four-leaf

2/1 comes in with Noppert but 4-fold is dead at the 2nd stage with a pretty embarrassing performance from Williams. 75 average. I reckon I could give him a game. Blindfolded.
 

Evening Session :
Noppert Vs Heaver
Clemens Vs Williams
Cross Vs Van Barneveld
Dobey Vs Rusty Rodriguez
I have to get through these fast as I'm out for the next couple hours. I'll take Noppert to beat Heaver. I reckon he may hit the match treble too. Heaver beat Mathers but only managed 2 180s and an 84 average. I think Noppert wins 3-0/3-1. Williams has every chance against Clemens. Williams scored decent with a 93 average and 3 180s in his last match and Clemens CAN be inconsistent so there is a small chance on Williams coming through.
I think Cross beats Barney. Barney had a really good performance in the win over ilagan but he only managed 2 180s and I think Cross with the most 180s is the bet for me here. Finally, Quarter tip Dobey gets his tournament underway and has Rusty Rodriguez. It's a tough match for Dobey but I'm hoping he turns up. 
3pts Noppert to beat Heaver, hit most 180s and highest checkout 2/1 paddypower
3pts Cross to beat RVB and hit most 180s 2/1 paddypower
2pts Williams to beat Clemens 5/2 paddypower
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1pt 4-fold - Noppert to win and hit most 180s / Cross to win and hit most 180s / Willaims 14/1 paddypower
 

⏏️ Session 1 ⏏️ Part 10 / Level 2
? Suljovic Win v Soutar
28u @1,44

Let's see who makes the last 4 and the players might take the match abit more seriously.

Gonna back you on Alan Soutar

Leeds v Arsenal (2) @ 2.1
Blackpool v Peterborough (1) @ 2.00
Seville v Athletico Madrid (1) @ 2.62
10pts win treble please

Not me either really. Saw Shinikova, completely useless. Sujeong Jang Southkoreas best better watch out because she's nowhere near any of the Fru sis. Her game mostly was a disaster in her first match. Na lae Han might pose some resistance and Kiki Mlad.

Yes, I wouldn't be massively surprised to see either win this event. Such an excellent opportunity given the field. If they develop further, the Czech team will just be incredible. 

I'm thinking of betting on Liverpool. They usually have a good boxing day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59732905
This is good news! It looks as though the Premier League clubs are confident they'll be able to get these matches played over the next fortnight. 

Yeah, Championship League gets started with Group 1 tomorrow. In the outright market there are a few that I like the look of and players that end to do well in this kind of format. Here are my 4 :
1pt e/w M. Williams to win Championship League 16/1 paddypower
1pt e/w D. Gilbert to win Championship League 20/1 paddypower
1pt e/w T. Ford to win Championship League 25/1 paddypower
1pt e/w A. Carter to win Championship League 40/1 paddypower

Group 1 consists of favourite Lisowski along with Ford, Yuelong, Wenbo, Day, Gary Wilson and Dott. Tom Ford is the one I think I'll go with. He has been abit up and down recently but he is a good fast scoring player and I think that's what you want here. Lisowski you would think would suit this but hasn't done that great in previous events of this nature. Yuelong can have his day and even Dott has a good history here but I'll stick to the one here.
3pts T. Ford to win Group 1 5/1 bet365

Enjoy the story Bernard Tomic wants a comeback: "I poured blood, sweat and tears into this sport%2�� -  https://www.tennis.com/api/tenniscom/article/lazy/bernard-tomic-wants-a-comeback-i-poured-blood-sweat-and-tears-into-this-sport
My view on this is that Tomic seems like someone to back in the Aussie O qualies. Could be interesting if he's really serious.
For the maindraw I will back Talon Griekspoor no matter who he will play. If you win 8 challengers in a season even if 7 of them was on clay you can be sure he's ready for the challenge of playing a full season in the top 100.

Madness! Fair play to Noel, though, she was seriously good today against Hercog!

Agree with this. I wouldn't even necessarily say that Gilbert played at that high a level against Trump, and he suggested as much in an interview afterwards. It should be Higgins v Trump and it would have been if Trump had been able to seal Gilbert's collapse from 3-0 ahead, but he choked with a miss on the final green that you have to see to believe. If it wasn't a choke, the only other explanation I can think of is that he was thinking too much about position on the brown so that he forgot to make sure about the green. After that, Gilbert had work to do and credit to him for being able to pick himself up and clear. The blue he potted was high tariff and worthy of winning the match.

The one in Angers is a WTA 125k  

It will be interesting to see how this pans out either way. China has been a big aim for the WTA management recently and I didn't think they would have the guts to pull out. It's obviously great that they did. The Olympics aren't going to be taken from China, obviously, but it's a shame that there isn't more pressure from that side. It'd be great to see some cooperation between the sporting bodies. These issues are much bigger than any sport, or even all sports combined honestly. 

Iga Swiatek fired her coach Piotr Sierzputowski; WTA's coach of the year 2020 .
The new coach is Wiktorowicz, who used to work with A. Radwanska.

Quarter finals today then. Here is the line up :
McGill Vs Brecel (1pm)
Wilson Vs Ronnie (1pm)
Hawkins Vs Hicks (7pm)
Xintong Vs Lisowski (7pm)
A wade open Quarter finals and you could probably say atleast half of those are unexpected in this stage of the tournament. The first to look at is McGill taking on Luca Brecel. McGill came through 6-3 against Jordan Brown and scored well, with one century and 3 50+ breaks. He's now hit a century in his last 3 matches. Brecel beat Hamilton with ease, 6-1. He hit 3 50+ breaks in that win and barring Ford has still yet to have anybody play well against him. H2H shows Brecel winning all four of their match-ups but they were all over 4 years ago. The last 2 have been 6-4 and a deciding leg and so we should expect a close match, I think. I'm going to take over 9.5 frames.
The main match at 1pm will ofcourse be Ronnie O'Sullivan taking on Kyren Wilson. You never know what you're going to get with Kyren and I've somewhat put him on my ignore list after watching him against Judd Trump in that thrashing. In my opinion, Kyren Wilson has put pressure on himself and that's why he lost so hard against Judd. You see, Wilson has been moaning that he never gets on the "main table" or "table 1" and then Judd came back and said "you got to earn it" so when they then met, all the pressure was on Kyren to perform. We know the rest. I just wonder if we'll see a similarly poor performance now he is on the main table once again and against Ronnie. I'm not looking to get too involved but Paddy are offering Ronnie to win 6-3/6-4 or 6-5 at 5/4 and I'll have a small bet on that. I think this is a 6-3/6-4 Ronnie match.
Evening matches and we start with Hawkins taking on Andy Hicks. I thought the price on Hicks on the handicap was either generous or insulting, if you look at how Hicks has played, but I must admit that I never saw him beating Gilbert. Hicks was just excellent with 6 50+ breaks and it's most likely the best I've seen him play. Hawkins was pretty terrible in the first session against Selt and found himself 3-1 down but after the break, a mix of Selt turning to mush and Hawkins stepping it up meant he won the next 5 back-to-back to go through. These two actually met in the 2015 UK Championships Last 128 and Hawkins won on a deciding leg. The bookies are still offering +3.5 on the handicap but the price isn't as nice this time around. It will go into my accy.
Finally, Xintong takes on Lisowski. These two met last year at the World Grand Prix Quarter Final and Jack won 5-3. Lisowski deserved to beat Vafaei but it could have been different if Vafaei didn't take the last red on from an awkward position and stick it up. If it went in then we would have gone to a deciding leg and we've seen that Lisowski tends to have a weakness in his composure or atleast in his concentration. Xintong has beaten Sijun, Un-Nooh, Higgins and Peter Lines. He has hit 4 centuries in his 4 matches and despite losing abit of concentration himself mid-game against Lines, he put his foot down to win 6-4. I don't think it's an easy one to call and I'm only going to stick the bet into an accy but I would pick Lisowski at a push. I just think that Xintong is due one of his dodgy performances.
5pts Over 9.5 frames McGill Vs Brecel 11/10 paddypower
2pts Ronnie to beat Wilson 6-3/6-4 or 6-4 5/4 paddypower
1pt accy - McGill Vs Brecel (Over 9.5 frames) / O'Sullivan (-1.5 frames) / Hicks (+3.5) / Lisowski 16/1 paddypower (money back if one loses)
 

Hicks +3.5 frames at evens with Unibet
10/10 play for me. Thanks @Fader

Hicks +3.5 frames at evens with Unibet
10/10 play for me. Thanks @Fader

We're getting to the latter stages of the tournament now. By end of play tonight it will be the Quarter Finals mapped out and many big names have fallen. Here is the today's line up :
Hamilton Vs Brecel (1pm)
Lisowski Vs Vafaei (1pm)
Selt Vs Hawkins (7pm)
Gilbert Vs Hicks (7pm)
Hamilton can probably consider himself somewhat fortunate of having the chance to make a Quarter Finals of a ranking event when he plays Luca Brecel today. My outright pick pre tournament of Mark Williams looked in great shape until he fell asleep and was shattered with post covid tiredness against him and got hit with a deciding frame fluke, too. Sour grapes aside, Hamilton has a highest break of 88 in the tournament and you're not going to make the latter stages with scoring like that. The match against Walden was awful and on the other hand, Brecel looks to be in abit of form as of late. Maguire never turned up in the last round, but he done the job with a whitewash and he also rather annoyingly took out Tom Ford with a deciding leg after going down 4-5. I think he beats Hamilton with a couple to spare but the value just isn't there for an outright pick.
In the other 1pm match, Jack Lisowski takes on Vafaei. Vafaei has had some big scalps over the last couple of tournaments with big wins against Ronnie and Selby and he has also beaten Allen this season. Inevitbile, the level of play always reduces after a big win though and it put me off backing Vafaei in the last round. We see it all the time, losing to Higginson after beating Ronnie for example this season and it's something to be mindful of. He didn't play particularly great in his win over Guodong, but it was enough for him to win without too much fuss. He will have a harder match today as Lisowski has been pretty impressive in this tournament, with a couple of centuries and 9 50+ breaks in his 3 matches won. Dott could have been a tricky match for Lisowski but he won with ease. Lisowski has a good record against Vafaei, winning 4 of the 5 they've played and that includes winning the last 3. 2 of those 3 were last year and 2 of those 3 were also 4-0 whitewashes. I think Lisowski goes through here.
In the evening matches, Selt plays Hawkins after his thumping of Trump. Selt has had quite a hard route compared to a few others. Bingyu is no mean feat and then he had Perry and Trump. Hawkins has beat Reanne Evans, Yang and Yupeng. Only Yupeng has really put up any kind of resistance though as the other 2 opponents didn't hit a 50+ break between them. It will be interesting to see if Hawkins form continues when he plays somebody who comes back at him. Like I said above, a player tends to lose abit of form after a big win and beating Trump was certainly a big win. Hawkins has beaten in the last couple of matches, including a 10-3 thrashing at the World Championships so that head-to-head record along with likely drop after beating Trump makes me think Hawkins probably goes through. Selt abit of value if Hawkins buckles under abit of scoring pressure.
Finally, final pre-tournament pick, Gilbert takes on Hicks. I thought Mark Allen would go on and win this tournament if I'm honest, before the Gilbert match and at 5-2 up you would think that was a step closer, but Gilbert came back and won 4 in a row and now he has a great chance of going deep here. I fancy him to beat Hicks tonight. He is playing some great stuff and has already won an event this year. Allen probably helped Gilbert in that match but it's up to Gilbert to now take the bull by the horn and go on. He has every chance of making the Quarters and beyond. Nevertheless, the bookies are being abit ridiculous in putting the handicap at -3.5 and offering Hicks at 11/10 on the +3.5 and I'll take that in the 4-fold.
5pts Lisowski (-1.5 frames) to beat Vafaei 11/10 paddypower
1pt 4-fold Brecel (-1.5 frames) / Lisowski (-1.5 frames) / Hicks (+3.5) / Selt 18/1 paddypower (money back if one loses)

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I think it's fair enough to call it a shock, both in terms of Higgins failing to win from 5-3 up and also in terms of respective form - Xintong hasn't done much recently and lost 5-4 against Hill just the other week from 3-0 and 4-2 up, and then he wins the last three frames against one of the best players ever. That said, Higgins hadn't played all that well despite getting to 5-3 ahead and once it went to 5-4 and especially after Higgins missed a chance to win 6-4 there was almost an inevitability that he would lose. The red he went for in the final frame which proved to be his final shot looked like a cop out as it was such a difficult shot, almost as though he didn't have the energy for a long and possibly scrappy decider and so it was a case of 'if this red goes in I might clear up and if it doesn't I'll probably lose, but at least it'll be over soon one way or the other' 

Well, that's one way to lose a good streak! Congrats for the Domingues pick @Mikus79, that was a good one!
Jesika Maleckova to beat Nikola Bartunkova at 1.81 with Unibet
I think Bartunkova isn't quite yet there, though she's a decent prospect for the future at just 15 years old! Maleckova has a 2-0 record here and I think she'll get at least one over Bartunkova before the latter starts to outpace her. Would have the odds around 1.57.