International Championship Qualifiers Day 3: Pag's Punts

After a winless couple of days in the International Championship qualifiers, Andrew Pagett is back for more with another punt for Friday's play. Today so far we've seen a couple of major shocks as Robert Milkins was beaten 6-4 by Darryl Hill, and Stephen Maguire was simply thrashed 6-2 by Noppon Saengkham. Sean O'Sullivan also scored a nice 6-3 win against Robin Hull and Jack Lisowski showed signs of the work he's put in with Terry Griffiths by beating Hossein Vafei Ayouri 6-3.

So after all of that, there are still 4 games to be played this evening including a man that features regularly on the blog in Shaun Murphy, but it's time to look ahead to Friday's play with Andrew's bet.

What we've got here is an interesting five fold, where Pag's gone for the outsider in two very close games to call with Michael Georgiou to beat Dechawat Poomjaeng and Crucible qualifier Craig Steadman against Li Hang. Other than that, he's chosen Mark Joyce to beat Hamza Akbar, in Akbar' first professional match, Anthony McGill to beat James Wattana and Rory McLeod to beat Daniel Wells as his other 3 selections. I think it's a brave shout that had the best odds with BetVictor when Andrew put this on yesterday so it's worth having a check again possibly.

Other than that, we'll have the final Pag's Punts of the week tomorrow evening before Saturday's final day of International qualifying.

Pag's Punts: International Championship Qualifiers Day 2

After two sessions of play so far in the International Championship Qualifiers there have been plenty of interesting results and close finishes. Andrew Pagett's recommended bet for the first day fell foul with Mark King losing out 6-2 to Ian Burns in a surprise result.

Chris Wakelin survived a scare against Peter Lines, seeing his 4-0 lead evaporate but still winning the final 2 frames to win 6-4, while Joe Swail came back from 5-3 down against Allan Taylor to win that one 6-5. Other deciding frame finishes in the early play saw Thepchaiya Un-Nooh beat Hammad Miah and Mark Allen come through a great match with Scott Donaldson.

Pagett has another recommended accumulator for the second day's play in Barsnley, so here is what he has picked out:

Once again, Pagett has gone for a fivefold accumulator that pays out at nearly 10/1 with Bet Victor, who are shown to have the best odds on this bet via Oddschecker. In all, Pagett's gone for Jimmy Robertson to beat Lu Ning (1/3), former Masters and UK Champion Matthew Stevens to overcome Fraser Patrick (4/11), Stephen Maguire against Thai opponent Noppon Saengkham (2/9). In two tighter matches to call, Pagett has opted for Finland's Robin Hull to beat Sean O'Sullivan (4/5) and Iran's Hossein Vafei Ayouri who is an outsider 7/4 against the talented Jack Lisowski.

All the very best of luck to those of you that follow Pagett's recommendation for Thursday's play and don't forget that the two-time Welsh Amateur Champion will be back again for the final two days of International Championship Qualifying with more betting tips. 

Pag's Punts: International Championship Qualifying Day 1

Over the next four days there is a feast of snooker action taking place in Barnsley as the International Championship Qualifiers get underway. This tournament is played on the new flat structure, instead of the tiered one which the first two full ranking events of this year have been played under. That means that the matches played at Barnsley will be the Last 128 round, so 60 games in all will be played as the games of the defending champion and World champion (Ricky Walden and Stuart Bingham) and the two highest seeded Chinese players (Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo) are held over to the venue in China, in a system that was announced last year.

The format sees 15 games a day on each of the four days, with 6 morning games (9.30am), 5 afternoon games (2.30pm) and 4 evening games (7.30pm) for these best-of-11 frame ties.

For those of you in and around Barnsley, entry is free to the Metrodome to watch the games great stars in action. To pick out a few of the big favourites in action, Mark Allen plays on Wednesday morning, Mark Williams on Wednesday afternoon and Mark Selby and Michael White are both in two of Wednesday's four evening games. Barry Hawkins, Robert Milkins and Ali Carter are all playing on Thursday morning, with Matthew Stevens, Marco Fu and Stephen Maguire on Thursday afternoon, while Shaun Murphy plays on Thursday evening. Friday night sees the appearance of Neil Robertson, and on Saturday John Higgins, Joe Perry and Judd Trump all enter proceedings.


With the sheer choice of matches, ex-pro Andrew Pagett has been able to pick a variety of bets out for readers this week, starting with the matches on Wednesday. Here is who Pagett is backing on day one of the International Qualifiers:

As you can see in the above picture Pagett has picked out a fivefold accumulator on Mark King  to beat Ian Burns (8/15), Irishman David Morris to beat Sanderson Lam (4/11), new Shanghai Masters champion Kyren Wilson to beat Malaysia's Thor Chuan Leong (1/5), Joe Swail to beat Allan Taylor (2/5) and finally, Alan McManus to win an All-Scottish affair with Ross Muir (2/9). 

As always Pagett has gone through the odds comparison site Oddschecker to find the best odds for the readers and as shown above, Bet365 are best price on this offering odds of just over 3/1 overall. All the best of luck if you follow Pagett on this selections and keep an eye on the blog as the former Crucible Qualifier will be providing a bet for each day of qualifying this week. 

Stat Attack: Shanghai Masters Review

After Kyren Wilson's fantastic victory in the Shanghai Masters, beating Judd Trump 10-9 in the final to win his first ever ranking event, it's time for me to look back on some of the weeks snooker with some well selected statistics.


One of the first interesting statistics that I've picked out, looks at unlucky Michael Holt. In the 4 main tournaments this season, Holt has lost to either the eventual tournament winner, or losing finalist. In the Riga Open and Australian he lost to the runners up in Tom Ford and Martin Gould. That was before losing to Ali Carter in the Paul Hunter Classic semi-finals and this week in Shanghai he lost to Kyren Wilson in the Last 16. So clearly, Michael Holt isn't playing badly at all this season and ending up unlucky with the draw.

In terms of a century count this week, I think the final tally's may reflect the overall usual Chinese conditions. 11 centuries were made in the 14 Last 32 matches, 4  centuries in the Last 16 games, just 1 in the quarter-finals, 2 in the best-of-11 semi-finals and 1 made by Judd Trump in the final. That totals up at 19 centuries for the final stages of the event.

Kyren was the 53rd seed for this years Shanghai Masters. That meant he had to play 9 matches in all, 7 of which were against players seeded higher than him. In all he played Vinnie Calabrese (5-0), Mark King (5-3) and Anthony McGill (5-4) in the qualifying stages to make it to Shanghai, before playing wildcard Wildcard Wang Yuchen (5-1) on arrival. Wins against Perry (5-2) , Holt (5-1)  and Ding Junhui (5-4) to make it down to the one-table set-up where he then overcame Mark Allen 6-1 and finally Judd Trump (10-9).

This years final was also the 3rd in the last 5 Shanghai Masters to go to a decider, two of which have seen Judd Trump as the loser after this year, the other being his 10-9 loss to John Higgins in 2012.

A decider is something that Neil Robertson isn't enjoying at the moment. He lost 5-4 to Jamie Cope in round one, now meaning that in the last 7 matches he's lost, spanning back to the German Masters, he's lost 5 of those games in a final frame shoot-out. Although, in the interest of fairness to Neil, he's also won 5 deciders in that period, 3 of which came in his win at the Gdynia Open.

Kyren Wilson's week sees him as the big ranking mover, up 32 places to a new ranking of 22 in the world, and No.18 on the provisional end of season rankings, although there is plenty of time for that to change.

The big loser in the world rankings post Shanghai was Xiao Guodong, after his runners-up money from 2013 came off, sending him down 9 places to 32nd.

It may come as a slight surprise that there was only one whitewash in the final stages in Shanghai, as Judd Trump overcame Robert Milkins 5-0 in the Last 32, while the highest break of 140 from Luca Brecel came in one of only three frames he managed to win, losing 5-3 to Mark Allen in round one.

Previous Stats Review

To really review the event in terms of statistics, it's worth having a look at some of the stats I picked out in my original Shanghai Masters Statistics Preview...

"One Last 32 that will take place on Monday sees John Higgins play Liang Wenbo. The pair have played 6 times previously, the last of which was at the 2015 Welsh Open, a tournament won by Higgins, and John has won every single won of their previous outings. The closest Wenbo has come to beating Higgins was at the 2012 World Championship when Higgins edged him out 10-9."

The form continued on this front for John Higgins as he beat Liang Wenbo 5-1 in this opening round match, making it 7 from 7 now for John against Liang.

"One head to head that may surprise a few people is that of the one between Mark Davis and Michael White. Despite Michael being the slightly higher ranked player, he's never beaten Mark in 7 professional meetings, something that the Welshman will be looking to put right on Wednesday."

Well, White couldn't put this right either, as Davis overcame him for an eighth time in eight meetings, 5-1 in the first round.

"When it comes to the actual tournament itself, the Shanghai Masters has been staged 8 times, with 8 different players winning it, while 3 of those 8 previous winners (Dale, Carter and O'Sullivan) are not in this weeks field."

Again this statistic can continue on to next year as Kyren Wilson is not only a first time winner in Shanghai, but a first time ranking winner full stop.

"Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy has an interesting statistic to look out for, having played in 8 deciding frames at the final stages of the Shanghai Masters, and 12 in total if you include qualifiers, which is the most out of anyone in the events history."

Shaun was certainly happy to add to his deciders played in Shanghai, which is now 9 in 7 years during the final stages, and 5 Last 32 matches in a row in Shanghai that he's taken into a final frame after he came back from 4-1 down to beat Peter Ebdon 5-4 in round 1 this week.

"Martin Gould will also be a dangerous opponent this week if he gets going like he did in Australia, having so far won 8 of his 10 matches played in the 2015/2016, averaging a break of 50+ in every 2.21 frames played, which is a rather impressive haul."

On this front Martin was a very dangerous player in Shanghai beating Barry Hawkins and former champion John Higgins before losing from 4-2 ahead against defending champion Stuart Bingham. That makes him 10 wins from 13 this season while he now averages a break of 50 or above in every 2.39 frames.


That's just about it from me on my statistical review of the weeks events in Shanghai. Just remember, any feedback on this new feature to the blog is welcome, while if there are any particular statistics you would like to know again the comments section of the blog or by tweeting me @CueActionBlog are to ways you can get your opinions across.

Trump Vs Wilson in Shanghai final

The final of this years Shanghai Masters will see Former UK Champion Judd Trump take on rising star Kyren Wilson, as a new name will be put on the trophy, the ninth in nine running's of the event.

Judd came through the first semi-final early in the day against defending champion Stuart Bingham. It was a brilliant start to the match with 4 quick fire frames being shared as Trump took the first and fourth with runs of 95 and 100, while Bingham's contributions of 98 and 118 were sandwiched in between. At this stage it looked like this could go all the way, but after the interval Stuart lost his way. A break of 47 wasn't enough to win him the fifth and Trump cleared with 39 to steal the frame. He needed a couple of chances to win the sixth and at 4-2 he looked in control. After Judd countered with 62 following an early 48 from Stuart, he let Stuart back into the frame and the match at 3-4. That didn't last long though, as Judd dominated the eighth frame, breaks of 45 and 46 doing plenty in putting him one away from the final at 5-3. Stuart Bingham had a chance at the beginning of the ninth, but he pushed the boat out once too many, leaving Trump in to avenge his World Championship semi-final defeat, as a run of 62 won him the match 6-3.

Kyren Wilson meanwhile was very dominant in his semi-final against Mark Allen. The first frame saw him gradually work away a 54 point deficit to win the frame on the final black and move 1-0 ahead. He progressed that lead in frame two with a break of 73, while a 68 after earlier chances for Allen moved him 3-0 in front, halfway to his first major final. Mark had plenty of chances in frame four to put his first one on the board, but another colours clearance from Kyren saw him win the frame on the black again to lead 4-0 at the interval. There was still a job to do for Wilson after the break, and he set about it perfectly with a contribution of 60 doing the damage in frame 5 to go 5-0 in front, needing only one of the next 6 to reach the final. Mark managed to avoid the embarrassment of the whitewash, but it wasn't long before Kyren's big moment came, as a break of 30 levelled up the scores in frame seven before he finished it with a run of 50, to not just but beat Allen, but give him a real thrashing.

Final Preview

Judd Trump Vs Kyren Wilson - These two guys have been excellent this week, and are thoroughly deserving of their places in the best-of-19 frames final. The first thing I want to mention is that if Kyren does beat Judd in this final it will be the start of brilliant things for him. The run this week should secure his place in the World Grand Prix and if he were to win it would also move him into the top 32 from down in the 50's of the rankings where he started the week and get him into November's Champion of Champions. The only time he's really come close to being beaten this week was against Ding Junhui whom he beat 5-4. Otherwise he boasts a 5-2 win against Perry, a 5-1 win against Holt and a 6-1 win against Allen, all quality, experienced players. Can he make it one more to win the event? Absolutely. In my view he's been the best player this week by quite a way of anyone else at times. He's showed no fear and plenty of bottle so far, and if he gets himself into a winning position, he'll obviously be nervous like any player would be, but I don't believe he'd bottle it or throw it away. Judd Trump though will certainly not take it for granted that he will win, just because Kyren is has never made a final before in his professional career. He's experienced enough by now to know that he should play the same way against everyone and I believe that he hasn't quite been at his best this week. His match against Milkins was a breeze and he could easily have been beaten by Matt Selt, whilst Mark Williams didn't take the chances that he had. However, he has improved through the week with his best performance coming today against Bingham, but I still believe he's not a certainty to win this one tomorrow. The key to this match is going to be whether Wilson shows more nerves at the start and end of the match if he gets in a good position, or whether he takes his chances and plays in the same fearless manner as the rest of the week. At times this week I wondered whether he was going to be able to keep his run going and he has answered those questions emphatically.

Prediction: Wilson to win his first ranking event with a thrilling 10-9 win.



I'm sure it will be a cracking final either way and it's just a shame it won't be shown live on Eurosport, so you'll have to wait for the highlights later on or find some kind of stream on the internet. Otherwise, the next you'll hear from me on the blog is my stat attack round-up of what we've seen during this weeks tournament.

4 remain in Shanghai

Judd Trump, Stuart Bingham, Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson make up the line-up for the weekend in Shanghai for the semi-finals after another stunning day of snooker. Trump will play Bingham in the first semi, while Wilson plays Allen in the second and they will be played over the best-of-11 frames.

The first man through today was Judd Trump. He played a very attacking match with Mark Williams who made a century in the only frame he won in the match in frame four. Unfortunately for Mark he had plenty of chances in the match but just missed too many vital balls, and he could quite easily have won all of the first three frames, but went 3-0 down instead before making his century. Williams had chances again to get back in the match at 2-3, but he couldn't take them and Trump moved 4-1 ahead and soon had the match finished at 5-1.

There was more drama on the other table where defending champion Stuart Bingham took on Martin Gould. Martin got off to a really good start, dominating to take a 3-1 lead at the interval. Stuart got back to within one frame with an 88 break, but it was all Gould in frame six as he went one away from victory at 4-2. Chances came and chances went for Gould in both frames 7 and 8, but he missed shots he would've expected to get and looked nervy, while Stuart didn't have to do anything special to force a decider. Bingham had the best chance in that decider and a break of 60 was enough to eventually see him over the line and continue his title defence with a 5-4 quarter-final win.

The man he beat in the final last year, Mark Allen, has kept himself in the hunt to go one better than his final loss to Bingham last year after he beat Mark Davis 5-1. It wasn't the most spectacular match, mainly due to the conditions which saw a number of kicks, particularly towards the end of the match. Allen took the opening couple of frames, and had chances to win the third, but Davis cleared to force a re-spotted black which both players had chances at before it sunk for Davis and he made it 1-2. He had a good chance in the fourth too but a break 50 wasn't enough to win him the frame and Allen was able to do enough to take a commanding 3-1 lead at the break. Straight after the interval Allen consolidated his lead with a quick fire 88 to make it 4-1. After a kick on the green killed Davis chance to clear in the sixth, Allen then had a kick on the yellow, but Davis missed again and the Northern Irishman was able to clear and finish off the match.

The best match of the day was most certainly the one between Kyren Wilson and home favourite Ding Junhui. An 89 got Kyren going in the opener, and despite a 50+ in frame three Ding was struggling and trailed 3-1 at the mid-session. Post interval Ding came back much stronger as breaks of 62 and 87 squared up the match at 3-3 and you wondered whether that was Kyren's chance gone. It wasn't though as he made a flawless 84 to re-take the lead at 4-3, before Ding took the match into a final frame courtesy of a contribution 63. The decider was a scrappy one in the end, with Ding have the first chance, before Wilson got back into it. In the end it went down to the colours and with the pink over a corner pocket a long safety bout on the brown was to decide matters. After plenty of quality shots from both, Ding's safety play eventually let him down, and after good shots on the brown, blue and pink to give him the chance on a tricky black with so much on the line, Wilson soon hammered "the biggest shot of his life" into the back of the pocket.

Quarter-Final Results:

Stuart Bingham 5-4 Martin Gould
Judd Trump 5-1 Mark Williams
Kyren Wilson 5-4 Ding Junhui
Mark Allen 5-1 Mark Davis

Semi-Final Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Bingham Vs Judd Trump - These two have had some interesting matches in big events over the course of the last 3 years, the best of which was their most recent, in the semi-finals of the World Championship. That's a defeat that Judd will be looking to avenge and it really doesn't feel like either one of these two is playing at their best this week so it should make for a close game. Bingham had two pretty easy games to make the quarters and didn't need to play his best, and eventually he came back to beat Gould by just sticking in there and hoping that Martin would make a few errors which he did with a bit of luck also going Stuart's way. Judd though has played slightly better, taking advantage of the errors made by Mark Williams and Robert Milkins, whilst also producing more breaks in the game with Matt Selt including a gutsy 41 clearance in the decider. For this reason I think Judd is going to win this one tomorrow either 6-3 or 6-4.

Mark Allen Vs Kyren Wilson - I'm really looking forward to watch this one and seeing what Kyren can produce after three superb results this week. He started by coming through the wildcard round comfortably and taking that on to the main draw with 5-2 and 5-1 wins in the Last 32 and Last 16. Today against Ding he was very impressive when he easily could've folded under pressure at 3-3 after Ding's fight back and in the decider on the colours also, but he showed plenty of bottle to come through. One thing that worries me is how much he's going to have left after such a battle with Ding, one which went on past midnight in Shanghai, and more than anything it would've taken a lot out of him emotionally to come down after a win that saw him get really pumped up and celebrate at the end. As for Allen, he's quietly gone about his business this week and played solid stuff under the radar against Brecel, Grace and Davis and I think he has plenty left in the tank to come out and finish this tournament off. His verdict on Twitter summed it up really with the tough conditions in Shanghai by saying that while it might not look pretty, a wins a win and if he can get two more he won't care how it looked. Once you realise that, it shows you won't be too fazed by things going wrong, as long as you can plug away and hang on in there and take advantage of your opponents errors. Particularly in a match over 11 frames, you know you're going to get chances it's just about making the most of them. I fancy Allen to edge this one 6-4.


It's going to be a thrilling weekend to end what's been a good week of snooker with plenty of good matches and close finishes, and if you can take the slightly lower standard with conditions and the fact that it's still so early in the season, then i'm sure you'll enjoy what you see over the coming days.

Shanghai Masters: Quarter's Preview and round of 16 round-up

Another interesting day of snooker in Shanghai is over and now we have 8 players left bidding to lift the title on Sunday. It's been another good day of snooker that saw plenty of interesting results and some that many would expect. Stuart Bingham eased through early in the day 5-1 against Mike Dunn in a match that wasn't too special, while the main televised match offered plenty. Mark Williams stormed into an early 3-0 lead in this one against Jamie Cope, but Cope came back taking the next 2, but soon found himself on the edge of defeat at 4-2. He managed to win the seventh frame, and a tight eighth followed with good snookers from Jamie pulling Mark back, before the Welshman and my tournament tip came through a 5-3 winner. For some incredibly odd reason Shaun Murphy's match against Mark Davis came in the afternoon after both players had played the evening before, yet 2 Monday night winners in Higgins and Gould played in the evening in Shanghai. Explain that one to me. I also thought it was strange that the best looking match of the session, managed to avoid being put in front of the TV camera's. Anyway, what us TV viewers didn't get to watch was a match in which Murphy opened up a 3-1 mid-session interval lead with a century in the third, before stealing the fourth on the black. From there Mark appeared to play very well with 3 50+ breaks in the next four frames, as Shaun didn't manage to add to his frames tally and the "Battler from Hastings" ran out a 5-3 winner. Young Kyren Wilson was the last winner of the first session today in Shanghai beating Michael Holt 5-1, and starting in impressive style with a century against an in form Hitman. Wilson has now repeated his performance here of 2 years ago when he lost to Michael in the quarter-finals.

Then came the evening session in Shanghai, and a session that was pretty closely fought. In my opinion though the awful scheduling of today's play really hit in this session. The fact that all 4 winners of the evening session matches, face players that all had the evening off is not exactly fair, considering two of those matches ran on to around 11pm in Shanghai. Also, the match that looked like being the most one-sided of the four in this session was put on the second TV table, where Mark Allen eventually overcame David Grace 5-1, after a marathon 45 minute opening frame and stealing frame 5 by a single point. On the main match table, the last Chinese hope in the draw and China's No.1 Ding Junhui took on Ryan Day. It always looked like being a close match and so it proved with there never being more than a single frame between the players. The first four were scrappy and 2-2 at the interval was a relatively fair reflection, even if Ding had a great chance to win the fourth frame. After the break it was Ding who continued his trend of winning the odd numbered frames to take 3-2 and 4-3 leads, but unfazed, Day stuck in there and both players began scoring much better as a 75 from Ding in the seventh was followed by Day who made a 60+ in forcing the decider. Day had the first chance in that ninth frame, but an unlucky split of the reds early on left him a tricky red to the middle, and after missing that tough red, Ding knocked in one of his own and a run of 76 (his highest of the match) was saved for the perfect moment as he edge a brilliant contest 5-4. It was equally good on the outside tables where Martin Gould avenged his Australian Open final defeat to John Higgins. Martin took a 3-1 advantage into the interval, but that didn't last long as Higgins levelled at 3-3. A 77 from Martin steadied the ship and he regained his lead at 4-3, before managing to hold his nerve to win the eight on the colours and the match 5-3. It was even tighter on table 4 between Judd Trump and Matt Selt. Matt took the opener, before Judd made a century as part of taking all of the next three and a 3-1 interval lead. Selt took the fifth in one visit, and had the first chance in the sixth, but Trump took it for a 4-2 lead. He quickly won the seventh to get back within one at 4-3, and after Trump threatened to clear in the eighth, Matt won the safety battle on the yellow and potted the colours he required to force a decider. It was a pretty scrappy decider, with Selt leading 48-14 with two reds left after having 4 scoring visits to Judd's 1. It was only one more that Judd needed though as a 41 clearance pinched the frame and match on the final black for a 5-4 win.

Last 16 Results:

Stuart Bingham 5-1 Mike Dunn
Martin Gould 5-3 John Higgins
Judd Trump 5-4 Matt Selt
Mark Williams 5-3 Jamie Cope
Ding Junhui 5-4 Ryan Day
Kyren Wilson 5-1 Michael Holt
Mark Davis 5-3 Shaun Murphy
Mark Allen 5-1 David Grace

That's what we've seen tomorrow, so as we head into the quarter-finals tomorrow, here's what I think we can expect:

Quarter-Final Draw: (Picks in Bold)

Stuart Bingham Vs Martin Gould - This is going to be a cracking encounter between Bingham and Gould here and I think it certainly has the potential to go the distance over 9 frames. Stuart hasn't looked convincing but has been able to keep it tight and force mistakes against wildcard Fang Xiongman and slightly lower ranked opposition in Mike Dunn. Meanwhile, Martin Gould has looked very strong again thrashing Barry Hawkins 5-1 and shining through a very tough match with John Higgins. He looks to be back to the form he showed in Australia where he made the final and nearly grabbed his maiden ranking title. This comes after the ear infection that stopped him from travelling to the Riga Open and was still very much in his thoughts as he lost in the Paul Hunter Classic Last 32. I don't think we're ever so far away now from Martin winning his first ranking title now, after losing in two previous finals, his scoring has always been superb, whilst his all round game has shown improvements over the last few months. He was so close to making the Grand Prix final, and even closer to winning the Australian Open and he certainly has what it takes to add Bingham to his wins this week.

Judd Trump Vs Mark Williams - Just when you thought these two were sick of the sight of each other after their battles in February and March, they meet yet again here in Shanghai. Before we look at their recent head to head, I think both guys have played fairly well this week, with Williams looking like he's in slightly better form. Judd scrambled over the line in a decider today having been 4-2 ahead and his game against Milkins quickly became quite an easy one for Judd with Robert never looking like putting anything together. Mark came through very nicely against Ford in round one with a couple of centuries, and then in round two against Cope he showed good form again, and looked to be playing similar snooker to that of his run earlier this year where he was on fire. In that run he and Trump met at the Welsh Open, Indian Open, Grand Prix and Players Championship Finals. On those 4 occasions Williams won 4-1, 4-3, lost 4-3 at the Grand Prix in a game he certainly could've won, and won 4-2 in Thailand. Over the course of those games he looked to have Judd's number so to speak, and he especially seemed to enjoy the rhythm and pace of those games settling quickly in whatever conditions. I think it'll be close once again, but don't be surprised if Williams adds to his collection of 2015 wins against Judd.

Ding Junhui Vs Kyren Wilson - Here we have another especially interesting game. Ding has looked very much more controlled at the beginning of this week, while at times cutting the same frustrated figure in the chair, none of that effected his game on the table where he has looked calm. He'll also be pleased to see one of his traits of the 5 ranking event winning season of 13/14 return. and that is finishing matches strongly. After a battle early on against McManus he pulled away with big breaks in the final three frames, and once again his best two breaks of the match against Day were to go 4-3 and then again to win the match 5-4. I still think there's more to come from Ding before we see his very best snooker, but I also don't think it's a million miles away. As for Kyren, he's one of the brighter young stars in the game right now, and this week has matched his performance of two years ago here in Shanghai and looked very impressive. He's not just beaten two very experienced and quality players in Joe Perry and Michael Holt, but he's turned them over, just highlighting how dangerous a man he is now in the draw. Beating Ding on home soil however is a different task entirely, and while I believe that Wilson will push him close, I expect Ding to get over the line.

Mark Allen Vs Mark Davis - The final match of the last 8 draw sees a battle of the Mark's, Davis Vs Allen. So far this week, Davis has had the much tougher opponents seeing off Michael White 5-1 and Shaun Murphy 5-3 looking very strong in both of those games. Meanwhile, Allen hasn't had an easy ride against Brecel and Grace but it seemed that in the end his quality and extra bit of experience told. This is all set up to be a close encounter also and I think it's probably the toughest of the four to call. Davis is playing well but the same could be said of him when he reached the quarter-finals of both the Grand Prix and the Players Championship Finals in March, and on both occasions he failed to kick on and show the same quality in the latter stages when it counted. Meanwhile, Allen knows how to get the job done better than Davis in the latter stages of events, and his run to last year's Shanghai Masters final will give him plenty of good memories, while the memory of the 10-3 drubbing Bingham gave him in that final will spur him on to do better this year now that he has the chance. I also think that Allen still has plenty in the tank for the rest of this week and his record against Davis looks favourable also.


So, 4 great matches in prospect and I look forward to seeing how each pans out and what will be set up for the longer distance matches over the weekend. I hope you all enjoy watching it like I shall.