Defending champion John Higgins has been in good form this season and will be confident of claiming the scalp of Anthony McGill in Thursday’s first-round clash in the Champion of Champions. Higgins, who defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-7 in last year’s final, won his 29th ranking tournament at the 2017 Indian Open in September after beating fellow Scot McGill 5-1 in the final. That was the four-time world champion’s second successive win over his compatriot and the 42-year-old will be hoping to keep that mental edge over his opponent when they meet on Thursday.
Wishaw’s finest has also reached the quarter-final of the International Championship and the Hong Kong Masters this year, with his form making for good reading ahead of his title defence. However, McGill has also been in impressive form this year, reaching the semi-finals of the English Open and Six-red World Championship whilst he also ended up as runner-up at the Indian Open. That final defeat to Higgins may add an extra spark to Thursday’s encounter and ‘The Guillotine’ is the 9/5 outsider to win the match whilst his fellow Scot is the narrow 2/5 favourite. The winner of this encounter will then go up against either five-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan or 2010 world champion Neil Robertson in the quarter-final later that night.
Australia’s number one is the outsider at 7/4 to advance into the last eight whilst ‘The Rocket’, who triumphed at the 2017 English Open, is the 4/9 favourite. This will be the 23rd time the pair have faced each other and although O’Sullivan has won 13 of those meetings, Robertson has won the last two matches, most recently in the Hong Kong Masters finals.
Snooker odds available at Dafabet.