The World Championship continues inside the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on Tuesday when four first round matches get underway and two more players will book their spot in the second round of the big tournament.
Monday was a surprisingly dramatic day for reasons we might not have expected but hopefully that is all a thing of the past and the attention on the tables are left to the players involved. Two former champions headline the action.
Day 3 Recap
Monday was a day which will be remembered in history for the protestors disrupting the action but prior to that taking place we did see two matches come to a close. Hossein Vafaei came out like a house on fire and turned his 5-4 deficit into a 10-6 win against Ding Junhui, one of those frames was won by a break over 109.5 to give us our second winner of the tournament. Later in the day Mark Williams won all six frames to go from 5-4 down to Jimmy Robertson to a 10-5 winner and secure a third winner for us, although we had a loser in that match too. After the protesting took place Mark Allen secured a 10-5 win over Fan Zhengyi. One match is outstanding heading into Tuesday. That sees John Higgins leading David Grace 7-2.
In Play Betting
There were meant to be two matches halfway through their journey heading into Tuesday but the clash between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry wasn’t able to get going so we are left with just the one. I’m not convinced there is much left in the way of mileage in that though. John Higgins leads David Grace 7-2 and to be fair Grace did well to get two given how terribly he played. He clearly froze in the arena and while he might settle down with the game gone and play better on Tuesday, I don’t see him getting back into this one. Higgins wasn’t brilliant though so I’m not really in a rush to get involved in this one.
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Jack Lisowski vs Noppon Saengkham (Tuesday 10am & Wednesday 10am)
Two matches begin on Tuesday morning and the one which does so on Table One will see the talented Jack Lisowski beginning another World Championship campaign when he meets a dangerous Noppon Saengkham.
Lisowski is more than a dark horse for this title and will be out to show that here but Saengkham has polished off established performers in the past here and is one of those qualifiers who has nothing to lose now he is here. That should ensure we get an entertaining match in this one, particularly with both players familiar in the surroundings. I’m expecting to see an open match here. These two players generally attack the balls and this table will have a fresh cloth on it after the nonsense of Monday evening so the pockets will play a little more generous than usual. You can get 10/11 on there being three or more centuries in this one and that looks good to me.
Gary Wilson vs Elliot Slessor (Tuesday 10am & Tuesday 7pm)
Over on Table Two the match that begins in the morning session is the one which concludes in the evening as two good friends meet each other when the Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson takes on Elliot Slessor.
Wilson has had a good campaign, so much so that he has moved back into the top 16 and is here as a seed. As well as winning the Scottish Open, he made the semi-final at the WST Classic recently and has previously made the semi-final of this tournament so he has a lot going for him. Slessor has only played here once in the past and it was in the Covid year when there wasn’t a crowd so in terms of the full experience this will be his Crucible debut. I suspect this is the draw neither of these wanted with them being good friends and I always think these clashes are hard to call. If you go back to the qualifiers and watched the match between Joe Perry and Mark Davis you would see what I mean. I’m happy to leave this one alone.
Judd Trump vs Anthony McGill (Tuesday 2.30pm & Wednesday 2.30pm)
There is one match which gets underway in the afternoon session on Tuesday and it sees the former winner of the tournament, Judd Trump, going up against the man who has made the semi-finals here in the past in Anthony McGill.
When the draw was made this was one of the leading ties in the opening round and we should get a very good clash between two men who know what this place is all about and how to navigate their way through the draw. Trump hasn’t had the best season to date but he did win The Masters. McGill rarely seems to come here with much form behind him and then produces some elite snooker when he is here. You would imagine the Scot is going to need to be elite in this match because Trump has plenty of gears. On the flip side of that, Trump might well need to go through those though because McGill knows how to handle him. This one is a fascinating match. I’ll see how it pans out in the opening session before getting involved in it.
Tips
Back J.Lisowski vs N.Saengkham – 3 or more centuries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
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