Snooker
UK Snooker Championship Quarter-Final Predictions & Betting Tips (2025)
With surprise early exits, last frame deciders and late-night comebacks there has been plenty of twists and turns already at the UK Snooker Championship in York. Now, as the tournament reaches the business end of the quarter-finals we can expect that drama to intensify.
Mark Selby’s encounter with Barry Hawkins this evening is a likely case in point, the best mates away from the baize having played out some closely fought, and subsequently gripping, duels in the past.
Selby may be a four-time world champion, who is currently priced up as second favourite in the betting to win this competition for a third time on Sunday, but the pair have competed for 271 frames across their careers. The ‘Jester from Leicester’ only marginally edges it with 139 frames won to 132.
Moreover, Hawkins produced a masterclass on Thursday, to whitewash Elliott Slessor 6-0 and seems intent on making it two UK Championship finals in a row after narrowly missing out last year, losing 10-8 to Judd Trump.
In complete control throughout, the ‘Hawk’ boasted a 97% pot success rate as Slessor could only remain in his seat, admire his clinical opponent, and accept his fate.
Selby meanwhile has dispatched Lei Peifan and Zhou Yuelong with relative ease but as recently as late October was candidly admitting that he is lacking confidence this season.
‘Pathetic’ was how he described his exit in the NI Open going on to say, “I’ve not really been feeling comfortable in what I’m doing.”
Hawkins is generously priced to progress to the last four and has every opportunity to do precisely that.
Intriguingly, Selby is not the only titan of the game to be suffering a crisis of confidence at present. Judd Trump too is wondering where the magic has gone after edging past Si Jiahui in the last 16.
“I don’t quite have that belief at the moment,” the reigning champion of this event told BBC Sport. “I just became a little bit hesitant and looking for trouble.”
Though hardly beset by crippling doubt as he constructed a sublime 117 break against Si there were also jawed attempts on display when the pressure mounted. Trump certainly has the beating of Ding Junhui today, and ‘Trump to win and Trump most centuries’ appeals at Evens in the snooker betting.
But the world number one’s status as tournament favourite at this juncture should be cast in some doubt.
Instead, it is Neil Robertson who is fancied to lift aloft the trophy on Sunday evening amidst a flurry of confetti.
The Aussie pot machine didn’t even qualify for last year’s World Championship, so dramatic was his slump in 2024. Attributing his recovery to a team of sports psychologists however Robertson has roared back since, rediscovering the kind of form that has seen him top the world rankings on four separate occasions.
When a man who has won 26 ranking titles declares that he is playing ‘better than ever’ he’s worth listening to. Robertson cruised past Julien Leclercq in the last 32 and may as well have worn carpet slippers when beating Wu Yize 6-1.
Expect another comprehensive win over Pang Junxu later today.
Which leaves only a tantalising contest between Shaun Murphy and Zhang Anda to complete the quarter-final line-up.
Murphy’s comeback from 4-1 down last night to beat the last remaining ‘Class of 92’ participant John Higgins was once again the measure of a player blessed with iron-clad self-belief. Time and again, the Englishman mined down into that belief, taking full advantage of any errors that came his way, with a 53 break, under extreme pressure, a particular stand-out.
“One ball at a time,” was Murphy’s typically no-nonsense explanation for the comeback but such is the nature of this tournament he now has less than 19 hours to prepare for another formidable foe.
Zhang may have needed maximum frames to see off Gary Wilson in the last 32 but the 33-year-old – making the quarter finals in this competition for the third consecutive year – looked fearsomely good against his compatriot Zhao Xintong yesterday, the reigning world champion no less.
After an iffy start it’s no exaggeration to say that Zhang was nigh-on faultless thereafter and though Murphy easily won their last meeting at the Masters back in January a much tougher task awaits him here.
*Odds subject to change – prices accurate at the time of writing*
