We are down to the last 16 in the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters with all eight matches being played out across two sessions of action in the Kingdom on Wednesday with real ranking implications on offer for many taking to the baize.
The money starts to really rocket up in this tournament now and the winners are guaranteed £50,000 and would still be in line to win 10 times that over the remainder of the week so things are getting very serious. As such, we go up to the best of 11 frames now.
Afternoon Session
We have four matches in the afternoon session and the pick of the games in the earlier part of the day sees the Shanghai Masters champion Judd Trump going up against one of his best friends in Jack Lisowski for whom this is a big match as he will return to the top 16 should he win it. Neil Robertson is another who will be looking to push on and make it back into the top 16 and while he is a few wins away from getting there, he will fancy his chances against Gary Wilson. Shaun Murphy has reached the final of the Shanghai Masters this term and he takes on Elliot Slessor while two unseeded players battle in the other game when Scott Donaldon faces a Xiao Guodong who took care of the world number one Mark Allen in the previous round.
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Evening Session
The world champion Kyren Wilson will headline the action in the later part of the day. The recently crowned Xi’an Grand Prix winner will be looking to make another big quarter final when he goes up against Jimmy Robertson, who saw off John Higgins on Tuesday. Ronnie O’Sullivan cruised into the last 16 and he now takes on a Zhang Anda who made four centuries in five frames in the previous round. That could well turn out to be the best match of the day if both perform how they can. Mark Williams struggled over the line on Tuesday and he meets Stuart Bingham who could be just two more wins from getting back into the top 16. Si Jiahui is another who is potentially two wins from getting into the elite band and he’ll be looking to claim the first of those at the expense of his countryman Pang Junxu.
Betting
Pang Junxu served me well on Tuesday but he was given so much help by a Luca Brecel who couldn’t have looked any less interested in the match if he had tried. I’m not sure Si Jiahui will let Pang have as easy a time of it when they meet in the evening session on Wednesday. I say that because the former World Championship semi-finalist is not only playing well at the minute but he is now just a couple of wins from potentially being in the top 16 of the world rankings for the first time.
Pang missed some easy balls against Brecel in the previous round but the Belgian just wasn’t at the races at all. Si has beaten Graeme Dott 5-0 and Tom Ford 5-2 in the last two rounds so he’ll fancy his chances here. I think there is more progression in the scoring in Si Jiahui and if he is afforded the chances which Brecel wasn’t able to take then I would expect him to run out a comfortable winner. Pang just looked like a player who wasn’t flowing or firing on all cylinders and unless that has changed in the space of 24 hours I see him being comfortably beaten here.
Tips
Back S.Jiahui (-1.5 frames) to beat P.Junxu for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Unibet
