After five days of competitive snooker over the best of 11 frames we have found our final four to make up the semi-finals and who will challenge for the first prize of £125,000 in the International Championship over the weekend.
The reward for all four men isn’t just the chance to play for the title but they get to play a two session semi-final in a one table set up with all eyes on them and their game which is something all snooker players aim for in a major tournament.
That will be a rare scenario for the two men in the first semi on Friday as neither Thepchaiya Un-Nooh nor Dave Gilbert are regulars at this stage of a tournament, especially one as high profile and lengthy as this one but it is those two who will battle for a place in the final.
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh has been something of a deciding frame specialist in this tournament. He has played and won four matches and each one of them have gone to a deciding frame so under the very biggest pressure he has been able to deliver the goods which will give him some confidence.
Un-Nooh has come past some quality opposition in this tournament in the shape of Mark Williams and Mark Allen along with a couple of live challengers in Ross Muir and Zhou Yuelong so he’ll be feeling really good about his game.
Dave Gilbert hasn’t been a stranger to deciding frames himself this week. He has seen off Xiao Guodong and Marco Fu in a final frame while his other matches have been won 6-4 so like his opponent in this semi-final Gilbert has worked hard so far.
Gilbert has had a much friendlier draw in this tournament which might be a concern but you can only beat what is in front of you and he has done that. This week has built on good form he showed coming into the event so he’ll also feel in good nick.
Given the number of deciding frames these two have come through so far this week it probably wouldn’t be a surprise if this one goes the distance either so I wouldn’t put anyone off over 14.5 frames but given neither have been in this situation before I wouldn’t be totally surprised if someone runs away with it if they get on a roll.
Looking at the match odds and there is an easy case to be made for Gilbert to be a big price here. I think this is a pretty even match but the way Un-Nooh has performed at the business end of matches this week I’m tentatively going to leave the match odds and side with one I fancy just a bit more.
Un-Nooh isn’t really known as a heavy scorer. He has only made two centuries this season and both have come in this tournament although one was in the qualifying round so he’s only made one this week. That was only a 103 which wasn’t a big century.
If we contrast that to Gilbert who has made nine centuries already this season and three of those have come this week. All three have been better than Un-Nooh’s 103 too which helps. He has made a ton in three of his four matches so we’ve got to think he’ll be good for another over this longer distance and that should be enough to land the highest break in the match.
In all this week Un-Nooh has only had four breaks over 80 so Gilbert might not need a century to hit the highest break. He averages a ton every 15 or so frames this season though so I’m liking his chances of notching one.
Un-Nooh averages a century every 44 frames this week and every 89.5 frames on the season so whichever angle you approach this from the even money on Gilbert making the highest break looks a good thing in this semi-final.
Back D.Gilbert to make highest break for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Boylesports
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