After 11 days of action which has seen 126 matches played we are down to the final of the UK Championship and it is an all-overseas final as Liang Wenbo will take on Neil Robertson for both the title and the hugely significant £150,000 first prize inside the Barbican Centre in York on Sunday.
Liang Wenbo will be playing the biggest match of his career in this match but he could well be freerolling his way through the final. I say that because twice he’s been down and out in the tournament only to bounce back and come through but also because his win in the semi-final secured his debut spot at The Masters next month.
Neil Robertson took a little while to get going in this tournament but he has been at top level in the last three rounds and it is no surprise he is a hugely short priced favourite to win the title for a second time.
Wenbo came through a marathon epic of a semi-final against David Grace. Nerves and pressure got to them both and it was a pretty awful spectacle from a quality point of view but gripping from a drama one. Wenbo eventually came from 4-2 down to win 6-4 but he’ll need the game which saw him beat Fu in the quarter final if he is to keep this close let alone actually win.
Robertson looks in wonderful form at the minute. He has made seven centuries in the tournament so far but perhaps his most significant breaks were the three in the semi-final which pinched frames from Mark Selby. Just watching Selby’s performance in that match you can really tell there is a fear in Robertson’s opponents, an aura about him if you like and that is a great place for the Aussie to be in.
The second week of this tournament has been a bit of a car crash from a betting point of view but I’ve come this far so I’ll go with one for the final in the hope of getting something back from the event.
I guess we’ve got to ask ourselves two questions going into this final. The first is how much will Wenbo have left in his locker after a tiring semi-final and the second is how nervous will he be. Not much and very are the obvious answers.
We have to acknowledge that Wenbo will be under no pressure here and as a result he is capable of playing much better than he has since he went 3-0 up on Fu and a look at the head to head between the two which is only 4-3 to Robertson shows that when the pressure is off he is a good player but these are different circumstances.
First of all it is a final. Liang has played major finals before but not to this scale but also because Robertson’s long game is looking so awesome there is going to be untold pressure every time the Chinese star attempts either a safety shot or a long pot. Any pots he takes on he will have to get and any safeties he tries he will have to execute well. Although there’s no pressure on Wenbo in the match that scenario provides its own pressure.
With all that in mind I fancy Robertson to win this final and win it well. His semi-final was more like a practice session in length and intensity so he has plenty more to give and we saw him take Mark Allen apart over 19 frames in Coventry last month. I expect him to do the same to his stablemate here too.
Back N.Robertson (-4.5 frames) to beat L.Wenbo for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
