Some excellent snooker was played in the last 32 of the International Championship on Tuesday and we are set for even more top quality stuff in the last 16 on Wednesday as the tournament really begins to build to a thrilling conclusion.
It was a good day for followers of this blog with two winning bets out of the three we had but it wasn’t such a bright one for the likes of Ding Junhui, Barry Hawkins and Mark Williams who all met an early demise.
There are eight matches in the last 16 on Wednesday and once again they will be played out in full over two sessions of action. The early session sees no fewer than four world champions in action as Graeme Dott, Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy and John Higgins continue on their quest for the title.
The later session might only contain one world champion in Mark Selby but there are a number of tournament winners in action to compliment the stellar cast.
In terms of bets there are three I like over the course of the day, one of which is a man I’m already on outright in John Higgins. He has looked good so far this week and banged in a couple of centuries to finish off his win over Michael Holt in the previous round.
Higgins faces the man he beat to win the world title six years ago in Shaun Murphy. Murphy is getting to the stage of the tournament where he begins to flatter to deceive and that would be a concern for me. In truth though Murphy hasn’t been his usual power scoring solid self this week and I’m not sure he beats Higgins in a tactical battle. In fact I’m pretty sure he doesn’t.
Higgins has shown he is scoring well this week and he’ll always have a good tactical game so I’m not sure how Murphy gets enough chances to win this unless he dramatically improves on what he’s shown so far.
There will be a youngster in the quarter finals of the tournament as Thepchaiya Un-Nooh faces Zhou Yuelong for a place there and I see this one being quite a close match. Un-Nooh has come through two deciders this week already while Yuelong has been scoring well enough to keep this close if he doesn’t actually come through.
I’m expecting plenty of frames to be won in one visit here and it has the feel of a punch and then counter punch match about it so I’m happy to take over 9.5 frames in this one.
Finally I’m going to take over 9.5 frames in the match between Mark Allen and Tian Pengfei. Pengfei is probably China’s best chance of a winner this week now and he’ll get good support from the big crowds who have flocked to see this tournament. Pengfei made the final of the recent European Tour event and has backed that up with good form in Asia since.
Mark Allen has come through the draw nicely so far without being fully tested but I fancy his Chinese opponent has the confidence and the scoring power to keep this tight. I would probably fancy the class of Allen to prevail but I fully expect to see at least 10 frames in this one before he does.
Back J.Higgins to beat S.Murphy for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Coral
Back T.Un-Nooh vs Z.Yuelong – Over 9.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Back T.Pengfei vs M.Allen – Over 9.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Paddy Power
