The third day of four in China Open qualifying takes place in Preston on Thursday and it is the day the Masters champion aims to make it to Beijing so this is already the highest profile day of snooker of the three thus far.
After the carnage of Tuesday a bit of normality was restored on Wednesday which will have smoothed things over for the big names on Thursday.
Morning Session
Kyren Wilson is the big name on show in the morning session. He faces Michael Georgiou on the streamed table with the other one having Mark King and Marc Davis on it. Scott Donaldson and Chris Wakelin face off away from the cameras while Robert Milkins takes on Mei Xiwen, Tom Ford plays Noppon Saengkham and Xiao Guodong goes up against John Astley.
Afternoon Session
The former world champion Stuart Bingham leads this session when he takes on James Wattana while Ryan Day plays Fraser Patrick. Both of those are on the streamed tables. David Grace meets Sanderson Lam, Mark Joyce plays Mitchell Mann and Fergal O’Brien plays Nigel Bond in the other matches in this session.
Evening Session
This is the session that Ronnie O’Sullivan will take to the table. He faces James Cahill for a place in the main draw with that match inevitably on the streamed table. Marco Fu plays Daniel Wells on the other. Zhou Yuelong plays Michael Wild, Matthew Selt takes on Craig Steadman and Ricky Walden meets Zhang Yong in the other matches.
Betting
All eyes will be on the evening session but my bet comes in the morning where Scott Donaldson still doesn’t get the respect he deserves from the bookmakers. He is odds against to see off Chris Wakelin despite winning their only previous meeting 4-0 in the European Masters earlier this season.
Donaldson was ranked 107 going into that match and he is now at 74 which shows the season he has had since then. He went on to beat Stuart Bingham in the next round of that qualifying event and Peter Ebdon and Robert Milkins were among his victims in Northern Ireland.
Wakelin knocked Ronnie O’Sullivan out of the English Open on his way to the quarter final there but hasn’t done a huge amount since. If this was 5/6 the pair I could understand it but I can’t ignore the 11/10 on Donaldson to win.
Tips
WON – Back S.Donaldson to beat C.Wakelin for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
