Mark Davis unlikely to trouble Ronnie O'Sullivan in semi-final showdown

Semi-finals
Eurosport, from 1pm Saturday

S Bingham v S Maguire1pm
There is little to separate Stuart Bingham from Stephen Maguire and it could be worth backing the outsider to come through their semi-final.

Maguire was one of those to bemoan the conditions in Crawley early on in the English Open after beating James Cahill 4-3 but he has knuckled down to perform better in wins over Yan Bingtao, Jordan Brown, Zhou Yuelong and Noppon Saengkham.

The quarter-final victory over Saengkham included breaks of 102 and 94 and, as his nickname suggests, On Fire Maguire is difficult to stop once he is fully in the groove.

Bingham has looked in decent nick, whitewashing Duane Jones, Hossein Vafaei and Ricky Walden, although he was close to defeat against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and admitted his performance in beating Ali Carter last time out was the worst he had played this week.

It still included a break of 138 but Carter had opportunities to hurt Bingham in the middle of the match and failed to take advantage.

Recommendation
S Maguire
1pt 5-4 Betfred

R O'Sullivan v M Davis7pm

Veteran Mark Davis has never reached the final of a ranking event and that is likely to still be the case after his semi-final with red-hot favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan.

The Rocket has had an eventful week, bemoaning the smell of urine at the venue and knocking in a maximum, and he had to dig deep to see off Chinese teenage sensation Luo Honghao in the quarter-finals.

O'Sullivan's mindset is always taken on trust but as long as he is remotely focused it should be as comfortable as odds of 1-5 suggest.

Davis beat O'Sullivan in the 2017 Welsh Open, a result reversed in last year's English Open, when the Rocket outscored his opponent 528-99.

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