The second day of the UK Championship takes place inside in the quarantined setup at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes when another 16 matches are played out as we reach the halfway mark of the first round of competition.
We saw the three legendary names on show on Monday all make it through the second round unscathed and on Tuesday it will be the turn of Stephen Maguire, Kyren Wilson and Shaun Murphy to attempt to follow them.
Morning Session
It is Stephen Maguire who heads up the morning session on Tuesday and he will be on the main table when he goes up against the youngster from Ukraine in the form of Iulian Boiko. It is a big morning for Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and his quest to remain in the top 16 at the end of the tournament to get him into The Masters. He meets Lukas Kleckers on the second table but needs to be careful because Kleckers did a job on Mark Selby last week.
Two other matches will be on the live streams with bookmakers and one of those sees Luca Brecel looking to make it through to the next round when he goes up against Lei Peifan. Another Chinese player is on the other streamed table as Lyu Haotian meets Sohail Vahedi. The other matches have an interesting looking clash between Liam Highfield and Jackson Page as well as an all-Chinese battle between Yuan Sijun and Chen Zifan.
Afternoon Session
There are five matches in the afternoon session and the match that is live on the television is the one which features the latest Championship League winner Kyren Wilson. He has a date with the lesser known Ashley Hugill in a match where he should cruise into the next round. Things might be a little trickier on the streamed table in this session as the grossly out of form Dave Gilbert goes up against Fan Zhengyi who must realise the chance that is in front of him.
Of the three other matches that take place two of them are on the streamed tables with Michael Holt meeting the impressive younger player Gao Yang on one of them and on the other Ricky Walden meets the veteran Rod Lawler in what has the makings of quite a battle. The other match sees Robert Milkins going up against Si Jiahui in what would have been a better clash to watch that some of those we get the chance to.
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Evening Session
Shaun Murphy has gone quiet again in the last couple of tournaments but he gets the chance to revive his form in the evening session on Tuesday when he competes on the TV table. He takes on the Welsh player Lee Walker while over on the streamed table the former World Championship semi-finalist Gary Wilson begins his quest for the big tournament that he needs to qualify for The Masters when he takes on Oliver Lines in a good looking match.
There are three other matches in the day’s play with two of those being streamed as well. One of those matches sees Mark King going up against David Lilley while the other is the all-Welsh clash between the former champion Matthew Stevens and the tour newcomer Jamie Jones. There is one match that hasn’t got the spotlight of the cameras on it. That sees Chris Wakelin going up against Louis Heathcote.
Betting
I’ll go with one bet over the course of the day on Tuesday and like our winner on Monday it comes in the afternoon session. On Monday I took an outsider to cover the handicap and here I will take a favourite to do the same. That favourite is Robert Milkins in his match against a Si Jiahui who I mentioned in a previous tournament is beginning to flatter to deceive a little and hasn’t done a whole lot since I made that accusation to convince me otherwise.
Robert Milkins hasn’t had that big result or two in terms of going deep in a tournament but the reason for that is because he has run into some monster draws early in events. In the main tournaments this season it has taken Dave Gilbert, Shaun Murphy, John Higgins and Mark Allen to knock him out. In the other matches he has beaten Ben Mertens 5-0 and Fan Zhengyi 4-0. He also played Chen Zifan in the Championship League and won that 3-0. There seems to be a trend that when Milkins plays lower ranked opponents he wins comfortably and while he puts up a fight against the higher figures he loses. Jiahui is the lower ranked here so I fancy Milkins to come through with a bit in hand here.
Tips
WON – Back R.Milkins (-1.5 frames) to beat S.Jiahui for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Back him here:
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