Two second round matches conclude and three more get underway on another intriguing day of action inside the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on Saturday as the World Championship moves into a second week of snooker.
We get to see four former champions of this tournament on show on the two tables across the three sessions of action on Saturday as well as a couple of dangerous challengers who will be hoping to make this year the one they go all the way.
Day 7 Recap
We saw just the one match completed over the course of the Friday play and it was as comfortable as you would think it could get for Dave Gilbert as he got the better of Robert Milkins 13-4 having completely dominated the second session. Three matches are in play heading into Saturday with Judd Trump needing just two frames to book a quarter final spot as he leads Tom Ford 11-5 heading into their final session. Jak Jones holds a 9-7 advantage over Si Jiahui while after the first session of their match Stephen Maguire leads Shaun Murphy 5-3.
It was a pretty poor betting day for us with Dave Gilbert annoyingly making the one break in the match which went over the 124.5 line that we took the under on. He just pulled away into a position where he completely relaxed and his cueing flowed nicely as a result. Thankfully we’re on him outright so him winning isn’t a bad thing but it does leave us with a bit of work to do in the match betting as a result.
In Play Betting
We have three in play matches to have a look at heading into Saturday. I’m not really worried about getting involved in the match between Judd Trump and Tom Ford because there is no way back for Ford from 11-5 down. He can score well enough though to maybe keep Trump waiting but at the same time if he loses the first frame his head could go down and this one could be over within half an hour of the restart.
I do like bets in the other two matches though and we get going with the match between Stephen Maguire and Shaun Murphy where I am surprised that with a two frame lead that Maguire is 10/11 to come out on top. I’m not a massive fan of Murphy working for the BBC during these events and he has a bit of work to do here. To be fair, the first session was terrible and both will improve on that but Maguire will improve with a two frame start and if he maintains that through the second session I think he’ll last home here.
I also think odds against on Si Jiahui to overturn a 9-7 deficit against Jak Jones is attractive. This is Jones’ fourth match in this tournament. He scored well in the final qualifying round against Zhou Yuelong but the other two completed ones he didn’t score great and he has played badly in this match. He leads 9-7 because he stole four on the black so he could easily be 11-5 down. Si hasn’t really got going in this one but I don’t think he’ll continue to play badly and if he can get level before the interval and in front soon after I expect him to pull away from a man who won’t be troubling him in the scoring department.
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John Higgins vs Mark Allen (Saturday 2.30pm, Sunday 2.30pm & Monday 7pm)
There is only one second round match which pits two seeded players against each other and it gets underway on Saturday afternoon when the former winner John Higgins goes up against one of the players of the season in Mark Allen.
These two have been locked in a similar spot in the rankings throughout the season which has meant that this will be the sixth time they have met in this campaign. Allen has won three of the five so far and importantly won their last meeting at the Tour Championship where he prevailed 10-7. Higgins did play better against Jamie Jones in the first round here though which will give him some confidence. Allen kind of fell over the line against Robbie Williams in the previous round and you sense he’ll need to raise his level for this one but that is likely to happen now that he feels into the tournament so we should be in for a cracker of a contest here. I’ll see how both feel each other out in the opening session before I get stuck into this one.
Joe O’Connor vs Kyren Wilson (Saturday 7pm, Sunday 7pm & Monday 1pm)
The evening match to begin on table one sees the former finalist Kyren Wilson continuing his quest to go one better than that this year when he goes up against the debutant Joe O’Connor who is eyeing up the last eight on his debut in the event.
O’Connor had a good win over Mark Selby in the first round when a mid-match surge got him in front and he held off the former winner in the second session. It is harder to judge the form of Wilson though because he was all over Dominic Dale in the opening round and while Wilson scored well, he really didn’t have to work too hard for too many of his chances. With that in mind, I definitely want to have a look at the first session of this one before getting involved, although I so expect Wilson to win and win pretty well.
Jack Lisowski vs Stuart Bingham (Saturday 7pm, Sunday 2.30pm & Monday 7pm)
It might be that the pick of the matches that gets going on Saturday is the one between the two qualifiers which sees the infinitely talented Jack Lisowski going up against the former champion Stuart Bingham for a spot in the quarter final.
Lisowski had to really show everything he has in his mental locker in the first round when he watched Ding Junhui level up their encounter at 9-9 before playing a nearly flawless deciding frame. Bingham had things a little easier in his win over Gary Wilson but Wilson struggled from the outset. Bingham wasn’t brilliant in the match but once he got in front he kept the pressure on, but whether he can do that against a Lisowski who is playing well and who will be dangerous from distance remains to be seen. This is another one where I’ll see how it starts before I get involved.
Tips
Back S.Maguire to beat S.Murphy for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back S.Jiahui to beat J.Jones for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
