The first round of the World Championship continues on Wednesday when three more sessions of action take place inside the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on a day where three more players will book their spot in the second round.
We’ve seen the majority of the big hitters in the tournament already but on Wednesday the winners of the last two tournaments will grace the stage when Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy get their campaigns underway.
Day 4 Recap
Two men booked their path into the second round on Tuesday with John Higgins being the first of them. He cruised past David Grace without the need of an interval as he won 10-3. Things were much closer in the other match as Gary Wilson withstood a charge from his good friend Elliot Slessor to finally come through 10-8. Three matches are outstanding. Jack Lisowski will resume with a 6-3 lead on Noppon Saengkham while Anthony McGill holds the same advantage over Judd Trump. Joe Perry is slightly further clear of Robert Milkins. He leads 7-2.
In Play Betting
There are three matches outstanding and in play but only two of them are back on the baize on Wednesday. I’m already on the match between Jack Lisowski and Noppon Saengkham to have three or more centuries but their first session only had one although annoyingly there were five other breaks of 50 or more. The other match that returns to conclude on Wednesday sees Judd Trump looking to overturn a 6-3 deficit. McGill is now a warm favourite for that match and we are going to need to see a serious improvement from Trump if he is going to get back into it because McGill looks in fine order in the first session. I wouldn’t completely rule Trump out but the season he has had to date suggests he might be the biggest casualty of the event so far.
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.
Kyren Wilson vs Ryan Day (Wednesday 10am & Wednesday 7pm)
The one match on Wednesday which plays both sessions on the one day sees Kyren Wilson going up against a Ryan Day, who agonisingly missed out on an automatic spot here as a seeded player but came through qualifying to take his place in the draw.
Day did have a little bit of fortune in qualifying in that his opponent in the final qualifying round, Scott Donaldson, had to withdraw after four frames due to a medical issue. To be fair to Day, he had made a 146 break in the four frames that as played and was looking in decent order and he’ll be hoping to take that form into this tournament with him. Wilson will be pleased to be here. We heard about the issues he was having with his son at the Tour Championship but we saw there that he can still play decent snooker with him making the final there before you sensed that events away from the table caught up with him and he had no more to give in the final session. This looked the more intriguing match of the first round when the draw was made, largely because nobody knows which Day will turn up. If the one which won the British Open shows up Wilson has issues but if the indifferent version turns up then Wilson will win like the Crucible specialist he is touted as. The one thing we know about Day is he scores. He had that 146 in qualifying and at the Tour Championship he made a 147 and a 16-red clearance and over a best of 19 I’ve got to think he gets in at some point and fills his boots. Betway have his top break line at 106.5 and I think he’ll cover that given the scoring power he possesses right now.
Mark Selby vs Matt Selt (Wednesday 2.30pm & Thursday 1pm)
The penultimate match to get underway in the first round sees the former champion Mark Selby, who is defending the winning cheque from two years ago this year, taking on the former Indian Open winner Matt Selt.
Selt has already seen off one former winner of this event having beaten Graeme Dott in the final qualifying round and he’ll be looking to take care of the biggest scalp of the lot when he goes up against a Selby who has lifted the English Open and WST Classic titles this season already and looks to be gearing up nicely for this ultimate test which he has relished so often in the past. We haven’t seen a lot of Selt recently to judge his form which probably means that Selby is a deserved warm favourite for this one. I’ve invested a fair bit on Selby in the outright market so I’ll let hat ride and see if we can get involved at the halfway mark.
Shaun Murphy vs Si Jiahui (Wednesday 7pm & Thursday 7pm)
The last of the first round matches to get going is a repeat of a controversial first round clash from the UK Championship last season where the form horse Shaun Murphy takes on the Chinese debutant Si Jiahui, the man Murphy claimed shouldn’t be involved in the UK Championship after he knocked him out.
Murphy has backtracked on those comments but everyone knew the two were going to get paired against each other. Jiahui was an amateur back then but he is a professional now and he came through three qualifying matches to book his place at the Crucible for the first time. Si scored very well in qualifying and you sense he’ll need to do that if he is to hang with Murphy, particularly if the Murphy who won the Players Championship and the Tour Championship rocks up here. In fact, if the Players Championship version of Murphy shows up Si Jiahui has no chance. I don’t think that version will turn up though because those weeks are once a season events at most so it is whether Murphy comes off the top of his game enough to keep JIahui interested. Given the narrative around this I’m happy to leave this one alone until the halfway point.
Tips
Back R.Day – Over 106.5 break for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Betway
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
