GiGi

McGill wins. O'Sullivan v Selby and Wilson v McGill. You think O'Sullivan and Selby will probably see their match as the true final now.

McGill has struggled to breakbuild and I think is the only remaining player not to knock a ton in. He's broken down on 30 or 40 because his positional play has been poor. His safety has generally been ok. Maflin is just a super low percentage shot player and while he'll pot 2/3 really difficult shots, the ones he'll inevitably miss will catch up to him like they have against McGill so far. He had to red line it for a prolonged period to get past Higgins and I just don't see him getting to 17 frames before someone mega consistent and more patient like Wilson.

Swap McGill for Maflin and Selby for O'Sullivan and that's about the size of it for me. The winner of Maflin and McGill is not getting past Wilson though. Neither are going to be consistent enough over 33 frames.

Back to McGill, I see since his storm in a teacup run-in with Clarke that it's given some mutants an excuse for anti-Scottish sentiment to come pouring out. People calling him McCheat, which aside from being rank awful patter (and it being his opponent who was literally breaking the rules) and generally making sure to call him a Scottish cheat just shows the masks slipping for some. I'm usually happy enough to see a Scot doing well but I'm now fully behind him to win the entire tournament just to annoy as many of these gammony ghouls as possible. If he was to make to the final and beat O'Sullivan I might need revived from the laughter.

Still fancy being right tbh.

Casino Cao Yupeng

McGill threw in a pretty crap 2nd session but he won a crucial final frame. Should be 9-7 or arguably even 8-8 but he's somehow got out 10-6 in front. He'll be delighted with that because he did his best to fluff a very commanding lead. Even at 10-6 I wouldn't be confident of him putting Maflin away.

If you get to the final at the crucible and your opponent leaves a free ball with 15 reds on the table then the sport is finished anyway.

Think Steve Davis showed up for work drunk this morning.

There's pretty much no value to be gained in looking for a snooker off the break. The pack will not be open and the snookered player will just roll into it since it's a massive target and no chance of leaving anything on. Much better to be tight to the cushion and leave a much more difficult return of safety.

Finishes the session in style and it's 6-2 now. Playing shots off the spider without holding the rest, underarm specials and generally just looked like he was taking the piss. Shot time must have been about 3 seconds at the end there as well. Crushing stuff honestly. If he plays like that tomorrow O'Sullivan will really struggle to catch him even with the form he's in.

Williams playing 1 handed shots and everything. 5-2 up on O'Sullivan now.

Maflin is just a lovely cueist. Everything hit so cleanly and positively. He'll have made plenty of fans from this run.

And a strong start to the battle of '92 as well. Hate to say it but O'Sullivan has looked tremendous in all of his matches so far. Can't see past him winning it this year.

Look at this group compared to the one Ross County got where they are the only full time team. Wooft. We could finish bottom and I'd not be shocked.