World Snooker Championship: Selby Shines and Hawkins is heroic
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Snooker fans have witnessed an exciting few days of World Championship action, with a number of surprise results and dramatic matches.
Five-time World Championship winner Ronnie O’Sullivan was sensationally dumped out of the tournament by Barry Hawkins on Monday night, with the Hawk edging a dramatic second-round game 13-12.
It’s fair to say the result surprised many, with Hawkins priced at 15/2 before the first session began, and having failed to defeat the Rocket in their previous 13 meetings.
However, the Ditton native has a strong record in this competition, having reached the semi-finals three times, finishing as the losing finalist in 2013.
That game followed the second-round exit of another prestigious name in Judd Trump, who was ousted 13-10 by Ding Junhui. The latter led 10-6 going into the final session and avoided a late scare to wrap up his place in the quarter-final.
And the man affectionately nicknamed the ‘Star of the East’ produced an even finer performance in his quarter-final, breezing past veteran two-time World Champion Mark Williams with a 13-3 win.
Ding will be joined in the semis by Mark Selby, after the 32-year-old beat Kyren Wilson 13-8. Having won both the German Masters and Chinese Open in 2015, he’s the 7/4 favourite to secure the title this year.
The other quarter-finals are still to be decided, with Marco Fu facing Hawkins and Alan McManus up against John Higgins.
Having lifted the Welsh Open, Australian Goldfields Open and International Championship in 2015, Higgins is 1/8 to beat McManus, with the 5/1 Scot having last won a title – the Thailand Open – in 1996.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
