The Welsh Open is down to the last 16 stage and despite the event taking on what was considered more of a lottery format we are left with 12 of the world’s top 16 players and also the 17th ranked player so the field from here on in is very strong.
Big name exits have been few and far between in this tournament so far but we did lose three former world champions on Wednesday when Shaun Murphy, Ken Doherty and Graeme Dott all met their match in the last 32.
There are some great matches for us to enjoy over four sessions of play in the last 16 on Thursday and it all begins with what could be one of the best of the lot when Marco Fu and Neil Robertson do battle.
They last met at The Masters but we can’t take too much from that because Fu climbed out of his sick bed to play the match but prior to that match Fu held his own against the Australian and that is genuinely a match which could go either way. Were it not for the fact that there are a few bets in this round I might chance Fu but I’ll steer clear here.
The other match in the morning session sees Martin Gould look to continue his good recent form when he takes on Ben Woollaston. These two met in the German Masters a couple of weeks ago when Gould won 5-0 on the way to landing his first major title and that is going to give him some confidence.
Woollaston has his own reasons to be confident. He was the finalist in this tournament 12 months ago and has come through against some solid opponents this week but I don’t see the area of his game where he is better than Gould and that has to be a worry.
Gould has won their last four meetings and the last three haven’t been close at all and I think he will win this one as well. We won’t get rich backing him on his own and we’re not yet at the stage where we can take handicaps apart from rare occasions so I’ll double someone up with him in the afternoon.
That person is the defending champion John Higgins. Higgins has cruised into this last 16. He has only dropped one frame in the tournament so far and looked imperious at times. In fairness Higgins’ opponent Michael White has come through nicely himself. He hasn’t been as dominant but he has played some good stuff so this should be a good match.
I sense White might meet his match here. He has a woeful record against John Higgins and I don’t think that surprises anyone. Higgins is an all-time great with a superb all-round game so the fact White has only won one frame in their two best of nine meetings is to be expected really. I’m not expecting this to be too much closer so I’m happy to double Higgins up with Gould for a solid odds against punt.
The other match first up in the afternoon session sees a rampant looking Ronnie O’Sullivan taking on the lowest ranked player left in the tournament in the form of China’s Yu Delu. In fairness to Delu he does have a win over O’Sullivan and it came over this distance but he’s going to need to play lights out, or hope something happens to O’Sullivan in the 15 or so hours since he last played in order to stay close here.
O’Sullivan has been awesome so far this week. He has only dropped one frame in the tournament and he has rammed in five centuries including that infamous 146 break against Barry Pinches and at times he has looked unplayable.
It has to be said that neither Tian Pengfei nor Jimmy Robertson made life too hard for O’Sullivan in the last two rounds but you could see they were both intimidated from the off and I would imagine Delu will be too. Amazingly you can get 10/11 on O’Sullivan winning this for the loss of no more than a frame. That looks too good to pass up.
There are two more matches in the afternoon and I like both from a betting point of view. The first sees Mark Allen taking on Barry Hawkins. These two also met at The Masters when Mark Allen was really disappointed with his performance in a quarter final defeat.
If anything that could spur Allen onto making sure he turns up in this match. He doesn’t need to improve on anything he’s done this week though. He has looked really good. I’m not surprised by that I have to say. In most interviews he credits Terry Griffiths for the strength of his game and Griffiths is on site this week working for local TV.
Ironically Hawkins is another player who has worked with Griffiths so this is a Griffiths derby if you like. Hawkins has come through some solid opponents this week but nobody has really played well against him. I fancy Allen will this time and if he does I think he’ll have too much for the Hawk here.
On the other table at the same time Mark Williams continues his tilt for a third Welsh title when he takes on Mark Selby. You’d be pushing it to say Williams has been at his best this week but he has got better as the week has gone on which bodes well.
Mark Selby has come through a couple of battles in the last two rounds but that was to be expected against Peter Lines and Fergal O’Brien so he will probably enjoy playing someone a little more fluent here.
Williams might be more fluent but he is no easy opponent as Selby knows only too well as the Welshman actually has a decent record against him and given that Williams has been improving match by match I’m inclined to have a small punt on the former champion here.
The evening session sees Judd Trump facing Joe Perry in a match Trump should win but I can’t get that quote he gave at The Masters out of my head about him not being as good as a favourite. The other match sees Luca Brecel against Ding Junhui. I’m on the Belgian outright so I’m not going in again so I’ll stick with the earlier action for a bet.
Back M.Gould to beat B.Woollaston x J.Higgins to beat M.White for a 4/10 stake at 2.33 with Unibet
WON – Back R.O’Sullivan (-2.5 frames) to beat Y.Delu for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Paddy Power
WON – Back M.Allen to beat B.Hawkins for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfred
Back M.Williams to beat M.Selby for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Coral
