We see the conclusion of the first round of the Welsh Open on the second day of the tournament at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff on Tuesday and in doing so we see even more of the best players in the game look to book their spot in round two of the event.
There was a major shock on the opening day when home favourite Ryan Day was shot out of the competition but there were wins for Stuart Bingham, Mark Allen, Neil Robertson, Judd Trump and Mark Selby. On Tuesday the likes of Mark Williams, John Higgins and Shaun Murphy will look to join them in the second round.
Morning Session
Local favourite Michael White will be on the TV table in the morning session when he faces the significant challenge of Martin Gould for a place in the second round. The streamed table will see Luca Brecel facing Josh Boileau.
The outside tables in the session will see Noppon Saengkham taking on Ross Muir while Mei Xiwen plays Jak Jones. Paul Davison will go up against Lu Haotian and Sam Craigie meets Leo Fernandez. Jimmy Robertson plays Kurt Maflin and the other match sees Stuart Carrington facing Peter Lines.
Afternoon Session
Mark Williams will begin his quest for a third Welsh Open title in the first match on the TV table in the afternoon session while on the streamed table The Masters and English Open finalist Kyren Wilson will take on Robert Milkins. David Grace and Rhydian Richards is one match on the outside tables with Hamza Akbar facing Mike Dunn, Alan McManus meets Xu Si, Jack LIsowski plays Mark Joyce, John Astley goes up against Zhang Anda and Gary Wilson takes on Sam Baird.
It is Matthew Stevens’ turn to feature on the match table in the second set of games in the afternoon. He takes on Ken Doherty in an age old battle. The tie of the first round between Joe Perry and Stephen Maguire is on the other main table. Rory McLeod faces Adam Duffy, Nigel Bond plays Lukas Kleckers, Alex Borg takes on Soheil Vahedi, Yu Delu goes up against Billy Joe Castle, Thor Chuan Leong meets Ben Woollaston and Anthony McGill faces Basem Eltahhan on the outside tables.
Evening Session
Shaun Murphy will be on the TV table first up in the evening session. He takes on Gerard Greene with Liang Wenbo set to feature on the streamed table when he goes up against Alfie Burden. The outside tables are full once again with Aditya Mehta playing Martin O’Donnell, Mitchell Mann facing the Shootout winner Michael Georgiou, Oliver Lines plays Eden Sharav and Robbie Williams going up against Allan Taylor.
The last two matches of the day will see John Higgins going up against the capable and talented Matthew Selt on the TV table while the match between Jamie Jones and Alexander Ursenbacher is scheduled for the streamed table after the Wenbo match.
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Betting
I’ll go with three bets on the second day of action. It might seem a surprise if Josh Boileau beats Luca Brecel but anyone who has watched Brecel since the turn of the year might appreciate that actually while it would be a ranking shock it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world. Brecel has been all over the shop in recent matches and while I understand his repaired cue is back to him I’m not convinced he’ll be bang at it here. He should still beat Boileau but if he coughs up the chances he has been doing the Irishman could easily nail his biggest scalp yet.
Backing Jack Lisowski has been a profitable plan this season and I am going to adopt that tactic on Tuesday when he takes on Mark Joyce. Joyce is a capable player but the scoring potential and the aggression that Lisowski has when break building is perfectly suited to this best of seven format. Joyce came from 3-1 down to beat Kyren Wilson in Preston last week but then lost heavily to Ding Junhui. Over a longer distance Lisowski may not be the one but over this one I think he is.
Matthew Stevens has started to come back into form and for the home crowds that has come at just the right time and I think he can continue his revival with a win over Ken Doherty on Tuesday afternoon. Stevens remains a classy cueist but just needs the confidence of a few breaks to get him going. He has scored well in recent wins and can see off a Doherty who as I mentioned recently has not won many matches in the last few tournaments.
Tips
Back J.Boileau to beat L.Brecel for a 1/10 stake at 6.00 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back J.Lisowski to beat M.Joyce for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfred
Back him here:
WON – Back M.Stevens to beat K.Doherty for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
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