The first of two Tuesday’s of World Championship action sees yet more big names in play on another busy day inside the Crucible Theatre. In total there are three former world champions taking to the green baize and another former finalist in what should be another great day of snooker.
Monday review
Monday was an up and down day for our bets. The bet which was carried over from Sunday lost as Michael White made his way to the exit door, dumped out by Sam Baird in some style it has to be said, but we did land the centuries in the Higgins vs Day match. They were in inside five frames which was nice.
Ricky Walden, the first of our outrights to compete in the tournament, made it through with a hard fought 10-8 win over Robbie Williams while there was a much easier win for Mark Williams, who beat Graeme Dott 10-4. Ronnie O’Sullivan was given a scare and made to work hard by Dave Gilbert but he eventually came through 10-7.
Two matches began on Monday and will finish on Tuesday. John Higgins leads Ryan Day 7-2 and Mark Selby leads Robert Milkins by the same scoreline. If he comes out attacking Day might restore some respectability but Milkins had plenty of chances to come out much closer, if not ahead and sadly for the Milkman the race has started and he’s been left in the stalls.
Neil Robertson vs Michael Holt
All eyes will be on Neil Robertson to see how he begins his campaign on Tuesday morning when he takes on a Michael Holt who has already shown Ronnie O’Sullivan this season what he can do. Mark Williams awaits the winner in the next round.
You’ve got to think over this distance that Robertson will run out too good for Holt but there is no reason why Holt can’t be competitive early on if he has a go and goes for his shots like he did that night he beat O’Sullivan in the World Grand Prix.
Robertson is giving up 4.5 frames with the bookies and if I’m honest I fancy this to be a 10-4/10-5ish sort of scoreline for the Australian so there isn’t really much scope on that line. With the centuries priced skinny I’ll leave this match alone.
Mark Allen vs Mitchell Mann
Mark Allen is another player who is giving up a big handicap. That is fair enough. Mann is the only debutant in the field this year and if you look at his qualifying results he is here by the skin of his teeth.
Mann conceded seven frames to an amateur in the first round of qualifying and he came through two deciding frames after that. That shows he has got some fight in him but what he has left after a heavy week remains to be seen.
Mark Allen is my outright pick in this tournament and the way the draw is opening up I’m more than happy with that position. There is no need to be taking a handicap here when all I’m interested in is him winning. I expect Allen to win well though.
Barry Hawkins vs Zhang Anda
The former finalist Barry Hawkins kicks off his campaign against the Chinese qualifier Zhang Anda with Ronnie O’Sullivan waiting for the winner in the next round.
Hawkins’ form has been up and down recently but he does seem to find his best snooker when he gets here and I’m expecting him to do that again in this tournament. I think he’s better over the longer matches too.
Zhang Anda had some impressive wins in qualifying for this tournament. He saw off Mark Davis and Zhou Yuelong and both of those are good wins for anyone let alone someone of his ranking. I fancy he’ll put up a good showing here too. Whether that is enough to win remains to be seen but I think he’ll go well.
There’s no way I can take Hawkins on a handicap. He’s the worst front runner I’ve ever known but there is too much guesswork involved to be certain of how many frames Zhang can realistically win.
Instead the bet I like here is in the centuries. They’ve been good to us so far in the tournament and there is no reason why they won’t be again. Once again the line is at 1.5 which again seems achievable.
Hawkins is quite a heavy scorer when he gets going as we saw in places like the semi-final of The Masters when he gave Judd Trump a lesson in scoring but Zhang comes here having nailed a couple of centuries and a 90 odd in qualifying and popped in a ton on his debut against Joe Perry here last year. If the match is tighter than it looks I’m confident we’ll get another couple of centuries in this one.
Tips
Back B.Hawkins vs Z.Anda – Over 1.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Bet365
Back it here:
