We know that Judd Trump is in the final of the World Grand Prix and on Saturday evening we will find out who he faces in that showpiece occasion when Mark Selby battles it out with Jack Lisowski in the second semi-final at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
These two men have both performed very well and have both played in each of the last two days so their cue arms should be nicely oiled and they should be primed to deliver a cracking semi-final for us to enjoy.
Mark Selby
The Scottish Open champion Mark Selby is in the middle of a rich vein of form having won last week and now made it to the semi-final this week but there were one or two signs in the quarter final win over Hossein Vafaei that the large amount of snooker he has played recently is just beginning to catch up with him. We saw some mistakes from Selby that we don’t usually see and he nearly had to come through a deciding frame lottery having been in command at 4-1 up.
We know Selby is playing well though, not just because he has already won two titles on the season but also because of the way he dealt with strong challenges from Liang Wenbo and Anthony McGill in the earlier stages of this event. They both brought their best snooker and got plenty in the way of that in reply. If the Selby that played those matches turns up here then he is going to give himself a very strong chance of progressing to another final.
Jack Lisowski
Although he has gone under the radar this week given that two of his three matches have been played over on table two, Jack Lisowski has played some very good stuff in the tournament and full merits his place in this semi-final. He has seen off the likes of Shaun Murphy and Zhao Xintong and done so with the minimum of fuss and with the determination of a man who is eager to shed the tag of not having won a big tournament.
The key to the game of Lisowski is that he is scoring well. In the 13 frames he has won already this week he has made four centuries and a bunch of 50 breaks and if he scores well here, and gets the opportunities that Selby gave to Vafaei on Friday, then he is going to put down a significant challenge to the former world champion. What Lisowski doesn’t need to be doing is getting involved in safety exchanges and scrappy frames and that would lessen his chances of victory.
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Head to Head
Jack Lisowski actually has a decent enough record against Mark Selby which might surprise a few. The two men have met in eight previous encounters and they are level at four wins each. Selby leads by two on the frame count at 33-31 so his wins have been slightly easier than the Lisowski ones but there isn’t a whole lot in it. This will be the third time they have met in the semi-final of a tournament. They are level in that regard as well with each beating the other in one previous semi. This will be their first meeting since the Scottish Open final of a year ago when Selby came out on top 9-6 on that occasion.
Betting
Given that Jack Lisowski is playing well and that he has a good record against Mark Selby and there were one or two signs of Selby getting a little frustrated and looking a little jaded in the quarter final, I think the best bet in this semi-final is to side with the watchable left-hander with the 2.5 frame head start he is being afforded by the bookmakers. You would think this would be a close match anyway given the magnitude and importance of it and their previous meetings suggest that will certainly be the case.
Lisowski is a confidence player and he is clearly playing with plenty of it this week. He has been getting himself in from distance all week as you would expect from a player who pots as well as he does and if he can do that in this semi-final then with the way he is starting to score you would expect him to bunch up winning frames. Selby might still win this with all his experience in the big matches but I don’t think he’ll do it before Lisowski gets to four frames.
Tips
WON – Back J.Lisowski (+2.5 frames) to beat M.Selby for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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