Thursday is a busy day at the Northern Ireland Open with the last 32 and the last 16 being played across the three sessions of action inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast as the tournament piles nearer towards its finish.
The theme of the first three days has been shocks and surprises with a number of big names biting the dust and usually in these Home Nations events this is the day of the tournament where literally anything can happen and nothing surprises. As ever on the Thursday we can preview the last 32 but time restrictions deny us the chance of covering the last 16.
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Morning Session
Two good looking matches get a busy day underway on the TV tables in the morning session. Ali Carter goes up against Xiao Guodong in one of them while Ryan Day will go up against the former Shootout champion Robin Hull in an interesting match on the other table.
The outside tables will be full in this first session of play. Joe Swail takes on Eden Sharav on one of them with Mark Davis meeting Peter Ebdon on another of them. Andrew Higginson faces Billy Joe Castle away from the spotlight while Michael Holt plays Zhou Yuelong. Lu Ning meets Hammad Miah and there is a good looking clash between Matthew Stevens and David Gilbert as well.
Afternoon Session
There are some huge names in action in the afternoon session. World number one Mark Selby faces Hamza Akbar in the first of two sets of matches on the live table while Neil Robertson will be on the streamed one when he meets Li Hang in what will be a clash in styles. On the outside tables Luca Brecel will play Gary Wilson and Chris Totten will face Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Robbie Williams meets Sanderson Lam and Scott Donaldson takes on Martin O’Donnell.
The two matches saved for the main tables for a second match on the afternoon are juicy looking tussles. Ronnie O’Sullivan faces Tom Ford in one of them and then good friends meet when Jack Lisowski and Judd Trump do battle for the third successive ranking tournament.
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Betting
I’ll go with a few attacks in the last 32. It begins with Lu Ning who takes on Hammad Miah. In fairness to Miah, he has played very well this week and has rained in the centuries but Ning has scored well too and there is no doubt in my mind that the Chinese player is the better player of the two. He has rattled a few big cages this season and come through two matches this week quite nicely. Miah has never really achieved much on tour so they are evenly matched in that score but Ning looks to have the potential to improve and a win here will help him in that quest. I’ll back him to come through this one.
Luca Brecel has been going along very quietly this season but he has looked good this week and goes up against another man who hasn’t been anything like his best for a while in Gary Wilson. Unlike Brecel, Wilson has had to battle his way to this stage coming through a couple of deciding frames and not really doing much in his matches. Brecel is too good to be in the doldrums for too long and it might be we are about to see his resurgence begin. He can come through here.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has looked like he couldn’t care less this week and if he continues with that attitude then Tom Ford is more than capable to taking care of him. It might be that O’Sullivan finally decides he cares but even then Ford is playing well enough to run him close but if O’Sullivan continues to go for his shots and leaves Ford the chances he has left his first two opponents then I think the Leicester man will send him packing.
Tips
WON – Back L.Ning to beat H.Miah for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with NetBet
Back him here:
WON – Back L.Brecel to beat G.Wilson for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back T.Ford (+2.5 frames) to beat R.O’Sullivan for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back him here:
Back T.Ford to beat R.O’Sullivan for a 1/10 stake at 5.50 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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