After four frenzied days of action in the Welsh Open we are down to the quarter final stage of the event with the eight remaining men all eyeing up a major prize to store under their hats ahead of the Crucible run in.
Having battled it out over the crapshoot best of seven style for the first four days I’m sure everyone left in the tournament will be delighted that the format increases to the best of nine for this round and even further for the later rounds.
The last day of best of sevens accounted for some more big name casualties with Judd Trump the biggest one to fall. He exited at the hands of Joe Perry while the defending champion John Higgins lost to Michael White and the German Masters winner Martin Gould was shocked by Ben Woollaston.
That leaves us with four good looking quarter finals with two of them having the potential to be very special indeed. They all begin with one of those with huge potential as a resurgent Ding Junhui takes on Neil Robertson in an international clash.
Ding has been absent without leave in the majority of big events over the last 18 months but he looks to be back to something vaguely resembling significant form this week and he has come past the likes of Matt Selt and Luca Brecel largely without too much fuss but here comes the acid test to his recovery of form.
Robertson has cruised into this round almost without being seen but he’s played some decent snooker in his own right. His scoring hasn’t been as ultra-heavy like we are used to seeing but the format probably accounts a lot for that. I expect him to get stronger and stronger from here.
Amazingly Robertson hasn’t won any of the last five meetings between these two but most of those came when Ding was at the top of the game and flowing nicely. That isn’t the case no longer so I suspect the man from China could be vulnerable in this one.
I’m going against the head to head here and I’m going to take Robertson to come through and cover a 1.5 frame handicap. I suspect if Ding is good enough to get to four he’ll go on and win but I don’t think he will be. I fancy Robertson by a comfortable margin here.
The next match is the one everyone will be talking about as Mark Selby and Ronnie O’Sullivan clash for the second time in little over a month. They met at this stage of The Masters and O’Sullivan won on that occasion but if there is an opponent who can grind the Rocket down it is the one he meets here.
O’Sullivan has looked flawless this week and to all known logic you would expect him to win this match but Selby can raise his game and go with O’Sullivan so rather than risk any bets here I’m going to sit back and watch what will hopefully be a cracking match.
The evening session sees Mark Allen taking on Michael White and Ben Woollaston looking for back to back Welsh semi-finals when he takes on Joe Perry. I can’t really find anything I like in the latter match although my sixth sense tells me there could be some value in Woollaston but I’ll focus on the other match for a second bet in the day.
Mark Allen has been really impressive in this tournament and he held himself together very well in the previous round to see off Barry Hawkins, as he did earlier in the event when he needed a deciding frame against Robin Hull.
Allen isn’t the only one who has been impressive this week though. Michael White is getting better and better and has accounted for two top 16 players and will be after the hat-trick here. White’s win over Higgins in the last 16 was one of his best given how emphatic it was.
I think this one will be a really close match. I’m going to stop short of backing White to win because he is the last Welshman remaining which could be significant but I will take over 7.5 frames here. I don’t see either running away with this. Both love a scrap and both are scoring well so I’m expecting this one to go 5-3 either way or the full nine frames.
WON – Back N.Robertson (-1.5 frames) to beat D.Junhui for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back M.Allen vs M.White – Over 7.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with BetVictor
