Baize Betting / Paul Krishnamurty / 19 December 2008 /

In-form Ali Carter faces battling Marco Fu at the quarter-final stage of the UK Snooker Championship, Paul Krishnamurty tells you where his money is going.

Ali Carter played his part in a classic semi-final in the last big ranking event, losing 6-5 to Ryan Day at the Grand Prix, and has a great opportunity to go one better now. After a thrilling 9-8 defeat of Mark Williams, Carter starts [1.7] favourite to dismiss Marco Fu and reach Sunday's final.

No one single player has particularly shone in this event to date, but Carter has played as well as anyone in my view. Also taking into account that performance in Glasgow, and his run to last year's world final over the longer matches, Carter looks a very obvious champion. Only a peak-form Ronnie O'Sullivan had Ali's measure at Sheffield, but with the Rocket already out he should fear nobody.

Fu will be no pushover though. The 2007 Grand Prix winner has been typically efficient in eliminating three decent opponents so far, most recently Ronnie's conquerer Joe Perry. Though Perry didn't produce anywhere near his best in their match, Fu repeatedly capitalised when given chances. I expect he'll similarly take any crumbs offered by Carter to stay competitive, so rather than backing Carter at [1.7], a preferrable strategy is to back a trio of correct scores. Carter to win 9-8, 9-7 and 9-6 combines to roughly [2.7].


Recommendation:

Carter to win 9-8 @ [9.0]
Carter to win 9-7 @ [8.0]
Carter to win 9-6 @ [8.4]

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