It is second round day at the Scottish Open in Glasgow on Wednesday. The 64 players who have made it through the opening round will all be in action across another three session day of snooker at the Emirates Arena with each of them looking for a place in the third round and a guaranteed £3,500.
We’ve lost one or two big names along the way but by and large the main men have all made it safely through. Many of them are on the main tables on Wednesday so we should see plenty of decent snooker. Once again all the matches are the best of seven frames.
Morning Session
Two men who had good UK Championships are on the main table first up when Marco Fu takes on Liam Highfield. On the streamed table Ricky Walden looks to make it into the last 32 when he plays Alex Borg.
The outside tables will be packed in this session with Akani Songsermsawad facing Li Hang, Daniel Wells playing Kurt Maflin, Anthony McGill up against Mitchell Mann, Ian Burns taking on Zhang Anda, Rhys Clark versus Oliver Lines and Barry Hawkins meets Matthew Stevens
Afternoon Session
The pattern of the first two days are continued in the afternoon. The first set of matches begins with Judd Trump and Igor Figueiredo on the main table while Mark Williams faces Michael Holt in a better looking match on the streamed table.
On the outside tables we have Kyren Wilson playing Ben Woollaston. Sean O’Sullivan takes on the Northern Ireland champion Mark King, Mike Dunn plays Gareth Allen, Robin Hull goes up against the in form Michael White, Mark Davis and Graeme Dott meet in a good looking match and Anthony Hamilton plays Michael Georgiou.
The second set of games has Neil Robertson back in action on the main table when he plays Gary Wilson. The streamed table will be occupied by Mark Allen and Fang Xiongman while on the outside tables Joe Swail plays Stuart Carrington and Ian Preece meets Robert Milkins.
The afternoon concludes on the main table with Joe Perry playing Hossein Vafaei Ayouri while Ali Carter meets Chris Wakelin on the streamed table. Mei Xiwen plays Peter Ebdon and Noppon Saengkham and Aditya Mehta meet in an Asian clash.
Evening Session
All eyes will be on Ronnie O’Sullivan once again in this session. He begins on the main table against Adam Stefanow while on the streamed table Xiao Guodong faces Shaun Murphy in a much better looking match. Fergal O’Brien plays Stephen Maguire and Ryan Day meets Jimmy White on the outside tables.
The final set of matches of the day sees John Higgins on the main table. He plays Scott Donaldson while on the streamed table Liang Wenbo meets Sydney Wilson. Elsewhere Mark Joyce plays Yu Delu and Dominic Dale takes on Duane Jones in an all-Welsh tussle.
Betting
Once again it is a case of being very selective on Wednesday and picking out the best value and with that in mind I’m going with a couple of punts from the afternoon session.
Peter Ebdon hasn’t set the world alight this season but it was only a couple of tournaments ago he was missing a yellow on the way to a 147 and he qualified for the German Masters last week so he must be doing something right and he’s a huge price to see off Mei Xiwen.
There is no doubting the talent of the Chinese kid but you need more than just talent against Ebdon. You need stagecraft and knowhow and I’m not sure Mei has it yet. If this is a scoring battle Xiwen will mix it and maybe dominate it but Ebdon has been around the block and he’ll know the scrappier this goes the better his chances are. At 13/8 he’s a stunning price.
I took Joe Perry on in the first round and courtesy of a couple of nasty kicks for his opponent in the final frame he fell over the line but I’m nothing if not persistent and I’m going to have a go against him again on Wednesday.
Perry faces Hossein Vafaei Ayouri, the Iranian former world amateur champion. We saw what Ayouri is all about in Belfast recently when he made the quarter final and he looks to be finding his feet on the tour after the visa issues which dogged him earlier in the year. The man from Iran made a ton in the first round so he appears to be cueing well and he’s overpriced to see off a struggling Perry.
Tips
Back P.Ebdon to beat M.Xiwen for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
Back H.Vafaei Ayouri to beat J.Perry for a 3/10 stake at 3.50 with Skybet
Back him here:
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