O’Sullivan and Selby tipped to reach Crucible semi finals
Published:Ronnie O’Sullivan insists he only changed his mind to play in the Snooker World Championship to win the tournament and he can continue his passage into the semi finals with a victory over John Higgins.
O’Sullivan is 4/5 in the snooker betting to beat Higgins, but given the way he played in beating Shaun Murphy in his last-eight encounter, the Rocket believes he heads into the match as the underdog.
However, Higgins was also particularly sluggish in the opening frames of his triumph over Rory McLeod and will himself need to step up his game.
Pre tournament favourite Higgins, who is 1/1 to beat O’Sullivan, can at least take comfort from the fact that he leads 11-5 in the head-to-head meetings between the pair.
Higgins has also displayed the better form ahead of the tournament with victories at the UK Championship and Welsh Open in recent months.
The fourth quarter final pits Mark Selby against Ding Junhui and there are numerous reasons as to why the former can be expected to claim victory.
Selby has arguably been the most impressive player in the tournament to date, particularly when registering six centuries in his second round demolition of Stephen Hendry.
Meanwhile, Ding is sure to be feeling slightly tired after his struggles to edge past Stuart Bingham 13-12 last night, where his reserves were tested in battling back from 12-9 down.
A well-rested Selby is certainly worth backing at 1/2 in the Snooker World Championship odds to beat Ding, while 5/2 seems reasonable value that he prevails by between four and six frames.
Ding is 13/8 to beat Selby and will need to start quickly to avoid leaving himself too much to do.
A £30 stake on Selby beating Ding 13-7 would return £270. New customers can sign up here for a free £30 bet.
