amity

Well, that was tense! Looking forward to the Si/Luca match as that should be attacking and open. Whoever's sitting on Si at 1000 outright would be advised to lay some of it off as I expect he won't have much left to give after all the frames he's played or maybe he's still young enough for that not to matter. All of China will be rooting for him which brings a lot of pressure too.

WTA Madrid - Kvitova to beat Niemeier - 1.45 on Betfair
Niemeier horribly out of form, 4-12 this year with half her wins indoors. Kvitova taking lots of time to chill so she's fresh to compete. Coming off a win in Miami she will no doubt have been practising on the dirt so will be ready to smash it. 
Everything Niemeier can do Kvitova can do levels above. I was expecting 1.3 on Kvitova so all over 1.45.

It'll be worth opposing Brecel in the next round now. That result will guarantee he's overvalued, especially as he was nowhere near as good as was suggested after the match - that's just what always seems to happen when Ronnie loses. He played well there's no doubt, but to an extent he was allowed to. I don't see that happening next round.

Genuinely, I have never seen a professional snooker match, particularly in the latter stages of such a huge tournament, with such a shockingly poor standard from both players. I don't know if nerves can explain it. Jones particularly made some absolutely inexplicable mistakes, in almost every frame. Allen only got through as his level of play was not quite as appalling as Jones. Selby/Higgins will go to town on him in the semis, if this match is anything to go by.

I think with Si then it's fair. He's 20 and it's a debut for him. McGill can have no excuses.
Same in the other game I suppose. Jak Jones you can understand but despite Allen never getting very far here, he has won major tournaments and should be able to hold his nerve better than that. It's rubbish.
I think only Higgins or Selby beat Ronnie purely because they wont bottle the big shots as much. Ronnie was utter dross against Brecel yesterday evening and still came out 4-4 on the session

really crap isn't it
Ronnie, Higgins or Selby will destroy McGill on this showing. I think winner of Higgins/Selby is the eventual winner.
McGill went 8-6 up and then just gave 2 of the most ridiculous frames away. They're playing at 4-4/5-5/6-6 like it's 12-12.

Not so fast there, both Jones and Allen are challenging hard as well for the title of "most inept performance in a world snooker championship quarter final in history" 😆🤦‍♂️

Incidentally am watching Jones Allen now and the standard is not great. A lot of missed pots from both. Scrappy frames and very few big breaks aside from Jones with 94 early doors, My centuries bet not looking too likely unless both get their fingers out sharpish. Ye gods, another missed sitter from Jones 😦 this is really brutal standard at the moment, neither of them deserve to go any further on this showing. 

McGill was shocking for the first half of the session but got it back to 4-4. Both matches ended 4-4 as it goes. I watched a bit of Brecel vs Ronnie and Brecel had his chances, too. Then he absolutely bottled it. It's a wide open tournament really and if nobody excels then it's Ronnies to lose, I guess.

that pot from Higgins shouldn't really be possible. (below) that's for sure. Interesting he thinks the bottom pockets could be slightly bigger. I would be really suprised if that were true but you can't deny that pot should never happen.
 

well Neal Founds seems to think it is! 😆
here's where I read it: Neal Foulds talks Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and big pockets as the World Snooker Championship enters home straight (sportinglife.com)

Quarter final line-up complete, A lot of one-sided second round matches so let's hope the 1/4's are a bit tighter. I'd love to have a Si/Jak final but surely that's an impossibility! Would be nice to have a new name on the trophy if Ronnie doesn't win his eighth. 

Jiahui through again and with ease. Showed a few glimpses of nerves but he now has the winner of McGill and Lisowski in a big semi-final. 

Very impressive display from the 20 year old, Murphy had his chance in the last but ran out of position. I wonder if he can get past Milkins next? The Perry collapse was a bit of a shocker too!

First thing I thought after the 147 - what price two or more. Wouldn't surprise me if there's another the scoring is so good.

Get in McGill. What a win that is for Ant McGill. Murphy vs McGill QF please.

Thanks for posting that, I only had 20 on it but nice to collect so early! Kyren's on fire at the moment. Judd was poor again but McGill always seems to overachieve at Sheffield.

147 landed. Cheers Kyren 

Agreed. Idiotic protests like this just achieve the opposite in that it just makes me want to use more oil lol.
Honestly, if these protesters came up with an intelligent argument I.e. something along the lines of:
"I think the sport should not use oil for 'xyz' item, instead why doesn't the sport use 'abc' non oil based item instead..."
Then I could respect them, the actions yesterday were the equivalent of a toddler throwing their toys out the pram. End of.

Just stop oil protesters up to their usual disruptive tricks, not sure why they didn't cover both tables with the powdered orange paint but thankfully table 2 was able to resume play after less than an hours delay and had the bonus of the arena all to themselves! It's a pity Fan didn't put up a stronger showing as he had plenty of chances.

Alexandrova is very hit and miss in my experience. The kind of player who can beat anyone but also lose to anyone.

Crazy scenes tonight, these JSO people are just morons along with animal protesters at the National a few days ago.

Good to see you on here harry! I've popped 20 quid on the 147 bet as an interest bet so I'll be rooting for it! Looking at the first round ties it's a shame that the the two best mates from the north east have drawn each other, they even play at the same club(Wilson & Slessor) - I was impressed with Elliot in the qualies but can he bring that to the Crucible?
Looking forward to day one...

good call on Walden. Day beat Donaldson 10-0. Wow  
Hoping for Xu Si to beat Junxu for 6/1 winner. Much needed. Looking forward to this all starting for real now.

Miomir Kecmanovic to beat Lorenzo Musetti at 2.00 with William Hill
Miomir looks like the bet for today to me, he's been on the up recently, while Musetti has been going down for a while now, and the rest time should be sufficient for Kecmanovic to have a better shot than the odds suggest imo. If you're losing to Muller on clay, you shouldn't be a fav against Kecmanovic.