68 men arrived in Daqing last Sunday and now we are down to two. After a week of top quality snooker the two men who will battle it out for the International Championship title are John Higgins and Dave Gilbert.
The two men will battle it out over the slightly extended format of the best of 19 frames for the £125,000 first prize and one of the biggest titles in the game. In Gilbert’s case he will be battling for a place in the Champion of Champions too so he has an awful lot to play for.
Gilbert will take comfort from the fact that two of the three previous champions in this tournament played in the first semi-final and had the day off before the final as that is the route the Englishman has taken to this final.
You would have to say that Marco Fu aside the draw has been quite kind to Gilbert but that isn’t his fault. It is fair to say we are going to need to see Gilbert at his very best if he is to be competitive in this match but he has nothing to lose so we shouldn’t necessarily rule that prospect out.
Higgins has looked in insane form this week and his demolition of Mark Selby in the semi-final is unlikely to have taken too much out of him so he goes into this final as a heavy favourite.
Higgins hasn’t just taken care of Selby in this tournament, he has beaten Shaun Murphy, Joe Perry and Michael Holt on the way to this stage so he has got here the hard way but he has played so well he has never been under pressure in his campaign so far.
Higgins is a huge favourite for this final. The reason for that isn’t just because he is established at this stage of tournaments and has plenty of experience behind him but because he really has looked back to his very best this week and I’m expecting him to win a pretty one sided contest.
I’m already on Higgins as part of my pre-tournament outright bet so I’ve no need to go in on him again but anyone not yet on the Scot could do a lot worse than side with him to cover the 3.5 frame handicap.
I will go with one bet for the final though and that is on the total centuries market. Both men notched a ton in their semi-final wins and both have scored well throughout the tournament and with perfect conditions all week I’m expecting to see the tournament crowned with a couple of sizeable breaks.
Back Over 1.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Bet365
Blog snooker YTD: +59.14pts
