The first round of the Shanghai Masters concludes on Wednesday when the final seven matches of the last 32 take place over two sessions in the Chinese city.
Stephen Maguire became the biggest casualty of the tournament so far when he was well beaten by Michael Holt on Tuesday and the likes of Shaun Murphy, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby and Mark Williams will be in action on Wednesday hoping to avoid suffering the same face as the Scot.
Tuesday saw comfortable wins for the likes of Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and Stuart Bingham and with a number of big names already through the conclusion to this tournament looks set to be an exciting one.
In the early session on Wednesday Mark Williams takes on Tom Ford while Neil Robertson goes up against Jamie Cope. Both matches are on the TV tables. Mark Allen faces Luca Brecel away from the cameras in what would be an appealing match were it on TV.
Mark Selby graces our screens in the later session of play. He takes on David Grace while on the other televised table Shaun Murphy goes up against Peter Ebdon. On the outside tables Michael White plays Mark Davis and Joe Perry faces Kyren Wilson.
Not much appeals in the early games in all honesty. Mark Williams has a wonderful record against Tom Ford and were the prices on the -1.5 frames a little better I’d have gambled on that but with Ford having played a match this week and Williams still recovering from a shoulder operation there’s enough reason to leave that alone and focus on the later session.
My bet there comes away from the TV tables but is on another man with a dominant head to head record in the form of Mark Davis. Davis has met Michael White on no fewer than seven occasions and the Sussex man has won the lot so he’ll be full of belief going into this match.
I’m a big fan of Michael White and expect him to be a big player in the game in the next decade or so but for whatever reason he looks off his game at the minute and whenever he comes up against Davis he seems to struggle. Admittedly White has improved since most of those matches but Davis is in good nick and he’s the value at odds against.
Back M.Davis to beat M.White for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Blog snooker YTD: +33.6pts
