The second round of the Northern Ireland Open takes place on what is another busy day of snooker in Belfast. 64 players will be in action across the three sessions and they will be all be looking to make it into the last 32.
There have been a number of shocks in the tournament so far but we still have a fair few big names on show on the TV table on what should be a really entertaining day inside the arena.
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Morning Session
The main tables in the morning session will see Anthony McGill taking on Adam Duffy and the defending champion Mark King continues his title defence by facing Ashley Hugill. There are six matches elsewhere with Elliot Slessor takes on Kurt Maflin, Mei Xiwen plays Alex Borg while there is an all-Asian clash between Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Chen Zifan. There is another such match when Yu Delu takes on Noppon Saengkham. The other two matches sees Robert Milkins taking on Oliver Lines while Jamie Curtis-Barrett faces Yan Bingtao.
Afternoon Session
The two main tables in this session will be occupied by Neil Robertson and Ali Carter. Robertson will face Billy Joe Castle while Carter goes up against the talented Xiao Guodong. On the outside tables Zhou Yuelong plays Robin Hull while Liam Highfield goes up against Liang Wenbo. There is an all-Chinese battle between the young pair of Yuan Sijun and Lu Haotian. Another Chinese battle takes place between Zhang Yong and Li Yuan. Akani Songsermsawad plays Wang Yuchen and Tom Ford meets Mark Williams.
The second set of matches sees Ronnie O’Sullivan up against Duane Jones on the TV table. Jack Lisowski will meet Ricky Walden while away from the spotlight Niu Zhuang meets Ken Doherty and Mike Dunn faces Matthew Stevens with Ben Woollaston playing Sam Craigie and Michael Georgiou.
The other two matches in the session will see Jimmy Robertson taking on Zhao Xintong and two pals meet when Matt Selt takes on Joe Perry to round off the session.
Evening Session
Mark Allen will continue to entertain the home crowds on the main table in this session when he faces Tian Pengfei while Ryan Day faces Li Hang on the other streamed table. Fang Xiongman plays Chris Wakelin while Jimmy White takes on Jak Jones. Dave Gilbert will go up against Paul Davison and Ross Muir plays Stuart Carrington.
The day is rounded off when John Higgins plays Hossein Vafaei on the TV table while the second evening match on the stream sees Stephen Maguire playing Gary Wilson.
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Betting
As with the first two days I’m going with two bets. The first comes along in the afternoon when Sam Craigie takes on Ben Woollaston. Craigie was brilliant in beating Kyren Wilson in the first round and if he repeats that level then no matter how good Woollaston is I think Craigie will win. Woollaston battled hard to come through in the first round and while he is the better player, the price on Craigie given his form in the first round is too big to refuse.
Jimmy White had a good win in the first round but he didn’t really beat anything in Dominic Dale. He takes on another Welshman in the form of Jak Jones but I am not convinced the outcome will be the same. In fairness Jones hasn’t done much this season but he has been competitive against some decent opponents recently and had a hard fought win over Lee Walker in the first round. This is a great chance for both to progress. With the pressure being more on White I’ll take the Welshman here.
Tips
WON – Back S.Craigie to beat B.Woollaston for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with Coral
Back him here:
Back J.Jones to beat J.White for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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