from 4-1 down to beat Stuart Bingham 5-4. That was just the second match Selby has played this week has his first round opponent was withdrawn due to Covid and his third round tussle with Mark Davis was cancelled when Davis had his cue nicked. Ding has been a lot more active and a lot more fluent although he too had to come from 4-1 down in the third round against Lyu Haotian to win 5-4 before taking care of Mark Allen impressively to make it to this stage.
Slow starts are nothing new for Mark Selby. He has made a career out of making them and then coming back but I’m not convinced he can afford to do that against Ding and come out on top. Ding is one of the best frontrunners in the game and he looked to be scoring well enough against Allen to suggest that he is hitting the ball well. We know he gets good practice at his academy as every day there seems to be a picture of a famous face in there on social media. At the prices I think Ding is worth a bet here.
Martin Gould vs Yan Bingtao
The other match in the quarter finals is where our remaining outright bet Martin Gould is housed. He takes on the Riga Masters winner from last season in Yan Bingtao in what is the lowest key of all the quarter finals but potentially no less competitive.
Both men have seen off illustrious competition to make it to this stage. Gould took care of John Higgins in the first round while Ryan Day was a victim of Bingtao in the second round. Since then it has been relatively plain sailing for both of them. That means that this is likely to come down to who is best on the day which is obviously guesswork at this stage. I’m not into guessing but I want Gould to win to take the outright to within a win of a place and that’s enough interest for me here.
Tips
Back D.Junhui to beat M.Selby for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Betfair
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