After another dramatic round of matches in the last 16 of the UK Championship we are left with the final eight players who will battle it out for the title over the weekend.
Each player left in the tournament will play every day from here on in until they are knocked out beginning with the quarter finals on Friday. We’ve got some names expected to have reached this stage and some who weren’t so it is an interesting mix.
All four quarter finals take place over two sessions of action inside the Barbican Centre in York on Friday so everything is set up for a thrilling day on the green baize.
The pick of the quarter finals comes in the afternoon session as John Higgins meets Neil Robertson in a heavyweight tussle. Robertson laid down a marker to the rest on Thursday when he tore Stephen Maguire apart with some devastating break building and some solid match play, all this after Maguire had set his stall out with a century of his own in the first frame.
John Higgins was nothing like as impressive as Robertson in the previous round but we can allow him a little bit of slack as he was playing a good friend in Jamie Burnett and that is never an easy thing to do. We know from the season so far that the ‘Wizard of Wishaw’ is in good nick though.
Maguire had no answer to Robertson’s brilliance but I suspect Higgins might do so I’m really looking forward to this clash I have to say. Higgins tends to get the better of Robertson but the way the Aussie is playing I honestly don’t see how this won’t be close. Over 9.5 frames looks a solid pick here.
The other match in the afternoon is an all-Asian battle between Liang Wenbo and Marco Fu. Followers of my outright bets will be on Fu at 14/1 to win this match courtesy of the quarter bet on him and let’s be honest that’s a great place to be right now.
Wenbo has staged two monumental comebacks in the previous two rounds to make it this far in the tournament and credit to him for that because both Judd Trump and Tom Ford looked all over him at times. A big concern for the Chinese player would be the state of his long game against Ford. It was worse than awful and with Fu’s tactical game you sense he’ll need to get in from distance here.
Fu is looking really good in this tournament. He’s taken out form horses in Dave Gilbert and Shaun Murphy with minimum fuss in the previous two rounds and he’s not stupid he will know this is a massive chance for him to reach another UK final. I expect him to win this based on what we’ve seen this week but I’m already on and there’s no need to top up.
Going into the evening and the world number one Mark Selby is in action. He takes on a Matt Selt who has a bee in his bonnet this week. Ronnie O’Sullivan made a comment on Eurosport about how Selt can’t win this tournament and that seems to have fired Selt himself up.
It has to be said he has his work cut out here though. Selby was in destructive form against Poomjaeng in the previous round and has been in good nick throughout the tournament apart from his match against Jamie Jones where he dodged a real banana skin.
I’m not convinced Selt is firing on all cylinders if I’m honest. He struggled massively early doors against Brecel and again getting over the line but in fairness he’s the underdog now with nothing to lose and that might make him a more dangerous animal.
I’ll leave the match itself alone but Selby is 10/11 to score a century in the match which looks a touch big to me. He has rattled in a ton in three of his four matches this week and with Selt not really being someone who is going to mess the table up Selby should get chances to make a big run here.
The last of the quarter finals is the one nobody would have picked pre-tournament as David Grace takes on Martin Gould. Grace has had a nice draw so far in this tournament and took advantage of a wretched Peter Ebdon last time out but I sense he’ll meet his match here.
Martin Gould wasn’t at his best against Joe Swail but still had far too much for him in the last 16 and the chances he’s going to get here I don’t see anything but him winning comfortably. Grace commented how he was really nervous early on in the previous round and he can’t afford that here. Gould won’t be as bad as Ebdon and I expect him to storm into the quarter finals.
Back J.Higgins vs N.Robertson – Over 9.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Back M.Selby Over 0.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back M.Gould (-2.5 frames) to beat D.Grace for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betway
Blog snooker YTD: +99.03pts
