We’re down to the quarter final stage of the International Championship as the eight remaining players play it out over two sessions of play on Thursday for the right to make the semi-finals and the two session battles.
There were some strong performances in the last 16 on Wednesday which included a fantastic win for John Higgins who beat Shaun Murphy 6-0. His reward for that is a quarter final with Joe Perry. Mark Selby and Neil Robertson eased through and meet in the pick of the quarter finals while in the other half of the draw Mark Allen will play the deciding frame king Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Marco Fu takes on Dave Gilbert.
The tournament has reached the important part now. From here on in only the TV tables are used and that will create a different atmosphere in the venue. The men and the boys will officially be separated from this point.
The early session sees the top half of the draw played out. I would expect Mark Allen to have too much for Un-Nooh but the Thai is in decent touch at the minute so it is by no means a certainty but I’ll let that one run its natural course.
The other match in the first session sees our pre-tournament pick Marco Fu looking for a spot in the semi-final. He takes on Dave Gilbert in a match he should win and I think he will win. Fu hit three centuries and an 84 in his win over Jimmy Robertson in the previous round and when Fu is scoring heavily he is a match for absolutely anyone.
Gilbert has done well to make it this far but he’s had a kind draw it has to be said. He’s only made one break over 70 in his last two matches and if he’s going to win this one he will have to score a whole lot heavier than that. It won’t be easy for him to do that though because Fu’s tactical game is up there with most so I’m expecting the Hong Kong man to come through with a bit to spare.
The later session should be full of high quality snooker especially on the main table where world champions Mark Selby and Neil Robertson meet. You would think this would be a really close match but I’ve just got a feeling that Robertson isn’t firing on all cylinders at the minute and with that I think Selby is massively overpriced here.
Selby has come through a tricky draw with plenty in hand. He has scored well and battled just as well in the scrappier frames which is his MO in many ways. You know when Robertson is on top form because he is a century machine and the fact he hasn’t hit one in his last two matches suggests to me the Australian is just below par. With that in mind I’ll take Selby here.
John Higgins’ performance against Shaun Murphy in the previous round was the sort to make people stand up and take notice. He blitzed Murphy with a barrage of scoring and now he faces a man he has never lost to competitively in Joe Perry.
Perry is a much improved player these days but there isn’t a single part of his game that equals Higgins and that has to be a worry. Higgins is another one whose form you can judge by his scoring and with three centuries in his last two matches his scoring is very good.
Perry only made one break over 52 against Woollaston on Wednesday and he wasn’t much more prolific against Dominic Dale in the previous round. He’ll have to score lights out to compete in this one but there is no sign of that happening so I’m with the Scot for the second day in a row.
Back M.Fu (-1.5 frames) to beat D.Gilbert for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back J.Higgins (-1.5 frames) to beat J.Perry for a 5/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back M.Selby to beat N.Robertson for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with Coral
Blog snooker YTD: +55.09pts
