Fine margins: The key to victory for Luke Littler and Josh Rock with intriguing World Matchplay statistic

Josh Rock and Luke Littler made it through to the semi-finals on Friday night at the World Matchplay and will face off in the leading clash on Saturday in the semi-finals but the key it seems was edging the mini sessions as they all finished the same scoreline.

After an initial 2-0 to Rock to start off, all eleven mini sessions from there were won by 3-2. This showed the close nature of both of the ties and also the fine margins that were on display as Rock surged through somewhat more comfortably.

But while he won by four legs, this was due to the fact that he edged more of the sessions 3-2. He won four out of the five 3-2 which was the difference as he claimed four more legs than Price who was in the game during every stanza but gave up one more leg during each of them.

While Gilding ironically edged two of the sessions. He won the two 3-2 and 3-2 before Littler then snuck the fine margins. Albeit he was taken to a tie break by 'Goldfinger' who pushed him all the way.

It is often mooted due to leg play compared to sets about winning your mini sessions and this could not be more true than in these two games. Thinking about it as being five leg spells before a break means that a player often who is behind after the first few but is still winning legs can fight their way back.

Gilding was case in point as he won the last few mini sessions, the last two in fact to send it to a tie-break after Littler had dominated the first four in the tie but still gave up two legs each time. This enabled Gilding to stay enough on his coattails in order to mount a comeback and nearly complete the unthinkable so in the end in the semi-finals watch out for the score at each break as it could be one for the intrigue at the end.