The second round of the Northern Ireland Open takes place on another crazy day of action inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Wednesday and by the end of it just a quarter of the original field will remain in the tournament.
The big names kept on tumbling on Tuesday so already this draw has opened right up and it has the potential to do so even more on Wednesday. The main tables are still full of quality though which should make for a good day.
Morning Session
Luca Brecel will be the first man on the TV table on Wednesday when he faces up to Ian Burns for a place in the last 32 of the tournament. Brecel could do with a decent week here and looks to have every chance here. Michael White faces Eden Sharav on the streamed offering in the opening session of the day.
The outside tables will be full in this session. Sunny Akani meets Xiao Guodong on one of them while Sam Craigie meets Li Hang on another. Mark Davis faces Luo Honghao in a clash of two men who went well in the English Open and then Peter Ebdon takes on Lee Walker in what could be a lengthy clash. Daniel Wells meets Gary Wilson and Yuan Sijun goes up against Andrew Higginson.
Afternoon Session
We have a cracking match first up on the TV table in the afternoon as the defending champion Mark Williams goes up against Ali Carter. While they are battling it out Ryan Day will be facing Zhang Anda on the streamed table in a session which has a significant Welsh inclusion to it.
On the outside tables Nigel Bond faces Joe Swail while Robin Hull meets Tian Pengfei. Billy Joe Castle goes up against Rory McLeod, with local lad Gerard Greene facing the back in form Matthew Stevens. David Gilbert takes on Chen Zifan and Alexander Ursenbacher meets Hamza Akbar in the other match.
The second set of afternoon matches sees world number one Mark Selby on the main table. He takes on the European Masters champion Jimmy Robertson in what is another cracking looking contest. Michael Holt meets Mark King on the streamed table with the other two matches seeing Zhou Yuelong playing Kishan Hirani and Hammad Miah facing Niu Zhuang. Two matches have been held for third games on the main tables if required. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh plays Ross Muir in one and Alan McManus plays Lu Ning in the other.
Evening Session
Ronnie O’Sullivan is the headline act in the evening session. He faces the Chinese player Mei Xi Wen while on the streamed table it is Neil Robertson up against Kurt Maflin in an attractive looking match. On the outside tables Chris Wakelin plays Tom Ford, Sam Baird meets Chris Totten, Peter Lines takes on Robbie Williams while Sean O’Sullivan meets Sanderson Lam and David Lilley plays Scott Donaldson. Martin O’Donnell plays Chen Feilong in the other match.
Two matches are held for the live tables to make for two games in the session. Judd Trump will be on the main table when he plays Stuart Carrington while his good friend Jack Lisowski will be on the streamed table when he faces the competent Liam Highfield.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet over the course of the day on Wednesday and it comes in the afternoon session where I’m expecting the home man Joe Swail to come through against Nigel Bond in a battle of the veterans which is a pretty big match for both men.
Bond did well to come through against Joe Perry on Tuesday but it was a poor quality match that didn’t finish until around midnight and then he is back in action for a 1pm start the next day. That is not easy and Bond is likely to be up against it in this match. Swail isn’t having a wonderful season but he’ll be fully motivated this week and he rattled in some nice runs in his first round win. I think he’ll take advantage of the schedule and come through here.
Tips
WON – Back J.Swail to beat N.Bond for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
