Good morning. Welcome to day seven of the Betfred.com World Championship. It’s Good Friday and it will be another great day at the Crucible!
It’s possible we may have our first quarter-finalist as early as this lunchtime. Mark Williams resumed 7-1 ahead of Jamie Cope in their second-round match and if he wins six of this morning’s frames, the Welshman, who is the 11/2 joint third favourite for the title, will be through with a session to spare.
But to suggest that will happen would be a disservice to Cope, who is a highly talented break-builder and a match for the best on his day. Let’s hope he can make more of a fight of it than he did on Thursday, when Williams produced such a whirlwind performance that eight frames were completed in 1 hour 28 minutes, no frame lasting longer than 14 minutes!
However, the stats are not in his favour. Since 2001, 10 players have led 7-1 after the first session of a best-of-25 frames match at the Crucible and they have all gone on to win.
On the other table, Ali Carter and Graeme Dott get under way and their proximity in the world rankings is matched by their closeness in the match odds.
They are the No 8 and No 9 seeds and Carter just shaded favouritism in the betting, being 4/5 compared to Dott’s price of Evens.
I’ll be back in due course with all the breaking news…
