Snooker expert Richard Mann previews Thursday night's quarter-final action and predicts a couple of close encounters.
Recommended bets: World Grand Prix day two
2pts Xiao Guodong to beat Ronnie O'Sullivan (+2.5) at 8/11
2pts Stephen Maguire to beat Shaun Murphy (+1.5) at 8/11
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Ronnie O'Sullivan continues his World Grand Prix campaign when taking on Xiao Guodong in the quarter-finals at Preston's Guild Hall on Thursday night.
The Rocket was pushed all the way by Yan Bingtao when scraping through his second-round match 4-3 and will need to be much more clinical if he is to get the better of Xiao Guodong, a fine young player who is making a real name for himself at present.
Xiao Guodong reached the quarter-finals stage of both the Scottish Open and German Masters in recent months and has progressed to the last eight here with defeats of Mark Allen and John Higgins.
He should give O'Sullivan plenty to think about and is fancied to cover the handicap (+2.5 frames) at 8/11.
Shaun Murphy and Stephen Maguire also do battle and the Scotsman might be able to push the in-form Murphy very close.
A high-class break builder with a proficient safety game, Maguire has all of the tools to be competing for ranking events with greater frequency than we have seen in the last couple of years.
However, a semi-final exit in the UK Championship signalled a return to something like his best form and he made the last eight of the Scottish Open subsequently, only finding Judd Trump too hot to handle.
A major event could easily go his way before the end of the season but his path to the semi-finals here won't be an easy one with Murphy sure to prove a tough test.
Murphy has been one of the most consistent performers on the tour this season, reaching the business end of tournaments with impressive regularity, and his game looked in good working order when beating Jack Lisowski in his second-round match.
With another close game expected, backing Maguire to cover the handicap (+1.5) at 4/6 might prove the way to go.
Posted at 1610 GMT on 22/02/18.
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