We’re down to the one table in the Northern Ireland Open from here on in and that begins with the two semi-finals on Saturday. It is fair to say that the semi-final line up is one that nobody would have expected when the week began in Belfast but there is an opportunity for someone to land a major title and a decent cheque. We’re up to the best of 11 frames for these matches.
Mark King vs Kyren Wilson
Mark King came through a very scrappy and pretty poor affair in his quarter final eventually powering to a 5-3 win having trailed Hossein Vafaei Ayouri 3-2 at one stage and he’ll now meet a Kyren Wilson who looks in good form and who has shown his maturity and class under pressure in his last two matches to come through deciding frames against Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams.
King isn’t a regular at this stage of the tournament while Wilson has been to a few major semi-finals in the last 12-18 months or so and that recent experience could well be the difference here. I’m already on Wilson outright so I’ll be cheering him on through that but nothing else stands out in this match.
Barry Hawkins vs Anthony Hamilton
You probably wouldn’t know it based purely on the TV coverage but Barry Hawkins has come through quite nicely this week and he’ll be confident of making it to the final of this tournament having missed out to Judd Trump in the semi-final of the previous Home Nations event in England last month.
This is Hamilton’s first major semi-final in some seven years and that alone highlights how well he has done this week. You’d be hard pushed to say that Hamilton has been fluent at any stage this week but he has been prepared to outlast his opponents and has prevailed that way. You feel he’ll need more to come through here though.
I fancy Hawkins to win this but I respect what Hamilton has done enough to believe he’ll be competitive. I’d say the 2.5 frame handicap is about right so rather than take that with little wiggle room I think I’m going to take Hawkins to win 6-3 or 6-4 at bigger prices to a smaller stake. His class and quality should come through and those scorelines feel about right.
Tips
Back B.Hawkins to win 6-3 for a 1/10 stake at 6.00 with Betfred
Back B.Hawkins to win 6-4 for a 1/10 stake at 6.50 with Betfred
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