The second day of the English Open sees the first round of the tournament finish off inside the behind closed doors setup at the Marshall Arena as those who haven’t already got their campaign underway will do so in Milton Keynes.
We saw opening day wins for the likes of Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Allen and on Tuesday it will be down to the likes of John Higgins, Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump to attempt to follow them through to the second round.
Morning Session
All the tables are being occupied in the morning session on Tuesday with Jack Lisowski and Dave Gilbert on the two main tables. Lisowski faces a tricky test in the form of Chinese player Li Hang while Gilbert will take on the man returning to the tour this season in Rory McLeod. On the other tables in this session Jordan Brown meets Lee Walker, Zhao Xintong plays Pang Junxu, Zak Surety goes up against Lu Ning, Nigel Bond faces Ashley Hugill and Jimmy Robertson takes on Chen Zifan. Peter Lines meets Luo Honghao in the other match.
Three matches have been saved for second clashes in the morning session and one of those sees the German player Simon Lichtenberg taking on Anthony Hamilton who will be looking to make up for the ranking points he missed out on when he pulled out of the World Championship. A former winner of that tournament is also in action in this slot when Ken Doherty takes on Xu Si while two newbies to the tour also meet each other when Sean Maddocks faces Ben Hancorn.
Afternoon Session
Due to a couple of withdrawals ahead of the action on Tuesday we have a light looking afternoon session but that doesn’t mean that the main tables will not be filled. World Championship finalist Kyren Wilson will be on the TV table when he goes up against Dominic Dale while Tom Ford meets Xiao Guodong over on the streamed table. The other matches in this first afternoon slot sees Matt Selt taking on the tour newcomer Jamie Wilson while Michael White has filled in to make up the numbers and he has a chance to make it through to round two when he takes on Zhao Jianbo.
The second segment of matches in the afternoon session will see Shaun Murphy on the TV table when he takes on Robert Milkins in a good looking contest while on the streamed table the former champion Stuart Bingham meets Fergal O’Brien in another interesting looking clash. The other matches in this set of games sees David Lilley playing Eden Sharav, Jamie Jones meeting Duane Jones and a third Jones, Jak Jones, taking on Elliot Slessor. Graeme Dott against Alexander Ursenbacher has been saved for a third match on the main tables should one be needed.
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Evening Session
The last session of the first round is the one where the world number one Judd Trump launches his title campaign from. He meets the rising star Louis Heathcote in a match which will be on the main table while over on the streamed table Gary Wilson will be on show. He faces the youngster Iulian Boiko who is on the tour for the first time this season. Elsewhere we have Daniel Wells playing Mark Davis, Gao Yang taking on Kacper Filipiak, Ian Burns playing Luca Brecel, Matthew Stevens meeting Jamie O’Neill and Ryan Day faces Mark Lloyd.
Two matches have been saved to make up the session on the main tables. The second match on the TV table will see John Higgins starting his quest for a first English Open title when he faces James Cahill while on the streamed table Barry Hawkins will look to start what is a big week for him now that he has dropped out of the top 16 in the rankings. He faces the talented Brazilian player Igor Figueiredo.
Betting
This isn’t the easiest day to bet on with a lot of heavy favourites who are likely to win but it is a little early in the season to be getting stuck into handicaps or short prices so in the end I’ve decided to go with one bet which will hopefully back up the profitable first day. As with that first day, we have to wait until the evening session for the bet to come along as Gao Yang meets Kacper Filipiak in a match I fancy the Chinese player to come through in.
We don’t have a huge amount of form to go by this season but what we have seen is that Filipiak hasn’t made the brightest start to the campaign. He has played four matches in the European Masters and Championship League and he has only won one frame in them which isn’t exactly how you would want a season to begin. Yang has been a lot more competitive. He drew two of his Championship League matches and made a century in each and also won his first round match in the European Masters before running into the eventual winner Mark Selby. There is no doubt which of these two is in the better form. That’s the Chinese teenager and he’ll be carrying my money here.
Tips
WON – Back G.Yang to beat K.Filipiak for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfair
Back him here:
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