It is Judgement Day for the 32 men fighting it out for a place in the main draw of the World Championship as the last day of qualifying takes place on Wednesday and it promises to deliver a fascinating conclusion.
At the end of Wednesday’s play we will know which 16 men will have qualified for a place at the Crucible Theatre and with so many matches very tight after the first sessions on Tuesday we are set for tension, drama and amazing storylines like you wouldn’t believe.
Wednesday morning
The matches which began on Tuesday morning will conclude in this session. In fairness Ding Junhui already has a foot at the Crucible having opened up an 8-1 lead over Nigel Bond and he won’t take long to win from there I’m sure.
Apart from Alan McManus’ surprising 7-2 lead over Jimmy Robertson all of the other matches are quite tight and could get have plenty of twists and turns in them. Anthony McGill leads Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 6-3 but that only tells half the story. For the second time this season Un-Nooh missed the final black for a 147. Amazingly he followed that up with a 144 break!
There are also 6-3 leads for Robbie Williams over Anthony Hamilton and Dave Gilbert over Jack Lisowski while Dechawat Poomjaeng, Robert Milkins and Sam Baird hold narrow 5-4 leads over Mitchell Mann, Kurt Maflin and Liam Highfield respectively.
There will be matches turned around in this session. It is almost a given with what is at stake but the odds aren’t really forthcoming and tempting us into a bet here. We have Maflin and Hamilton covered in previously advised bets so I’m going to watch them hopefully come in.
Wednesday afternoon
Peter Ebdon and Ali Carter take large leads into this session with them. Ebdon leads Ian Burns 7-2 while Carter is even clearer of Dominic Dale. He leads that match 8-1 and is surely a certainty to make it back to the big stage across the city for the main event.
Elsewhere though the matches are quite tight. Michael Holt leads Mark King 6-3 but the other five matches are all 5-4 and promise drama like only the World Championship can provide. Unlike in the earlier session there are a couple of favourites who trail and it will be interesting to see if they can turn their matches around.
I’m siding with two players to turn their matches around. Of the other three you would think Graeme Dott will keep Mike Dunn at bay and Kyren Wilson should get stronger against Matthew Stevens although I don’t think anyone will be truly surprised if the Welshman comes through. Liang Wenbo needs a fightback but you can never predict anything with certainty with him!
Ryan Day surprisingly trails Ken Doherty 5-4 after the first session but I would be surprised if the Welshman doesn’t turn that match around. He has generally gone pretty well under pressure this season and certainly has the scoring power on his side. Doherty is good under pressure but hasn’t won a whole lot of matches coming into this week. I’m backing Day there.
I also fancy Zhou Yuelong to get the better of Anda Zhang too. The pressure has switched in this match to Zhang and that should suit Zhou. He can go out and give this a good go and we saw when he slammed in a 140 break in the opening frame that he is perfectly capable of piling on the pressure with his scoring power.
It looked like Zhang was going to take control of the match in the first session but Zhou won the last frame and that could be crucial. With a fast start I think Yuelong can ensure another youngster makes his way to the Crucible with a win here.
Tips
WON – Back R.Day to beat K.Doherty for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back Z.Yuelong to beat A.Zhang for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back him here:
