The International Championship has reached the quarter final stage out in China and with the money increasing at quite a rate from here on in the eight men left in the tournament will be eager to make it through to the semi-finals when they battle it out on Thursday.
We have seen plenty of shocks over the course of the week so far but we are still left with six men who have lifted ranking event titles in their career, a man who has reached a couple of finals and another who is climbing the rankings so we should be in for a decent day of action.
Afternoon Session
Mark Selby vs Zhao Xintong
We don’t have to wait very long for the pick of the quarter finals to come along as two men with five world titles between them, including the most recent one, meet when Mark Selby takes on the Chinese superstar and world champion Zhao Xintong in a pearler of a match.
Up to this week Xintong had looked anything like the player who won the world title back in May but there have been signs that in a format which suits the classier act that he still has all the ability he showed in Sheffield. His demolition of Si Jiahui in the last 16 was the sort of performance that makes people sit up and take notice. He faces another tough test here though because when he is on song Selby can beat anyone and his 6-1 destruction of the British Open finalist Anthony McGill in the last round shows that he is hitting the ball well. Selby made a couple of tons in that one as well so this should be a crackerjack of a match. It is hard to go against Selby but Xintong can beat anyone when he turns it on as we saw at the end of last season. I’ll sit back and watch this one rather than get involved in it.
Wu Yize vs Barry Hawkins
The match over on table two on Thursday afternoon is another China vs England battle as the man who has been to two ranking event finals, Wu Yize, looks to make it through to another semi-final when he meets the experienced Barry Hawkins.
Hawkins had a good win over Jack Lisowski on Wednesday in a match where he led 4-0, watched Lisowski power back with three straight centuries before coming good to win 6-4 and you wonder if he will kick on now. He also has his work cut out because there is a school of thought that Wu could be playing with the house money after he came from 4-0 down to beat Judd Trump 6-4 in the last round. He restricted Trump to just 18 points in that six frame burst and if he comes out playing like that then he is going to take a lot of beating here. I’m a believer that the deeper Hawkins goes into a tournament the harder he is to shift but if someone is playing well enough to do it then that is Wu Yize so I’m happy to leave this one alone and just watch what should be another quality match.
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Evening Session
Shaun Murphy vs John Higgins
We have another heavyweight quarter final on the main table in the evening session when the British Open champion and Xi’an Grand Prix finalist Shaun Murphy looks to make it through to the last four of another tournament when he meets John Higgins in a blockbuster clash.
Murphy had to ride his luck a little in the first round proper of this tournament when the 14-year-old amateur Wang Xinzhong took him the distance and really should have beaten him but ‘The Magician’ is fast becoming one of those who needs beating early on else he’ll go very deep in a tournament and wins over Elliot Slessor and the defending champion Ding Junhui only strengthens that claim. Higgins has had some good wins this week but he was made to really battle against Scott Donaldson on Wednesday and you wonder how much that would have taken out of him. This is a tough gig for a man who is 50 with best of 11 matches every day and that has to play a part here. Murphy is flying and so playing every day is probably a good thing for him whereas Higgins has been a little below par over the last couple of months or so. I thought Murphy would win this anyway but that extended battle that Higgins was involved in on Wednesday makes me think that Murphy can win with a bit in hand with the way he is striking the ball and scoring. I’ll take him to cover a -1.5 frame handicap here.
Zak Surety vs Stephen Maguire
Two men who are outside of the top 16 meet in a huge match for both of them over on table two on Thursday evening when the Championship League winner Stephen Maguire faces a rising star Zak Surety who needs to keep winning to set himself up for the Players Series events.
Maguire is pretty much guaranteed in the first two of those and if he keeps on winning this week he will close right in on the top 16 in the rankings if not to get in for the UK Championship then certainly to push for a spot in The Masters. Surety had a wonderful end to last term and looks to have finally clicked into gear this time around too after a slow start to the season. His win over Neil Robertson in the previous round tells us that he is playing well if victories over Xiao Guodong and Aaron Hill before that didn’t, particularly the latter where he made a 147. Maguire has dumped out Kyren Wilson in this tournament so both are going well. I wonder if what is at stake here means that this will be a close match which goes quite deep. I wouldn’t be surprised if these two need a deciding frame but given what is at stake I’ll take a watching brief rather than a betting one.
Tips
Back S.Murphy (-1.5 frames) to beat J.Higgins for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
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