The last 32 of the hugely lucrative China Open takes place out in Beijing on Wednesday with the players left in the tournament all eyeing up a massive pay day ahead of the World Championship and the extra rewards that come with it.
The tournament is still reeling from the exit of Ronnie O’Sullivan on Tuesday. He wasn’t the only high profile casualty though as Liang Wenbo and Shaun Murphy were both sent packing in fine style. That is likely to heighten the tension on Wednesday.
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Morning Session
Neil Robertson could be the best placed man in the draw to take advantage of the demise of O’Sullivan and Murphy and he’ll be looking to make it into the last 16 when he takes on Sam Craigie on one of the main tables. The world champion Mark Selby made up for his UK Championship loss to Scott Donaldson on Tuesday and now he takes on fellow Leicester man Ben Woollaston on the other table.
The outside tables are full of quality too. The three matches which jump off the schedule are John Higgins taking on Jack Lisowski, Ricky Walden facing Stuart Bingham and Barry Hawkins going up against Michael White. Kyren Wilson meets the former Northern Ireland champion Mark King in another match on the outside table. The other two matches sees Lu Haotian playing Fergal O’Brien and Jak Jones facing Zhou Yuelong.
Afternoon Session
The headline clash in the afternoon session sees the two Chinese stars Ding Junhui and Xiao Guodong in action. That will appeal most to the home crowd but it could be that the bigger of the two matches, particularly in terms of World Championship qualification, could be on the other main table where Yan Bingtao faces Mark Allen.
Once again there is quality on the outside tables. Mark Williams is probably the pick of the players on show. He faces Michael Holt while Joe Perry plays Gary Wilson. Graeme Dott is in good form and he’ll aim to continue that against the man who thrashed Shaun Murphy 6-0 in Chris Wakelin. Cao Yupeng faces Dave Gilbert with the other two games seeing Duane Jones playing Luo Honghao and Tom Ford taking on Elliot Slessor who dumped the Rocket out on Tuesday.
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Betting
I’m going to go with two over the course of the day on Wednesday with a bet in each session. The first of those is on Fergal O’Brien who ended the top 16 hopes of Stephen Maguire in the first round and I fancy he can continue his run in the tournament when he takes on Lu Haotian. Haotian took care of Liam Highfield in the opening round but O’Brien was very good against Maguire and even when the Scot forced a decider the Irishman won that frame in one visit. He has plenty of experience and his tactical game combined with some fair scoring can see him have too much for the Chinese youngster.
In the afternoon I’m going to take Elliot Slessor to follow up his big win over Ronnie O’Sullivan when he takes on Tom Ford. Usually I would ignore someone when it comes to following up a big win but when Slessor beat the Rocket in Northern Ireland earlier in the season he won two more matches including another on the day he disposed of O’Sullivan. Ford has recently been in hospital having his appendix out so it remains to be seen how much practice he has been putting in. He never made a single 50 break in his first round win and he’s unlikely to win this without a dramatic improvement. That might not come if he hasn’t had much practice so I’ll go with Slessor to win again.
Tips
Back F.O’Brien to beat L.Haotian for a 4/10 stake at 2.15 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back E.Slessor to beat T.Ford for a 4/10 stake at 2.38 with Coral
Back him here:
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