The second round of the Welsh Open takes place on a busy day inside the Motorpoint Arena on Wednesday and at the end of it we will know the 32 players who will go into the double round day on Thursday.
We saw another huge shock on Tuesday when Shaun Murphy was sent packing but in the main the big names have made it into the second round and there are some really juicy matches for us to enjoy on Wednesday as a result.
Morning Session
Two huge names are on show in the morning session on the main tables. Judd Trump and Ding Junhui will be on the TV table and the streamed offering. Trump will take on Noppon Saengkham of Thailand and Ding will go up against Liam Highfield.
There are some decent matches on the outside tables in this session too. Anthony Hamilton goes up against Peter Ebdon while Fang Xiongman plays Chen Zifan. Chris Wakelin plays Andrew Higginson with James Wattana going up against Michael Holt. The other two matches see Craig Steadman playing Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and David Grace taking on Jak Jones.
Afternoon Session
Ronnie O’Sullivan makes his tournament bow on the TV table in this afternoon session when he goes up against Graeme Dott while the streamed table will see Matthew Stevens playing last year’s semi-finalist Scott Donaldson. On the outside tables Ricky Walden plays Martin Gould in what looks a good match while Luca Brecel faces Mike Dunn. Michael Georgiou will continue his golden month when he plays Xu Si while Ali Carter goes up against the former world finalist Nigel Bond. Sam Craigie will play Kurt Maflin and Robbie Williams faces Ian Preece in the other matches.
The second set of matches in the afternoon session are headlined on the TV table by the defending champion Stuart Bingham facing the Welsh youngster Jackson Page. Masters champion Mark Allen will be on the streamed table once again when he plays Soheil Vahedi. Away from the spotlight Jamie Jones meets Akani Songsermsawad, Lu Haotian plays Jack Lisowski, Oliver Lines meets Yu Delu while Ben Woollaston faces Anthony McGill. The other two matches in the session sees Neil Robertson facing Ian Burns and Gerard Greene meeting Stuart Carrington.
Evening Session
The home crowd will be right behind Mark Williams first up in the evening session. He plays Aditya Mehta of India while the streamed table will see Dominic Dale going up against John Astley. Some huge names feature on the outside tables. Yan Bingtao plays Kurt Dunham while Tom Ford meets Barry Hawkins in a juicy battle. Kyren Wilson plays Rory McLeod with Gary Wilson facing Daniel Wells.
The final two matches of the day which are scheduled on the two main tables see two Scots battling each other when John Higgins takes on Stephen Maguire while on the other table world champion Mark Selby meets Liang Wenbo.
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Betting
I’ll go with two bets over the course of the day with the first one coming in the morning session when Chris Wakelin takes on Andrew Higginson. I’m very surprised the latter is the favourite here. He laboured past Ashley Hugill in the first round while Wakelin thrashed a form horse Xiao Guodong 4-0 with a 50 break or above in every frame of the match. Wakelin tends to go well in these Home Nations events and made the last 16 in Northern Ireland. He made the quarter final of the English Open last season too and he can pick up another win in the series here.
Mark Selby is clearly not happy with his game right now and at some point this week he is going to be there for the taking. His Hone Nations record is very poor so whether he struggles to get up for the tournaments I don’t know. Even if he does his game is all over the place at the minute and that could play into the hands of Liang Wenbo who is generally very solid over this distance. Wenbo is fighting hard to make it into the top 16 at the cut off for the Crucible so a win here would really boost him in that quest. If he can take his chances he has it in him to win this.
Tips
WON – Back C.Wakelin to beat A.Higginson for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
Back him here:
WON – Back L.Wenbo to beat M.Selby for a 3/10 stake at 2.88 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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