There is another busy day at the Scottish Open on Thursday when two rounds of matches are played out inside the Emirates Arena in Glasgow. Those who remain in the tournament will be hoping to win two games to make it through to the business stage of the event.
We’ve seen in previous Home Nations events that this is the day the big names are at their most vulnerable so it will be interesting to see how many of them can make it through both matches. As ever time restrictions will deny us the chance to preview the last 16 in the evening session but we can cover the last 32.
Morning Session
The main tables in the morning session will be shared by Marco Fu and Neil Robertson. Fu takes on the dangerous youngster Zhou Yuelong while Robertson plays the Scottish player Chris Totten. On the outside tables we have Noppon Saengkham playing Xiao Guodong, David Grace taking on Zhang Anda, Ashley Hugill meeting Peter Lines, Tom Ford facing Stuart Carrington, Cao Yupeng meeting Daniel Wells and Xu Si playing Craig Steadman.
Afternoon Session
The first match on the TV table in the afternoon session will see Ronnie O’Sullivan continuing his quest for back to back titles when he takes on Li Hang while Yan Bingtao meets Stephen Maguire on the streamed option. Michael White against Kyren Wilson is a tasty battle on the outside tables while Ding Junhui is also out there when he plays Rory McLeod. Mark Joyce meets Ricky Walden with Elliot Slessor playing Peter Ebdon in the other game.
The final two matches of the afternoon sees John Higgins up against the veteran Gerard Greene on the TV table while the other match on the streamed table will see Judd Trump going up against Michael Holt.
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Betting
I’m going with two bets in the last 32. Peter Ebdon is enjoying a good week so far and I’m not surprised by that. I’ve often had this thing that seeing snooker from the other side when doing TV work reinvigorates a player. We’ve seen it with Alan McManus, Steve Davis and Ronnie O’Sullivan over the last 10 years or so and Ebdon is following suit. His scoring has been good this week and with his tactical nous I expect him to have too much for Elliot Slessor. Slessor has been in good touch recently but he hasn’t looked as comfortable this week and I fancy Ebdon to take him out here.
Mark Joyce is on something of a roll right now. He made the quarter final in York last week and it needed a fantastic deciding frame from Ryan Day to get rid of him but he’s picked himself up and gone again here and has already seen off Liang Wenbo this week. He now takes on a Ricky Walden who is showing an upturn in form but he’s still having to battle to wins. I think the way Joyce is scoring can see him through here.
Tips
Back P.Ebdon to beat E.Slessor for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfred
Back him here:
Back M.Joyce to beat R.Walden for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with 888sport
Back him here:
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