Betfred World Championship second-round predictions: Rocket back in action

Free snooker tips, best bets and analysis for day six of the Betfred World Championship on Thursday.

Where to watch

BBC & Eurosport 1, 1pm & 7pm Thursday

Best bets

Over 20.5 frames in Ronnie O'Sullivan v Anthony McGill
1pt 8-11 Coral, Ladbrokes

Over 20.5 frames in Neil Robertson v Jack Lisowski
1pt 8-13 BoyleSports

Preview

Ronnie O'Sullivan v Anthony McGill 1pm

The second round of the Betfred World Championship starts at lunchtime when top seed Ronnie O'Sullivan resumes his title defence with a best-of-25-frames clash against Anthony McGill.

O'Sullivan has always liked McGill, but that admiration and respect hasn't been replicated on the table with the Rocket having won all six of their previous encounters.

Their last four meetings were all over the best of 11 frames, the last two of which were 6-4 scorelines, so it looks like McGill is getting closer to registering a win over the sport's principal record-breaker.

However, their first Crucible clash could be the best yet. O'Sullivan is playing down his chances of retaining the crown, but he still posted breaks of 137, 124 and 112 in a 10-4 first-round victory over Mark Joyce, so the second-favourite in the title betting is still going to take some stopping.

But O'Sullivan can expect more of a test from McGill than he had in the last 32. The Scot is playing somewhere near his peak and, importantly, better than last year when he was edged out of a final appearance by Kyren Wilson.

McGill is scoring more heavily in Sheffield this year than last as runs of 130 and 119 testify. At the Crucible last August he made his fans wait until the semis for a couple of tons.

There has already been support for McGill – he is 4-1 from 5-1 to post a big upset victory - and that's not surprising. But that 6-0 lead tells a story, so instead it may be safer to back the last-16 rumble to last for over 20.5 frames.

Neil Robertson v Jack Lisowski 7pm

Jack Lisowski showed considerable courage to dig deep and edge out Ali Carter 10-9 in round one, but there has not been much turnaround time for the Gloucestershire potter.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire would seem an appropriate description of Lisowski's lot in the tournament, because his last-16 opponent is Neil Robertson.

The Thunder from Down Under, third in the title betting behind Judd Trump and O'Sullivan, made it look easy as usual in round one when taking apart Liang Wenbo 10-3 with breaks of 110, 108 and 100 in a lesson.

Robertson leads Lisowski 9-1 in career meetings and recent key matches have seen the Melbourne ace triumph 11-4 in the 2019 China Open and 10-5 in the Tour Championship last month.

Lisowski will look to his 9-7 loss in the 2018 International Championship semis in China, but Robertson has kicked on since then.

Lisowski posted a break of 121 in his Crucible opener but while he's likely to find his second outing tougher, there are signs that he is maturing on the baize and possibly becoming more patient.

Punters can consider going over the total centuries, but the oddsmakers have gone with a mark of over/under 4.5 so aren't giving much away.

Instead, take the chance that Lisowski recovers from his opening test well and back the clash to feature over 20.5 frames, because Robertson may soon have to dig deeper to defeat an opponent of Jackpot's talent.

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