Day three of the World Championship takes place at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield on Monday when three matches get underway across the three sessions of action on a day where three players will book their spot in the second round of the tournament.
We have seen two days laced with drama and tension so far and there is no reason to think that we are going to see any different on Monday but with a former champion and some of the brightest talents in the game on show the quality should be high too.
Day 2 Recap
We had four matches finishing over the course of the play on Sunday. Xiao Guodong was the first man to make it through when we saw off Matt Selt 10-4 before Mark Williams overcame Wu Yize 10-8. In the evening two seeds fell by the wayside when Neil Robertson was downed 10-8 by Chris Wakelin and Hossein Vafaei got the better of Barry Hawkins in a deciding frame. Two matches played their first session and will conclude on Monday. They see Zhao Xintong being 7-2 up on the 2024 finalist Jak Jones while Mark Allen will return with a 5-4 lead over Fan Zhengyi.
It wasn’t the best day for us betting wise on Sunday. It was beginning to look good when Wu Yize went 8-7 up on Mark Williams but he couldn’t maintain his level and lost three frames on the bounce to go down 10-8 so our second bet of the tournament ended up as a loser. We have had some progress with the Mark Allen quarter bet where it could very well be that come the end of Monday he is the only seed left in that section.
In Play Betting
We have a couple of matches that are at the halfway point but I don’t really like a bet in them. The first one to conclude on Monday will be the one between Jak Jones and Zhao Xintong but I just can’t see any turnaround there. Jones probably won’t go quietly but Xintong looks so good right now and with Lei Peifan in the second round you can see the former UK Championship winner doing a bit of damage in this tournament.
Mark Allen was 3-0 down to Fan Zhengyi but I never really felt he was out of that match and if he was behind going into the second session I would have been happy to get involved even though I’m on him to win the quarter but he isn’t far enough clear to justify backing him ad a skinny price even though I do think he’ll run away with the match now. He is the better player and looked like he was finding confidence at the end of the first session but the fact the quarter has opened right up means I’m invested enough.
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John Higgins vs Joe O’Connor (Monday 10am & Monday 7pm)
The one match which sees two sessions being played out on Monday sees the recently crowned World Open winner John Higgins going up against the man he won to win that title in Yushan in Joe O’Connor in an intriguing first round tie.
Higgins won that final in Yushan 10-6 and O’Connor will be disappointed by that because he was playing some brilliant snooker up to that final but didn’t really give of his best in that title showdown. That will be his first port of call here but to be fair the calmness and assurance of his run at the qualifiers for this tournament would suggest that he has put that behind him. Higgins has kicked on from that World Open win. He made the last four of the Players Championship and won the Tour Championship so we have two players playing really well going at it here. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if there is a shock here but I’m on O’Connor outright so I already have an interest in that happening so I’ll leave this one alone.
Ding Junhui vs Zak Surety (Monday 2.30pm & Tuesday 2.30pm)
The second match to get up and running on Monday will see Ding Junhui beginning another quest to become the first world champion from China when he faces off against the debutant Zak Surety who has had a brilliant couple of months on the baize.
Surety should have made the World Open final when he led the eventual champion John Higgins 5-3 before losing 6-5 but to his credit he doesn’t seem to have dwelt on that and he came through qualifying nicely for this event. His match with Jack Lisowski was some of the best snooker played in that competition and then he saw off Ricky Walden with the minimum of fuss to make it here so Ding has a match on his hands here. It has been a weird few months for Ding. He looked like he’d never seen a long ball before at the Players Championship such was the distance he was missing them by but then looked a whole lot better at the Tour Championship where only the finalist Mark Selby got the better of him. I would imagine Ding will find enough to win here but if Surety settles down early in this match then he can certainly give the Chinese star a huge scare. I like the way the Englishman has played recently and if he gets his teeth into the first session he can easily win the seven frames to cover the handicap at the very least.
Si Jiahui vs Dave Gilbert (Monday 7pm & Tuesday 7pm)
The last of the three matches to get started on Monday sees two men who have had good recent runs at this tournament colliding when the 2023 semi-finalist Si Jiahui goes up against a Dave Gilbert who was in the last four here a year ago.
The pressure is on the Chinese player here. He made the final of the Wuhan Open earlier in the season but he hasn’t done much since then and although he is a seed here for the first time which will help, he is defending £100,000 on his ranking so he is going to drop right down the pecking order if he loses this match. You would imagine that everything is a bonus for Gilbert now that he gets to finish his season here at the Crucible, a place he clearly loves having reached the last four on two occasions. That isn’t a surprise because the longer format allows him to find a rhythm and run with it. Gilbert won two matches at the qualifiers and while you wouldn’t say that he was flawless, when his back was against the wall he found what was needed. Si has lost eight of his last nine matches in ranking events and just looks vulnerable to a Gilbert who I’m surprised is odds against here. I’ll take the Englishman to come out on top in a tight battle.
Tips
Back Z.Surety (+3.5 frames) to beat D.Junhui for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with Betfair
Back D.Gilbert to beat S.Jiahui for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Boylesports
Back him here:
