The second round of the World Open will start and finish out in China on Wednesday with the 16 matches being played across two busy sessions of play. We’ve already seen plenty of shocks in the competition thus far so the minds of those left in may have been focused a lot more after the carnage of the first round.
We have seen the likes of Shaun Murphy, Barry Hawkins, Mark Selby and Liang Wenbo all bite the dust already this week and a number of those big names face tough tests on Wednesday’s card.
Morning Session
The occupants of the main tables have just been announced and on one of them in the morning session we will see the former world champion Stuart Bingham facing a Chinese player in Cao Yupeng. The other table sees John Higgins look to continue his good form when he faces Matthew Selt.
Elsewhere in the morning we have Lee Walker facing up to Robert Milkins while Luca Brecel takes on Daniel Wells. Marco Fu plays Peter Ebdon in a high profile clash while Joe Perry and Ryan Day also meet. John Astley takes on Jimmy Robertson and there is a juicy looking battle between David Gilbert and Martin Gould.
Afternoon Session
The all-Chinese battle between Xiao Guodong and Ding Junhui will steal the show in the afternoon session. Inevitably that is on one of the TV tables with Neil Robertson on the other. The Australian takes on Ben Woollaston for a place in the last 16.
There are some tasty looking matches on the outside tables in this session. Anthony McGill meets Stephen Maguire in an all-Scottish battle while Li Hang faces Ricky Walden. Mark Williams takes on Chen Zhe and Michael Holt faces Kyren Wilson. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh plays Chris Wakelin and the other match sees Mark Allen taking on Allan Taylor.
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Betting
I’m going to go with three bets here. In the morning session Ryan Day has a good record against Joe Perry and I fancy he will improve on that. I didn’t back Day in the first round because of his cue issue in India but he scored well in that match so that suggests his new wand is treating him well. Perry is a solid player and won’t go down without a fight but there is something about facing Day that doesn’t seem to agree with him so I’ll side with the Welshman there.
The match between Li Hang and Ricky Walden may not look tight in terms of the rankings but it certainly could play out tight. They have met on three previous occasions and they have all gone the distance. There is little to suggest this one won’t be tight either with the form Hang is in and with Walden’s comfort in Asian conditions. The even money on over 7.5 frames in this one looks very juicy.
The all-Scottish clash between Anthony McGill and Stephen Maguire should be close too. McGill looks in very good form indeed while Maguire never gives in without a fight and scored very well in beating Ken Doherty in the first round. The last couple of matches between the two have been a little one-sided but they occurred when one player was out of nick. That isn’t the case here so I expect this to go beyond the 7.5 frames too.
Tips
Back R.Day to beat J.Perry for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betbright
Back him here:
WON – Back L.Hang vs R.Walden – Over 7.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
WON – Back A.McGill vs S.Maguire – Over 7.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back them here:
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