The first round of the International Championship is in the books and on Tuesday the whole of the second round is played out. This tournament becomes quite a draining event now because those who keep winning will be playing for the next three days so it will be interesting to see who is up for the fight and who isn’t.
Mark Williams aside, the big names all made it through the first round which gives us some solid looking contests to enjoy on Tuesday probably headed by the Ding Junhui vs Matthew Stevens match.
Early Session
The televised matches in this session see Neil Robertson taking on Anthony Hamilton and Mark Selby going up against John Astley in matches that the big two will be expected to win.
Away from the bright lights and the cameras we have Mark Joyce facing Zhou Yuelong, Graeme Dott taking on Ricky Walden, Chinese amateur Xu Si faces Thai legend James Wattana, Sam Baird locking horns with Marco Fu, Yan Bingtao looking to cause a major upset when he faces Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham faces Dominic Dale.
Late Session
That Stevens against Ding Junhui match is naturally one of the televised matches in this session with the other one being the one between Kurt Maflin and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
On the outside tables we have John Higgins vs Jak Jones, Judd Trump against Tom Ford, arguably the tie of the round as Ali Carter meets Stephen Maguire, Michael Holt against Daniel Wells, Joe Perry vs Aditya Mehta and Liang Wenbo against Li Hang.
Betting
There are two bets I like in this round of matches with one bet coming in each session. The early session bet is on the Chinese youngster Zhou Yuelong who I believe should be shorter than he is to beat a game but relatively limited Mark Joyce.
If this was in England then I might have a different view but it isn’t it is in China where Yuelong has already seen off one of the players of the season so far in Anthony McGill in the first round here. In fairness Joyce had a good win in the opening round against Martin Gould but I like the way Yuelong plays in China and I fancy him to come through here.
The second bet I like is for Stephen Maguire to beat Ali Carter. I mentioned Maguire’s recent record in China when I took him in the first round and he duly obliged with a top performance and I expect another one here. We heard nuggets about how he is putting in the practice time during the English Open and we’re seeing the effects of that on the green baize.
Ali Carter is back to his best again this season as highlighted in that win in the World Open and while this one is entitled to be quite close I just believe an in form and firing Maguire is hard to beat for anyone. I’m with the Scot here.
Tips
WON – Back Z.Yuelong to beat M.Joyce for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back S.Maguire to beat A.Carter for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
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