The third round of the UK Championship snooker tournament comes to a close on Tuesday when the last eight matches in the last 32 takes place, and as we near the business end of the event at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes it will be interesting to see who will hold their nerve.
The three big names on show in this round on Monday all made it through and on Tuesday the likes of Mark Selby, Kyren Wilson and Stephen Maguire will be bidding to join them on what looks like being an excellent day of snooker in Buckinghamshire.
Afternoon Session
We will be watching the former winner of this title on the TV table in the afternoon session when Mark Selby goes up against Hossein Vafaei in what is a tasty looking encounter while over on the official streamed table the World Championship finalist Kyren Wilson will be looking to make it into the last 16 of this event when he also faces a competent challenger. He meets the Norwegian number one Kurt Maflin.
The other two matches will be able to be viewed on the live streaming consoles with the bookmakers and one of them is a big occasion for Jack Lisowski as he bids to force his way back to The Masters. He faces Xu Si in a match where winning will all but see him walk out at Alexandra Palace next month. The other match sees another man chasing a spot in The Masters in action when Joe Perry meets Joe O’Connor.
Evening Session
The former winner of this title Mark Williams is the main who will get the main billing in the evening session. The Welsh star is on the TV table when he goes up against Ricky Walden in a match both men will feel that they can win. Over on the streamed table the Tour Championship winner Stephen Maguire will look to take another step closer to a second consecutive UK final when he takes on the Chinese youngster who is making a big impression on the scene in the form of Pang Junxu.
The other two matches can also be watched on the streams with the bookmakers. They see Elliot Slessor going up against Lu Ning in a match where there is a huge opportunity for both men. That same chance will be presented to the two competitors in the other match as well as the tour newcomer Jamie Jones goes up against the man who sent Ronnie O’Sullivan packing in the previous round in Alexander Ursenbacher.
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Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets in the evening session where I’m surprised a couple of players are the outsiders in their matches. The first of those is Lu Ning who has been scoring like a lunatic so far in the tournament having won half of the frames he has come out on top in with century breaks including four in a 6-0 whitewash of Matt Selt in the previous round. I would have expected him to be the favourite against Elliot Slessor regardless of that because he is the higher ranked player but the fact he isn’t the favourite makes him more appealing. Slessor did well to see off Shaun Murphy in the previous round and played very well in doing it but he acknowledged that consistency, or a lack of it, has been his undoing through the years and that has to be a concern here. Ning has shown he can mix it in a scoring match and you’d think he would have the edge in a tactical one so I like him here.
The other bet I like is for Jamie Jones to beat Alexander Ursenbacher. I took Jones on in the previous round because he didn’t have a match in the first round but you wouldn’t have noticed because he played well when he got up to speed. That took four frames but you would expect that but from 3-1 down at the interval he powered away from Jordan Brown which will have given him a lot of confidence. Ursenbacher knocked off Ronnie O’Sullivan in the previous round but you won’t beat him with one break over 50 in the entire match so while you can’t deny him that win there is an argument that he will need to be even better here. His safety and shot choice were questionable against O’Sullivan but he got away with it. I’m not sure that will happen here though. Jones generally doesn’t leave much behind in his matches and with the natural comedown that Ursenbacher will have had I suspect the Welshman is an ounce of value here.
Tips
WON – Back L.Ning to beat E.Slessor for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Sky Bet
WON – Back J.Jones to beat A.Ursenbacher for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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