Wednesday is second round day at the Scottish Open with the remaining 64 players in the tournament all involved on another bumper day of action inside the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
With the odd exception the big names have largely all made it through to this stage of the tournament and the matches are starting to look much better on paper so we should be set for some excellent snooker to enjoy over the three sessions.
Morning Session
The defending champion Marco Fu gets the TV table in the first session of the day. He goes up against Chinese player Fang Xiongman while Ali Carter will be on the other main table when he plays the improving Ashley Hugill for a place in the last 32.
The outside tables are full in this session. There is an all-Chinese battle between Zhou Yuelong and Yu Delu while Zhang Yong meets Noppon Saengkham. Gary Wilson against Xiao Guodong looks a tasty match while Chris Totten plays Mitchell Mann in this session. David Grace faces Alan McManus and Mike Dunn plays Gerard Greene.
Afternoon Session
All eyes will be on one Ronald O’Sullivan in the afternoon session. He gets first use of the TV table in the afternoon when he takes on a Robert Milkins who should take the game to him. Neil Robertson faces the dangerous Liam Highfield on the streamed table.
Kurt Dunham and Peter Lines will be on one of the outside tables as will Michael White and Scott Donaldson. Jamie Curtis-Barrett will play Li Hang while Rory McLeod will meet Niu Zhuang. Tom Ford faces Hammad Miah while the maximum man from Tuesday, Cao Yupeng faces Allan Taylor.
The second set of matches will have John Higgins in front of the TV cameras when he takes on Christopher Keogan. Liang Wenbo and Mark Joyce will meet on the streamed table unless they decide to put Jimmy White on it. He faces Shaun Murphy’s successor Daniel Wells. Ricky Walden plays Joe Swail in this season while Xu Si meets Jimmy Robertson. Craig Steadman and Alfie Burden face each other on an outside table too.
The final two matches of the session will see Dominic Dale going up against the Warrior himself in Kyren Wilson while home hero Stephen Maguire faces the Pakistan player Hamza Akbar. Both could be on the main tables depending on how long play takes on them.
Evening Session
Judd Trump will have the TV table focus in the evening session but it might not be all about him as he faces Sam Craigie who took care of Kyren Wilson in Northern Ireland. Yan Bingtao and Jamie Jones are expected to be on the streamed table while elsewhere Anda Zhang will face Ben Woollaston, Joe Perry meets Stuart Carrington, Mei Xiwen plays Elliot Slessor and Eden Sharav faces Michael Holt.
The final two matches on the main table will see Anthony McGill taking on Peter Ebdon on the main table while on the streamed table Ding Junhui faces a real challenge when he goes up against the capable Chris Wakelin.
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Betting
After a successful first round I’m taking three bets on Wednesday. The first comes in the form of Jimmy White who has hit a bit of form right now. He takes on Daniel Wells who should be buzzing from the confidence of beating Shaun Murphy on Tuesday but he will know Murphy should have taken him out. Wells missed some pretty elementary balls in that match and if he does that again the way Jimmy is scoring I think he’ll take him out. Jimmy has the confidence of beating Ali Carter last week and he had a good win over Sunny Akani on Tuesday where he scored well. I’ll take the Wind at odds against here.
Moving into the evening session and Judd Trump might have his hands full against Sam Craigie. Trump gave Robin Hull a number of chances on Monday night but the Finn wasn’t in good enough form to take them but Craigie is scoring well at the minute and I get the feeling that he relishes the big occasion and the limelight. He has a 5-0 win over Trump this year. We should acknowledge that Trump was recovering from laser eye surgery at the time but a win is a win. I’m not sure he wins this match but I think Craigie can bag a couple of frames and give Trump a scare at the very least.
Ding Junhui finally looked good at times on Tuesday but even from 3-0 up he put himself through the ringer and got clawed back to 3-2 before finally getting over the line. He now has another test against a Chris Wakelin who is more than capable of upsetting players if given the chances. If Ding remains off his game the Englishman has every chance but the safer bet might be on the handicap in case Ding sneaks over the line.
Tips
Back J.White to beat D.Wells for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
WON – Back S.Craigie (+2.5 frames) to beat J.Trump for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back C.Wakelin (+2.5 frames) to beat D.Junhui for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
Back him here:
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