It is a busy day at the English Open on Thursday even though there are only two sessions of action as opposed to the three we’ve had so far this week. The second round concludes and the third round will be played out inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
The remainder of the second round forms the afternoon session and then the whole third round will be done and dusted in the evening session which means that come the end of the night we will know the quarter final line up.
Afternoon Session
It is second round matches all the way in the afternoon with the world champion Mark Selby on the main table first up. He faces his good friend Chris Wakelin who will be a real challenge if he has the form he had when beating Stephen Hendry with him. Shaun Murphy will be on the other table. He will look for a place in the third round when he takes on Fraser Patrick. The other two matches first up sees Jamie Clarke meeting Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Li Hang facing Luca Brecel.
The ever popular Ronnie O’Sullivan will be on the main table in the second match of the afternoon. He has a date with a fellow tour veteran Anthony Hamilton in what should be a high scoring contest. This slot of games is absolutely loaded and it will be John Higgins who will be on the other main table. He meets Lu Ning in an even looking contest. Chinese stars occupy the other two tables with Ding Junhui taking on Martin Gould and The Masters champion Yan Bingtao meeting the Championship League winner Dave Gilbert in what is the tie of the round.
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Evening Session
We only know four matches for sure in the evening session and the TV table will be occupied by the defending champion Judd Trump. He takes on the Scottish amateur Ross Muir who is having a fine week and will look to maximise that by taking out the current world number one. Neil Robertson will be on the other main table when he takes on Mark Davis in what should be the pick of the matches at this stage. The other two matches sees Kyren Wilson facing Robbie Williams and Mark King meeting the other amateur that remains in the event in the youngster Paul Deaville.
We don’t know the official line up for the later matches on the card but we know the winner of the Ronnie O’Sullivan and Anthony Hamilton match takes on the winner of the Jamie Clarke and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh one. We also know Li Hang or Luca Brecel will play Fraser Patrick or Shaun Murphy while John Higgins or Lu Ning will meet Ding Junhui or Martin Gould. Assuming Mark Selby beats Chris Wakelin he will be involved in the biggest match in this session when he takes on the winner of the Dave Gilbert and Yan Bingtao match.
Betting
There should be some bets to be had in those later evening matches but we won’t know the line up in time to put them into a preview. There is one I like the look of in the afternoon though and that comes in the form of the Ding Junhui and Martin Gould match where I fancy the outsider to come through. The main reason why I like Gould here is just the season activity. This is the first event of the year for Ding and while he has come through his two matches well enough and with a few 50 breaks, he doesn’t look anywhere near the Ding we know at his best.
Ding isn’t the only one who has scored well in this tournament anyway. Gould walloped Scott Donaldson 4-0 in the previous round and he bashed in a couple of centuries and two 80s and if he has that sort of scoring with him in this match Ding is in a lot of trouble. We know from the past that you can often tell what sort of place Gould is in by how heavily he scores. He can’t really score much heavier than he did in the previous round so we might be seeing a decent week from Gould. That can involve winning here.
Tips
Back M.Gould to beat D.Junhui for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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