The remaining matches in the first round of the World Championship begin on Wednesday as more stellar names begin their campaigns at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and Joe Perry all start their matches on Wednesday while Mark Allen and Barry Hawkins look to convert leads and make it safely into the second round.
Tuesday recap
The drama continued in droves inside the Crucible on Tuesday as the biggest shock of the tournament so far occurred when Neil Robertson was sent packing 10-6 by Michael Holt in a high quality clash which contained four centuries including the top break of the event so far as Holt slammed in a 140 break.
The shocks looked like they might have begun much earlier in the day as Robert Milkins reduced his 7-2 overnight deficit to Mark Selby to 7-6 but the interval game at a good time for ‘The Jester’ and he won three straight frames after the break to run out a comfortable 10-6 victor.
John Higgins made it safely into the second round with a 10-3 destruction of Ryan Day while Barry Hawkins and Mark Allen built up 6-3 leads over Zhang Anda and Mitchell Mann respectively and they are warm favourites to convert those leads into wins on Wednesday.
Both are huge favourites to win now and it is hard to see any other result taking place. Anda and Mann both showed enough on Tuesday to suggest they might have something to allow them to thwart a handicap though so I’ll leave those matches alone.
Martin Gould vs Ding Junhui
The match of the round starts and finishes on Wednesday as German Masters winner Martin Gould and former UK and Masters champion Ding Junhui commence their match in the morning session before concluding it in the evening.
Both these men love to get the balls open and make big breaks so this should be a great match with very little safety involved I suspect. That is reflected in the prices where over 1.5 centuries is as short as 4/6 but there is one line on the centuries I like here.
That comes in the form of the Gould centuries where he is even money to make one or more tons. Gould is a heavy scorer who often clears the table when he gets in and that price just has to be all wrong. I fancy this to be a close match but even if it isn’t Gould can contribute to a ton before it ends.
Judd Trump vs Liang Wenbo
This has all the hallmarks of another quality match. The two last met at the UK Championship where Trump lost 6-4 to his stablemate but with both having seen Neil Robertson bow out of the tournament in their quarter this match carries extra pressure and significance. The winner of this match could yet go deep in the event.
Like the match before it I don’t expect to see much safety played here. I expect the balls to be open and the scoring to be sustained which is just the way the game should be played.
From a betting point of view I was tempted by the over 10.5 50+ breaks but Liang can sometimes get into a spell where he makes 40s and breaks down. The price is a touch on the short side too so that one isn’t for me. I’ll see where we are at halfway and assess from there.
Joe Perry vs Kyren Wilson
This is the final match of the first round and one I’m really looking forward to. We’ve not had as many tight matches as in past years but this has all the hallmarks of being one of them.
Kyren Wilson announced himself as someone who belongs at this level when he won the Shanghai Masters earlier in the season and he qualified in style for the tournament so he’ll be confident here.
Joe Perry looked in decent nick going into the recent China Open but out there he suffered a 5-0 defeat to Alfie Burden which might just have thrown up a few doubts so I’ll be interested to see how he gets on early doors in this match.
I will bet on this match from the start though and I’ll take over 1.5 centuries. Perry is a very underrated scorer while Wilson can score heavily too when he gets in as two centuries and two 90s can testify to. I expect this one to have plenty of mileage so there will be enough time for the required two tons here.
Tips
WON – Back M.Gould Over 0.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
WON – Back J.Perry vs K.Wilson – Over 1.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Bet365
Back them here:
