The first round of the German Masters qualifying event comes to an end on Thursday and the second round begins on another busy day inside the Barnsley Metrodome. By the end of the day we will know eight of the 32 men who will qualify to play in the Tempodrom in the New Year.
My and large the very big names have made it through with Kyren Wilson the highest seed to fall. We have a number of big names on show on Thursday including the world champion Mark Selby and the new Scottish Open champion Neil Robertson.
Morning Session
Ali Carter will open up on one of the main tables on Thursday when he takes on Wang Yuchen while on the other streamed table the former finalist Luca Brecel will begin his bid to make it back to the Tempodrom. He takes on Hammad Miah.
As ever there are some decent matches on the outside tables with Zhao Xintong against Sam Craigie a battle of two decent young players. Andrew Higginson takes on Li Hang while Liang Wenbo meets Duane Jones. There is an all-Chinese battle between Yuan Sijun and Fang Xiongman while Martin O’Donnell plays Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Mark Joyce meets Lu Haotian.
Afternoon Session
Two of the bigger names in the game are on show in this afternoon session. Judd Trump will be aiming to take a step closer to the final stages when he takes on Adam Duffy on one of the streamed tables with Neil Robertson up against Chris Wakelin on the other one.
Elsewhere Billy Joe Castle will meet Robbie Williams while Michael Holt takes on Mei Xi Wen. Peter Ebdon plays Jak Jones with Graeme Dott taking on Soheil Vahedi. Mark King meets Noppon Saengkham and the other match in the session sees Joe Perry facing Joe Swail.
Evening Session
All eyes will be on Mark Selby as he looks to secure one of the spots in Berlin. Standing in his way is Jamie Jones in a match that will be on the streamed tables. Champion of Champions winner Shaun Murphy will face Cao Yupeng on the other one.
Barry Hawkins will go up against Liam Highfield on one of the outside tables with Mark Davis meeting Josh Boileau on another of them. Jimmy White will look to build on his win over Anthony McGill on Wednesday when he takes on Yu Delu with Mark Allen another big name on the outside tables. He plays Rod Lawler. Jimmy Robertson meets Peter Lines and Martin Gould faces Ken Doherty.
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Betting
All three of my bets on Thursday come in the evening session where I like a couple of outsiders. Liam Highfield won for me on Wednesday and he looks decent value to see off a Barry Hawkins who continues to flatter to deceive too much for my liking. Highfield scored well against Hossein Vafaei who isn’t easy to score against so that bodes well. To be fair to Hawkins he played well in his opening round but his opponent was poor. He is struggling to put back to back performances together at the minute so Highfield is my pick here.
I took on Cao Yupeng on Wednesday evening believing he would struggle after the events of Sunday but he didn’t. He nailed a ton and three other big breaks in an impressive performance under the circumstances and I think he can take care of Shaun Murphy. We saw last week that Cao is playing to a very high level right now and not even his Sunday meltdown has stopped that. Murphy can get embroiled in battles he shouldn’t do and if Cao sticks with him here he can take another scalp on his way to the final stages.
Jimmy Robertson was one of the players of the opening round. He banged in a couple of centuries and a couple more large breaks in a good win against Rhys Clark. He now takes on Peter Lines who had to come through a real battle with Scott Donaldson in the opening round. Lines isn’t going to take anyone apart with a burst of scoring so if Robertson can score as he did in the opening round he should come through with a bit to spare here.
Tips
Back L.Highfield to beat B.Hawkins for a 3/10 stake at 2.80 with Unibet
Back him here:
Back C.Yupeng to beat S.Murphy for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Coral
Back him here:
Back J.Robertson (-1.5 frames) to beat P.Lines for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
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