It is a busy day in the Riga Masters on Saturday with the second round and the last 16 of the competition played out in the Latvian capital. Once the day has concluded we will know the eight men who will be battling it out for the title on Sunday.
There was some good snooker on the opening day of the competition with some shocks and surprises along the way but you would expect that at this stage of the season and in this format. Sadly the format of this tournament means that due to time restrictions we will not be able to preview the last 16 but we can look at the second round.
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Morning Session
There are two sets of matches in the morning session and on the live tables first up we have a good looking clash when Michael White takes on Joe Perry while Shaun Murphy plays Zhao Xintong on the other. Elsewhere in the first run of games Jamie Jones meets Chris Wakelin, Lukas Kleckers goes up against Mark King and Joe Swail takes on Stuart Carrington.
The pick of the matches in the second round of morning games is probably the tie of the round when Liang Wenbo goes up against Neil Robertson. That is on one of the main tables with Stephen Maguire faces Joe O’Connor on the other. Scott Donaldson plays Craig Steadman in this section of games with Anthony Hamilton meeting Michael Holt. Oliver Lines and Jack Lisowski do battle in a clash of stablemates.
Afternoon Session
There are not as many matches in the afternoon session but there is a really tasty one when The Masters champion Mark Allen meets Ali Carter in a heavyweight battle. The world champion Mark Williams goes up against Zhang Yong. Kyren Wilson is another player on show in the afternoon. He faces Simon Bedford while later in the afternoon Marco Fu faces Mark Davis, Graeme Dott plays Ashley Carty and Li Hang goes up against Ricky Walden.
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Betting
I must admit that I am tempted by Neil Robertson to be beaten by Liang Wenbo but I suspect Robertson might raise his game against a better opponent so I will go with two others with the first coming in the form of Ali Carter against Mark Allen. Carter took care of the defending champion Ryan Day in the first round and played really well whereas Allen might still be wondering how he is still here as he trailed Peter Lines 3-1 on Friday but came through. Allen is often a slow starter to a campaign and there were signs in the first round of that being the case again. Carter looked on it to me and is a decent price to take a good scalp here.
I’m already on Marco Fu to win this tournament but as I’ve previously highlighted when he scores well you know he’s on his game and he scored well in a good win over Xiao Guodong on Friday. To be fair to his opponent in the second round, Mark Davis, he also scored well in a win over Luca Brecel but I’m not sure what to make of the Belgian at the minute. Fu generally has the better of the previous meetings between these two and I expect him to come through here too.
Tips
Back A.Carter to beat M.Allen for a 4/10 stake at 2.30 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back M.Fu (-1.5 frames) to beat M.Davis for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
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