It's been an eventful few days already in Beijing for the Sanyuan Foods China Open, with world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan knocked out by wildcard Tian Pengfei, and John Higgins, Stephen Maguire, Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby have also all exited before the last-eight stage, while Grand Prix winner Neil Robertson banged in a 147 maximum in losing 5-1 to reigning champion Peter Ebdon? What will Good Friday throw up?
Well, hopefully for puntinplay followers, a victory for 50-1 pre-tournament tip MARCO FU who is up against Mark Williams in the quarter-final. Fu is now only a best price of 10-1.
Williams has performed impressively so far considering he has had a tough run, firstly beating the dangerous Jamie Cope and then cruising past Higgins 5-2. He is the 8-15 favourite with extrabet to see off the Hong Kong man, but as I explained in my preview piece, Fu is a changed man since the Welsh Open and he breezed past qualifier Bjorn Haneveer before coming back from 3-0 down to overcome Nigel Bond 5-3.
Fu is a stand-out 7-4 with Betfred and Sportingbet to get past the Welshman – on paper and in current form, Williams would be the choice for the majority of punters, but Fu is displaying a steely resolve at present and that can see him through this tie. And after what has happened over the past couple of days, really anything could happen and I wouldn't be surprised to see an easy win for Fu: a 5-1 win is 22-1 with Betfred and a 5-0 success is 66-1 with the same firm.
Defending champion Ebdon has been grinding his way through the tournament and has only made three breaks over 60 in wins against Judd Trump and Robertson, but he's up against local hero DING JUNHUI and I think his run will come to an end.
Ding's match against Selby was a high-quality affair, with both players making two centuries apiece – Ding also knocked in two against Gerard Greene – and the way he is playing at the moment I cannot see Ebdon getting close to him and at 4-7 with Victor Chandler, the Chinese star is the choice here.
MARK KING makes a rare foray into the last-eight of a tournament and I really think he can get the better of 'The Captain', Ali Carter (who is far too short at 4-9). King overcame a potential banana skin in the guise of Pengfei last time out, but four breaks of 50+ saw him win his second game of the week and that will be a massive booster to his confidence.
Carter hasn't really been troubled thus far, but that could be to his detriment as sometimes players need tough games to get them in the zone and firing and at 2-1, King could be the value bet of this round.
That just leaves Mark Allen against STEPHEN HENDRY and I think the legendary Scot looks in the sort of mood to keep his good run going. Hendry was impervious against Ryan Day, whitewashing the Welshman in round two, and I expect him to keep rolling back the years on Friday. Allen is a cracking talent, but he tends to lose his way in the latter stages of events and Hendry is ready to pounce.
