The second round of the Northern Ireland Open take place across another busy day of action inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, as those who navigated the first round look to take another step towards the latest Home Nations title.
The majority of the big names have made it through to this second round, but we did lose the Champion of Champions winner Neil Robertson on Tuesday evening. There is still quite some card to enjoy over the course of Wednesday.
Morning Session
The full amount of tables are going to be in use throughout the morning on Wednesday and occupying the TV table first up is Barry Hawkins. He will take on the improving challenge of Michael Holt for a place in the third round of the tournament. There is a good one on the streamed offering as well when Liang Wenbo takes on his fellow Chinese player Tian Pengfei in what may well be a competitive match.
The outside tables are full in this session where we have an all-Chinese clash between Si Jiahui and Chen Zifan while Yan Bingtao faces Marco Fu in arguably the best match of the lot in the morning. Rod Lawler meets Andrew Higginson, Jak Jones plays Anthony Hamilton and Robbie Williams goes up against Hammad Miah. Martin O’Donnell plays Alexander Ursenbacher in the other game.
Afternoon Session
The potential £1 million man Mark Selby is first up on the TV table in the afternoon session. He takes on the seasoned campaigner Matthew Stevens while over on the streamed table Allister Carter will be going up against Li Hang in a tight looking affair. There are a couple of juicy battles on the outside tables too with Matt Selt meeting Luca Brecel very much one of them. Soheil Vahedi plays Ken Doherty while Thepchaiya Un-Nooh takes on the English Open quarter finalist Mei Xiwen. Mitchell Mann faces Harvey Chandler in what is a huge match for both men and in the other two matches Chen Feilong plays Billy Joe Castle and Ian Burns faces Scott Donaldson.
The afternoon contains two sets of matches as ever and the next man on the TV table will be the defending champion Judd Trump. He meets Zhang Anda in another match which could get tricky if the world champion lets it. Practice partners meet on the streamed table when Kyren Wilson goes up against Peter Ebdon. Two matches will occupy the outside tables with Stephen Maguire playing Mark Davis and Joe Perry meeting Ross Bulman. Two matches are saved for the main tables if a third game is needed. The TV one would see Jordan Brown meeting Stuart Bingham and the streamed showing is Mark Joyce against Jackson Page.
Evening Session
It is all about the big guns in the evening session with the biggest of them all kicking things off as Ronnie O’Sullivan takes on the largely unknown Chinese player Lei Peifan. Home favourite Mark Allen is only on the streamed table in this session such is the quality of it. He meets Jamie O’Neill while on the outside tables Ricky Walden takes on Sam Baird, Graeme Dott meets Craig Steadman and Jimmy Robertson takes on Fergal O’Brien in a clash of styles. There are three other appealing matches on the extremities of things with Joe O’Connor facing Yuan Sijun, Ben Woollaston taking on David Lilley and Stuart Carrington going up against Zhou Yuelong.
As ever two other matches are saved for second games on the main tables. John Higgins will go up against the promising Polish player Kacper Filipiak while China Championship winner Shaun Murphy faces a potentially tougher test in the piano playing Luo Honghao. It is not yet certain while one is on the TV table and which is on the streamed offering.
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Betting
Two bets catch my eye over the course of the day and they both take place in the afternoon. Two ranking event winners meet when the current Indian Open champion Matt Selt meets Luca Brecel for a place in the third round and to my mind the odds for this one is a little too one-sided in the way of the Belgian. Brecel played well in the first round but he has lost more matches than he has won this season and while Selt is never far away from a bit of controversy he is in better touch. When he settled in the Champion of Champions last week he played some decent stuff in defeat and he banged in a 130 break to overcome Daniel Wells in the first round here. Brecel is too loose for my liking and I fancy Selt can upstage him at a tasty price.
The second one I’m happy to back is Mark Davis. He takes on Stephen Maguire who it is well known is nursing an injury and I wonder if the longer he is in this tournament the more he’ll struggle as a result. We can’t really read too much into his opening win as his opponent was out of this depth a little which isn’t ideal by any means. Davis took down Mike Dunn with a decent enough performance and I expect him to be more inspired by the outside tables than Maguire. At odds against I’ll take the former English Open finalist there.
Tips
Back M.Selt to beat L.Brecel for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back M.Davis to beat S.Maguire for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Betway
Back him here:
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