It's quarter-final day at the Welsh Open with champion John Higgins in action against Matthew Stevens tonight.
Scotland's world No.1 Higgins was my pre-tournament tip, when he was available at 5-1, and while I expect he's in for a tough match against
Welshman Stevens I still fancy the three-time world champion to book his place in Saturday's semi-finals.
Higgins is 4-9 (Bodog, Boylesports, Betfred, Stan James, Paddy Power) with Stevens 2-1 at Blue Square and 888sport.
Tonight's other last-eight clash is a meeting between England's Ali Carter and Ding Junhui of China.
Ding, the Masters champion, is 8-13 with various bookmakers and should edge another close encounter with Carter (11-8, Boylesports), setting up a mouthwatering clash with Higgins.
In the other half of the draw the new tournament favourite, Mark Williams(3-1, various) lines up against Scotland's Stephen Maguire.
Welshman Williams is back to his best again after a few years in the wilderness and is 11-20 with Sportingbet to see off Maguire (7-4, Totesport, Boylesports).
The winner will tackle either England's Mark Selby or Graeme Dott, who came up trumps yesterday as my 6-4 Bonkers Bet with his thumping 4-1 win over world champion Neil Robertson.
Selby is a tough nut to crack and is the pre-match favourite (8-13, Blue Square, 888sport, Sportingbet, Betfred and Boylesports).
But former world champion Dott, like Williams, is finding his best snooker again and claimed after beating Robertson “there's a lot more to come from me”.
The win over Robertson will give the Pocket Dynamo the confidence to see off Leicester's Selby and I'm going to join the Dotts by re-investing some of yesterday's winnings on the outsider (11-8, Paddy Power).
Bonkers Bet:
- Graeme Dott (11-8, Paddy Power).
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