With Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ding Junhui and Mark Allen through to the semi finals of the Champion of Champions, there is still one more place available to complete the line up.
Today is the turn of Judd Trump, Shaun Murphy, Anthony McGill and recent Evergrande China Champion, John Higgins to battle it out in a group considered ‘the group of death.’ Only one player can win from the group to progress to the semi finals of this event.
The first match up today is between John Higgins and Shaun Murphy. It will be interesting to see how Higgins plays today. Clearly he will be high in confidence but like Bingham earlier in the week, he is vulnerable to tiredness after a busy few weeks travelling across Asia. Although Shaun Murphy has the ability to win any match, sometimes he lacks the killer instinct. Shaun Murphy will also struggle in the safety department against Higgins, one of his few weaknesses.
Judd Trump is up against Anthony McGill. McGill is a new talent and is certainly a player who will win lots of tournaments in the future but he still has a lot to learn first. It’s hard to see how Trump can lose this match, however he is also vulnerable to the odd unexpected loss from lower ranked players which could happen today.
Ding Junhui will is already awaiting the winner of today’s group. In the other semi final Ronnie O’Sullivan will be playing Mark Allen who beat Mark Selby last night.