The second round of the China Open takes place across two sessions of action out in Beijing on Wednesday as places in the last 16 of the tournament are at stake. With the huge prize fund on offer here there is plenty of cash at stake.
The first round of the tournament was carnage with the likes of Mark Selby, Mark Williams, John Higgins, Ding Junhui, Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins all biting the dust so already there is an open feel to proceedings from here on in.
Get £10 in free bets when you bet £25 on sports bets in a week with Coral. Click the image above to bet but make sure you opt in. All customers! 18+ T&Cs apply
Morning Session
Neil Robertson is the headline attraction in the morning session and as such he is on one of the main tables. It helps the home broadcaster that he goes up against a Chinese player in Mei Xi Wen. The other televised match in this session is a pretty important one for the two men involved as Michael Holt takes on Luca Brecel, both of whom have had poor seasons thus far in the main.
The outside tables are full throughout the Wednesday action. Sam Craigie and Ali Carter meet on one of them with Mark King and Lu Ning doing battle on another of them. Kyren Wilson is a big name on the outside tables and he meets Rod Lawler while Hossein Vafaei takes on Joe O’Connor. The other two matches in this session sees Andrew Higginson against Ben Woollaston and Ricky Walden facing Ken Doherty.
Afternoon Session
Liang Wenbo is the leading Chinese hope left in the tournament after the demise of Ding Junhui on Tuesday. He goes up against Craig Steadman on one of the televised tables with Stuart Bingham out on the other table with the cameras in operation. The English Open and Gibraltar Open winner meets the former China Open champion Peter Ebdon in what looks like a juicy battle.
There are plenty of Scots in action on the outside table as Alan McManus plays Stuart Carrington, while two face off when Stephen Maguire goes up against Anthony McGill. Jack Lisowski is out in the extremities of the hall when he meets Gerard Greene while Robbie Williams plays Li Hang. The other two matches sees James Wattana taking on Lyu Haotian and Scott Donaldson going up against David Gilbert who is eager to keep winning to seal his Sheffield berth.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I like three bets over the course of the day on Wednesday with the first of them coming in the morning session where I like Ken Doherty to see off Ricky Walden. Doherty had a great win over Mark Williams in the first round when he put together runs of 76, 62, 115 and 90 and if he has the same level of break building with him here he is going to give Walden a hard time. Walden hasn’t exactly been prolific with his wins this season and his confidence could be a little low. Walden wasn’t exactly convincing in the first round either so at 13/8 Doherty looks to be overpriced in this one.
Craig Steadman has been impressive in this tournament so far. He has beaten Mark Selby and Dominic Dale and knocked in a century in each match. I was really impressed with his win over Dale because it is never easy to follow up one big win with another. I now think he can see off the erratic Liang Wenbo who is suddenly under pressure this week as the leading Chinese hope in the tournament. Wenbo had a good win over Gary Wilson in the first round but he hasn’t strung many wins together and I’ve a feeling that Steadman, fresh off the confidence of his win over Selby earlier in the week, is another who is overpriced here.
Stephen Maguire eased through the first round and I expect him to overcome Anthony McGill pretty comfortably as well. McGill hasn’t played well all season and although he came past Nigel Bond in the first round he wasn’t overly fantastic. Maguire is a genuine contender for this tournament and has been knocking on the door of winning a title for most of the season. He can take another step towards that aim here with a win which comes no worse than 6-4.
Tips
Back K.Doherty to beat R.Walden for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Betfred
Back him here:
Back C.Steadman to beat L.Wenbo for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back S.Maguire (-1.5 frames) to beat A.McGill for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
