The first round of the World Grand Prix concludes and the last 16 gets underway on the third day of action in the tournament at the Cheltenham Racecourse on Wednesday, as the opening Coral Series event of the campaign continues.
Tuesday was a day where we saw some big names exit, with Ding Junhui, Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy all falling by the wayside and so the big names on show over the course of Wednesday will be keen to avoid being the victim of another upset.
Afternoon Session
It is in this session where the first round of the tournament concludes and it does so with a couple of matches on the main table, involving four men who have all been to world finals with three of them having won the big title at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. We get underway with John Higgins taking on Stuart Bingham and then when they are done Mark Williams and Barry Hawkins will meet to decide the last 16 opponent of Neil Robertson later in the week.
The second table has a couple of juicy battles on it as well with two top class Chinese youngsters up first over there as the Riga Masters champion Yan Bingtao meets Zhao Xintong in a game which could go either way before the two England representatives at the World Cup earlier in the campaign meet as Kyren Wilson faces Jack Lisowski for the right to meet Judd Trump in what would be a mouth-watering last 16 clash.
Place 5 accumulators either in a Boylesports shop or online and get an acca free! Click the image above to bet. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Evening Session
This is the session where we will have Ronnie O’Sullivan back in action and he will face a man he has a lot of respect for in the form of Liang Wenbo, who dumped Mark Allen out of the tournament on Tuesday evening. World Championship semi-finalist Gary Wilson will then be the main man on the main table after that, when he takes on a Matthew Stevens who saw off Shaun Murphy in a late night thriller on Tuesday.
We should get a couple of competitive battles in the evening session on Table Two as well and they begin with the former world champion Graeme Dott facing a man with a fine record in this tournament in Xiao Guodong. The second match on show could be something of a grudge match as Tom Ford and Matt Selt meet for the first time since a fiery and controversial meeting at the Championship League earlier in the season.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the day. If you follow Mark Williams’ twitter feed you will know he is suffering from gout in his toe and has had to get new footwear for this match and everything, which is less than ideal it has to be said. He takes on a Barry Hawkins who has won this tournament before and who is usually coming good at this part of the season, and he’ll need to here if he is going to be at Southport later in the month. We haven’t seen the best of Hawkins at all this season yet but there were signs it could be coming at the recent European Masters. Williams hasn’t pulled up any trees this season anyway but add in his mystery injury and you’ve got to think the Welshman must be opposed. It is Hawkins for me in this one.
I respect Graeme Dott a lot but I also respect the record of Xiao Guodong in this tournament, and the way he played in beaten Mark Selby on Monday night, when he slammed in a ton and was 12 reds and blacks into a maximum in another frame. He closed out that match well enough as well and you would think he is ready to build on that having made the last eight here two years ago and the last four last year. Dott was solid enough in beating Kurt Maflin in the first round but Guodong looks in good nick. He also looks overpriced here as a result. I’ll take him to win this one.
Tips
Back B.Hawkins to beat M.Williams for a 4/10 stake at 1.75 with Betway
Back him here:
Back X.Guodong to beat G.Dott for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with Coral
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
