Who can top Trump?
The UK Championship has a high quality quarter-final line-up but Sky Bet has rated Judd Trump as the favourite.
Last Updated: 08/12/11 11:03am
Few would argue that the quality of the matches in York has diminished despite the absence of both Ronnie O'Sullivan and World Champion John Higgins.
In fact, you could go as far as to say that this is the new generation of snooker players and we have seen the best of the former champions. Judd Trump features and he looks to be the man to beat in the top half of the draw, having come from behind to beat O'Sullivan in the deciding frame in the previous round.
Trump takes on temperamental Scot Stephen Maguire, who disposed of an out of form Higgins in some style. Trump is 4/7 favourite with Sky Bet for the match - a price that would probably have been reversed less than a year ago. But the youngster has come on so much in the last six months that few would argue against him being favourite. Maguire is more than capable, though, and will have his supporters at 11/8.
However, Sky Bet's Andy Thorp reckons Trump's ultra-aggressive game will put Maguire under pressure.
He said: "Trump is redefining the game of snooker again as Davis did in the 80s and Hendry did in the 90s. Players feel they have to take more pots on and get in first as there isn't a safe place on the table to put the cue ball when Trump is playing. This puts additional pressures on players and they start to miss balls that they wouldn't normally do."
With this in mind - not to mention Maguire's suspect temper when things don't go according to plan - the value could be to back Trump -2.5 frames at 13/8 with smaller stakes on 6-0 at 28/1 and 6-1 at 11/1 just in case Maguire does indeed self-combust. Those fancying a high quality encounter will like the 16/1 odds for four or more centuries in the match, but more realistic could be exactly 3 at 7/1.
The second match of the afternoon will have viewers switching channels between the games, with former World Champion Neil Robertson taking on China's superstar Ding Junhui. Robertson shades favouritism at 8/11 with Junhui 11/10 and it has to be a tough match to call with both players in fine form.
The best bets could be the 11/4 for the match to go to an eleventh and deciding frame. A price that particularly catches the eye if you fancy a close game is the 5/6 over 6.5 50 breaks price. Both players are prolific break builders and with potentially 10 or 11 frames to play it would be a surprise if there wasn't a 50 break in most, if not all, of the frames.
Sky Bet have put up a couple of special double prices for the afternoon's matches and go 15/8 that both Trump and Robertson win and they go 4/5 that there is at least one century break in each match.
The evening's games feature Shaun Murphy who takes on Ricky Walden and Mark Allen who plays Marco Fu. All the quarter-final matches are close in the betting and Murphy is 4/7 to defeat Ricky Walden who looks to be regaining his form of a few seasons ago and the 11/8 on him will tempt punters in.
Mark Allen 8/13 takes on consistently under rated Marco Fu 5/4 in the other game and the man from Hong Kong is worth a bet at 5/4 after he calmly put out the world number 1 Mark Selby 6-3 last night. However, it is unlikely that he will win the match easily so a better bet may be for him to win 6-4 or 6-5 both priced up at 7/1.
Sky Bet have priced up all four favourites to win today and offer 13/2 that Robertson, Trump, Murphy and Allen all win as well as offering an evening special price of 13/8 for Murphy and Allen to win.
There are also some juicy prices on Sky Bet's name the finalists market with a Trump/Murphy final most likely at 11/2.
