Ronnie O'Sullivan fans must have had their hearts in their mouths on Tuesday afternoon following a fine comeback from Liang Wenbo who, after falling 9-3 down, won four frames in a row to give the tournament favourite a few nervy moments. The Rocket is now down to 10-3 to win the title, but Mark Williams awaits and in the second round and he will have to pull his finger out if he is not to bow out early.
Welshman Ryan Day is up against it after losing his first session 5-4 to World Six-Reds champion Mark Davis and is now just 4-5 with William Hill to win the match. I tipped him to win yesterday, although I was less than enthusiastic about him but, as I seem to be saying a lot this week, this match could really go either way. Davis is a best price of 5-4 with sportingbet to progress. Flip a coin...
As predicted, Ding Junhui virtually crushed Stuart Pettman into submission yesterday and the 22-1 I flagged up about him winning 10-1 is looking very promising. He needs to win the opening two frames to hit the target. The Chinese ace can still be backed at 15-2 with Boylesports to win the event outright and that still looks a tasty price (he was 9s at the outset) after his performance on Tuesday.
Stephen Maguire begins his quest for a first ever world crown on Wednesday afternoon and he looks a cert at 1-3 to sail past Stephen Lee. The Scot, reckoned to be one of the nicest players in the sport, very rarely loses in the first round of events nowadays and Lee, although still a useful player, cannot really hold a candle to the Scot in 2010.
That just leaves 2005 champion Shaun Murphy, who opens up against cockney Irish geezer Gerard Greene and is 1-6 to book a tough second round encounter with Ding.
To be frank, it's been a very hit-and-miss season for Murphy, who has lost in the first round of the Grand Prix, Welsh Open and China Open, but also reached the semi-final of the Shanghai Masters as well as winning the Premier League.
Greene has been around the scene a few years now without ever really threatening to anything wonderful, but this may be the best time to catch Murphy, although saying that he does tend to reserves his best performances for the biggest events. Hedge your bets.
