At the beginning of the week 32 players headed to Llandudno for the World Grand Prix and now only two remain as we are down to the final of the competition. The final will be a repeat of the world final from last season as Stuart Bingham takes on Shaun Murphy.
Bingham won that final 18-15 and played some of his best snooker of his life in that match and you would think that will give him good memories to build on here while Murphy will be extra fired up for revenge from a defeat he has publicly admitted took him weeks to get over. This one is set up nicely.
I’m still not sure how Bingham has come through this week because he has been there for the taking in literally every round. Dave Gilbert had chances to get rid of him in the first round as did Judd Trump in the second round while Ryan Day and Joe Perry were all over him at one stage in the last two rounds. It is credit to Bingham’s poise under duress but he won’t come back against Murphy so he has to up his game from the off.
Shaun Murphy has been a total contrast. He has cruised into this final and has only dropped four frames all week in the process. I was very impressed with him against Ding Junhui in the semi-final. He only had one ton but he could easily have had two more and he was ruthless with almost every chance which came his way. He looks to be cueing a dream and is exuding plenty of confidence.
If you are a believer that a lack of a competitive battle on the way to a big match is a bad thing then you might fancy Bingham here but I don’t think we’ve seen the sort of form he’s going to need to win this all season.
You have to pick and choose carefully when to trust Murphy but his form this week has reminded me of the sort of stuff he was playing when he won The Masters last season and he demolished Neil Robertson in the final of that tournament.
I’m not sure if he will demolish Bingham in this match but over the best of 19 frames I just think the scoring power and cueing authority that Murphy has at the minute will be too much for the world champion. I expect Murphy to win this and win it with a bit in hand.
Back S.Murphy (-1.5 frames) to beat S.Bingham for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with Coral
Back him here:
