The final day of World Championship qualifying takes place inside the English Institute of Sport on Wednesday when the second Judgement Day will be played out. At the end of play we will know all 16 qualifiers for the Crucible Theatre.
We saw on Tuesday just what drama and tension this final qualifying round can bring and it would be foolish to think we are going to see any different on Wednesday. As with Tuesday, four of the matches will be streamed live and the other four will have regular updates on the ‘Judgement Day’ show on YouTube.
Tuesday Recap
Eight players made their way through to the main draw and we got a huge surprise when Jak Jones upset Barry Hawkins 10-8. The first match through to the Crucible was Anthony McGill who saw off Cao Yupeng 10-6. Another upset occurred when Fan Zhengyi booked a debut appearance at the Crucible when he saw off Stephen Maguire 10-6 while Matt Selt beat Graeme Dott 10-6. There was another upset when Wu Yize booked a Crucible debut at the expense of Chris Wakelin who he beat 10-8. Si Jiahui was another Chinese player to reach the main draw for the first time when he beat Jordan Brown 10-7. The other matches went the distance with Ricky Walden beating Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in a classic and Noppen Saengkham outlasting Zhang Anda.
Streamed Matches
The top seed Ryan Day has made it through to the final qualifying round. He was anything but impressive in seeing off Ashley Hugill in the last round and will need to play much better if he is going to take care of the former Championship League winner Scott Donaldson in what is a really awkward match for the Welshman. Dave Gilbert has been a regular at the Crucible in recent seasons and if he is going to have another crack at world glory then he is going to need to overcome the former world finalist Matthew Stevens in a standout match.
The other two matches on the live stream tables will see the former Shootout winner Hossein Vafaei looking for the win which will take him back to the Crucible when he meets a Jackson Page who had a taste of the elite venue last year and will want more of it. The other streamed table match is massive for Mark Davis. He doesn’t just reach the Crucible with a win over Joe Perry but he remains on tour as well. Perry is playing to be back at the iconic venue.
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Other Four Matches
That leaves us with four matches away from the streamed cameras but don’t worry if you hit up YouTube you’ll get the major updates in all of these games. Andrew Higginson is looking to be a rare amateur to make it through to the Crucible. He would secure a return to the tour if he does. David Grace is the man standing in his way. We are guaranteed a Chinese debutant at the Crucible as Pang Junxu will look to make it there for the first time when he goes up against Xu Si.
Anthony Hamilton is a man who hasn’t actually played at the Crucible for a while. The last time he qualified for the main draw he had to pull out on health grounds so he will be extra motivated to beat the former European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson. The other match will see Zhou Yuelong looking to justify his ranking when he goes up against Elliot Slessor in a clash which the Chinese player will be a warm favourite for.
Betting
Andrew Higginson has withstood some good performances from good players in the last two rounds to see off Louis Heathcote and particularly Joe O’Connor who has had such a good season that he played in the Players Championship and only just missed out on a spot at the Tour Championship. We shouldn’t necessarily be surprised at how well Higginson has played in this tournament because he was a professional for a long time it is just that now he is doing it as an amateur.
In those wins I mentioned, Higginson made 14 50+ breaks and a century and that form whoever we are talking about. You could argue that on talent grounds Grace is the easier of the three opponents for Higginson. Grace hasn’t’ scored too badly in this event but his safety play is probably the strength of his game but how well he can get the better of Higginson in that department remains to be seen. I’m a little surprised that Higginson is the odds against price that he is here but I’m happy to be on board that.
Tips
Back A.Higginson to beat D.Grace for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
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