It is second round day at the Northern Ireland Open on Wednesday when the 64 remaining players battle it out for a spot in the third round of the second Home Nations event of the season inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
We have another busy day of action on Wednesday with 32 matches across the three sessions but with most of the bigger names having negotiated the first round the better matches are starting to arrive which gives the tournament a sense of really starting here.
Morning Session
There are some big players on show in the morning session and one of them is on the main table when Kyren Wilson will look to take a step towards another deep run in a competition. He takes on Ken Doherty who looks in fine form. On the other main table Stephen Maguire will be looking to make the third round when he takes on the dangerous challenge of Alexander Ursenbacher. Two other matches in this session will be streamed with the bookmakers. They see Barry Pinches facing Anthony McGill and the other sees the Championship League winner Luca Brecel meeting Rod Lawler.
There are four matches away from the streams as well with Indian Open champion Matt Selt taking on Stuart Carrington in one of them while Zak Surety meets Zhao Xintong in another of them. The other two games sees European Masters finalist Martin Gould taking on Rory McLeod and Ashley Carty facing Andy Hicks. Two other matches will be played out in the morning as Zhou Yuelong faces Noppon Saengkham and David Grace goes up against Sam Craigie.
Afternoon Session
We have a busy afternoon session in store for us with three more sets of matches. The first of them sees the world number one and defending champion Judd Trump on the TV table when he takes on Gao Yang while over on the streamed table we have Ding Junhui battling his countryman Lu Ning. Another Chinese player is involved in one of the other two matches in this slot when Xu Si meets Scott Donaldson and Michael Holt takes on Louis Heathcote.
It is all about the world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in the second part of the afternoon. He is up on the TV table against a man he has never beaten in Elliot Slessor while the streamed table will be occupied by Yan Bingtao when he meets Nigel Bond. There are three other matches in this session of play. Fergal O’Brien faces Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in one while Barry Hawkins meets Michael White in another. The other game sees Mark Davis facing Matthew Stevens.
A third set of matches are also on the afternoon schedule and they will see Mark Williams playing Dominic Dale on the TV table while Stuart Bingham meets Zhao Jianbo on the streamed table. Two other matches will be played out in this slot with Ali Carter against Xiao Guodong potentially worthy of a better audience than it is going to get on an outside table. The other match has Allan Taylor taking on Joe Perry.
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Evening Session
The big names keep on coming in the evening session with Neil Robertson first up on the main table. He faces the man who dumped him out of German Masters qualifying last week in the form of Ben Woollaston while over on the streamed table Mark Selby meets Lukas Kleckers. Liang Wenbo is also in action in this session. He meets the in form Jak Jones while Jackson Page takes on Kurt Maflin and Tom Ford faces Yuan Sijun.
The second TV match in the evening session sees the Champion of Champions winner Mark Allen looking to progress in his ‘home’ tournament when he meets Robert Milkins while on the streamed table John Higgins will take on another player from Northern Ireland in the veteran Patrick Wallace. The other two matches have Sunny Akani going up against Igor Figueiredo and James Cahill taking on Ryan Day.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple more bets over the course of Wednesday with the first of them taking on Thepchaiya Un-Nooh again. I took him on in the first round on Tuesday when I took Peter Devlin to cover the handicap against him and he did just that. This time I’m backing Fergal O’Brien to beat him in a match where I think the Thai might come a cropper against the canny efficiency of the Irishman. He isn’t daft. He’ll know if he keeps things tight he’ll get his chances in this match and if his win over Mark Selby in German Masters qualifying is anything to go by when he made six 50s in the eight frames, O’Brien will score well when he gets those chances. I’m a big fan of Un-Nooh but his form this season is very ordinary and O’Brien just feels a little overpriced given the way the styles of these two could clash.
Later in the afternoon session I have to take on Ali Carter. It is hard to know what is more rubbish at the minute. His form or the stuff he is coming out with on Twitter but certainly he is flattering to deceive on the table. Whether that is a mindset thing I’m not sure but he has to be vulnerable to a capable operator in the form of Xiao Guodong who generally goes well enough in these Home Nations events. Guodong has been involved in a lot of tight matches this season already so he is certainly battle-hardened and that could be significant here. I’m not convinced Carter is up for the fight at the minute so I’m happy to be on the Chinese player at odds against.
Tips
Back F.O’Brien to beat T.Un-Nooh for a 3/10 stake at 3.10 with Coral
Back him here:
Back X.Guodong to beat A.Carter for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Betfair
Back him here:
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