2024 UK Open Finals Night Preview & Tips – JP
2024 UK Open Finals Night Tips
Now, it is time for James Punt’s 2024 UK Open Finals Night Preview. This afternoon didn’t go to plan for us but at least Damon Heta landed the place part of our e/w 50/1 outright bet. Hopefully he can go all the way tonight. James has two more bets for the semi finals, you can check them out below.
Outlook
The less said about this afternoon’s tips the better. At least we still have a runner in the tournament after Damon Heta’s fantastic win over Luke Littler. It was a proper classic tussle and hopefully he hasn’t drained the batteries too much for his semi-final.
Damon Heta vs. Dimitri van den Bergh
I am surprised that this match is first up (Ladbrokes say it is) as these two played the last two quarter finals and it means they will have much less time to relax and get prepared for the semi. That seems unfair. Especially for Heta, who expended a lot of energy in the epic match with Littler. I fear he may find it very difficult to repeat that kind of performance so soon afterwards.
Dimitri played OK against Lukeman. Smash couldn’t reproduce his heroics of last night, or indeed his form of the last few weeks. It was left to Dimitri to pick up a comfortable 10-5 win. We didn’t learn much about what he has in his locker, but he certainly won’t be as drained as Heta will be. Van den Bergh played in the semi-final here last year and lost 6-11 to MVG.
Mates
These two are good mates and lived together during the lockdown years. Their H2H record is 5-2 to Heta but Van den Bergh did win their only match so far in 2024. That was a 10-7 win at the Masters.
Heta is the 1.62 favourite, Van den Bergh 2.60. This doesn’t look like a great betting match simply because we might get an exhausted Heta and that could let Van den Bergh get a bit of a free ride. If Heta can keep it up, he wins.
We have already won the placed part of our e/w bet on Heta to win the tournament and I am not inclined to play in this match.
2024 UK Open Finals Night Tip: No Bet
Luke Humphries vs. Ricky Evans
While Stephen Bunting didn’t show up, Humphries stuck to his guns, averaged 102 and won at a canter, 10-2. He didn’t expend a lot of energy and has had a good rest, which he said he needed, which is interesting.
He said a lot of travelling had taken it out of him. Humphries has won seven of his last ten matches and hit eight ton plus averages. He is at the top of his game and is used to these long days.
Ricky beat Rob Cross 10-7. I don’t know if it really was Rob Cross. He looked like him, but clearly he was new to the game, especially the doubling bit. Both players really struggled on the outer ring and it was not pretty to watch. Evans sort of inherited the win, he didn’t play well, just a bit better than Cross.
Evans Edges H2H
These two have met nine times and it is Evans who leads 5-4. They haven’t played since November 2021 and while Evans has improved a little, Humphries is now the World Champion. Their only TV match was here in 2018, and Evans won 10-6.
This is not much of a betting opportunity, unless you fancy Evans to pull off a surprise, or at least run Humphries close. Cool Hand is the 1.14 favourite with Evans 7.00. This is Evans’ first major semi-final and he could be a bit nervous, but then again, Andrew Gilding beat MVG in last year’s final, so there is no such thing as a sure thing.
Humphries Looks Likely
I am not really a fan of betting in the latter stages of tournaments, especially these really intense ones. I think Luke Humphries is the most likely tournament winner. All of his Euro Tour success means he knows the rhythm of these three match days.
The only thing that might be worth considering is that we get a couple of dud matches. Last year both ended 11-6 as Gawlas and Van den Bergh both played poorly. There was another 11-6 in 2022 when Michael Smith beat Keane Barry by that score.
In 2021 we had another 11-6 with Wade beating Price and an 11-5 with Humphries giving MVG a drubbing. 2020 had an 11-4 and an 11-3, so recent years have seen largely one sided matches.
I can envisage Humphries having too much for Evans and the match being another one sided affair.
