The third day of action at the World Championship sees the first round continuing inside the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on Monday on a day where three more spots in the second round of the tournament will be secured.
We have two matches at their halfway mark heading into Monday and three other matches will begin their journey, one of which will start and end over the three sessions of action that we have to look forward to.
Day 2 Recap
It became a dramatic day on Sunday after starting out in relatively calm fashion. Stuart Bingham was the first man to make it through to the second round on Sunday when he took care of Dave Gilbert 10-4 in the morning session. Neil Robertson produced two 146 breaks in the space of three frames in the afternoon to see off Wu Yize 10-3 and give us our first winner of the competition with the Australian comfortably covering the handicap.
The evening session was less good to us though as two outrights dropped out when Ali Carter was beaten 10-6 by Jak Jones and Ricky Walden went down in a deciding frame to Luca Brecel. Two matches played out their first session on Sunday before coming back to conclude on Monday. Ding Junhui opened up a 5-4 lead on Hossein Vafaei while Jimmy Robertson leads Mark Williams by the same score.
In Play Betting
Two matches are in play heading into Monday and both are nicely poised at 5-4. I’m not going to invest in the one between Ding Junhui and Hossein Vafaei because the standard in the first session was ordinary to say the least and whoever brings something close to their best game will come out on top but who knows who that will be. I do think someone might skip clear if they have their best game with them though so I’m not convinced this one stays close.
The other match is much more to my fancy though. That sees Mark Williams looking to overturn a 5-4 deficit at the hands of Jimmy Robertson. I took Williams to cover a 3.5 frame handicap based on their head-to-head record but he would need to win 6-1 from here which is probably out of the water now. From what we saw in the opening session both men look to be playing well and this one is going to be decided on those frames which aren’t put away in one visit which the other one wins. Robertson has already had a couple of those but Williams showed in frame eight when he made a century that he is still capable of scoring well. I think we’re in for a tight and tense afternoon and from here I don’t see this being won easier than 10-8. Robertson would have to win 5-3 from here to have this won easier than 10-8. Williams would have to win 6-2. This feels closer than that now so over 17.5 frames looks a good thing in this one.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for this tournament! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Mark Allen vs Fan Zhengyi (Monday 10am & Monday 7pm)
The first of the three matches to begin on Monday does so in the morning session which means it concludes in the evening when the man of the season so far in Mark Allen goes up against the Chinese debutant Fan Zhengyi.
Allen has been superb this season but that has piled the pressure on his shoulders for both this match and the tournament. Even though he has had such a great campaign it won’t mean as much if he doesn’t go deep here and at least threaten a first world title. Zhengyi has already had a good campaign. He took care of Stephen Maguire in the final qualifying round and Maguire was actually playing well heading into that match. We know from last season when Fan won the European Masters that he can play the game but whether he can go toe-to-toe with someone of the class of Allen over 19 frames is a different story. I want to see Allen adopt a more aggressive approach before I get involved in him in this tournament though so I’ll sit this one out.
John Higgins vs David Grace (Monday 2.30pm & Tuesday 2.30pm)
The afternoon session match to start on Monday sees the former champion John Higgins starting out a quest for another title when he faces the local player David Grace who had a good qualifying campaign to get here.
Higgins’ record around here needs absolutely no highlighting. It stands the test of time with anyone and there is talk that he has found his game again in practice leading into this tournament. Grace is here for the second time and will be looking for a first win at this venue. He’ll also be looking for a first win over Higgins as well having lost all three matches they have played, the latest of which came in Gibraltar last season. I guess Grace doesn’t have a whole lot to lose here so it will be interesting to see how big the gulf between the two players are. Usually you would say it is fairly big but then when you add in the Crucible factor it could be even bigger. I expect Higgins to win this and have a fair bit in hand but the odds reflect that so I’ll watch the first session and see what comes of it and then see if we can get involved in the second one.
Robert Milkins vs Joe Perry (Monday 7pm & Tuesday 7pm)
The last of the three matches to begin on Monday sees two veterans of the game doing battle when the last two winners of the Welsh Open collide as Robert Milkins takes on the man he replaced as the champion of that event in Joe Perry.
Milkins has been in fine form in 2023, making the semi-final of the German Masters and then winning the Welsh Open. Such has been the quality of his season he made it to the Players Championship and into the Tour Championship but if there is a concern it would be how much he has left in the tank. Perry played well in the qualifiers but had to come through that emotional match against Mark Davis. That would have served him well in this one given that these two are friends too. Milkins might not relish this match though because he is 11-2 behind on the head-to-head and 59-35 behind in the frame count. These two have been around for so long they met at this stage of this tournament in 2004. Perry won that 10-7 and as the fresher man I think he’ll repeat that victory here. I’m a little concerned that Perry is working for the BBC this week but Milkins looked like he’d run his race for the season at the Tour Championship so at odds against I’ll take Perry in this one.
Tips
Back M.Williams vs J.Robertson – Over 17.5 frames for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
Back it here:
Back J.Perry to beat R.Milkins for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
