The third day of the Gibraltar Open sees the first round of the event continuing nowhere near Gibraltar with Covid-19 meaning tournament takes place inside the behind closed doors setup at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
We’ve seen some excellent snooker so far this week with some big names progressing to the second round and others falling by the wayside and on Wednesday the likes of Neil Robertson and Stuart Bingham will be looking to make progress.
Morning Session
It is Stuart Bingham who will be on the main table first up when he takes on the veteran Gerard Greene with the winner progressing to meet Jimmy White in the second round. The streamed table first up sees another veteran in Dominic Dale going up against Tian Pengfei. There are two other matches in the first set of morning games with Barry Pinches meeting Anthony Hamilton and Liam Highfield taking on Fraser Patrick.
The second set of matches in the first session of the day sees the recent Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown on the main table when he takes on the veteran Rod Lawler. Two Welsh players clash on the streamed table in this session when Jak Jones goes up against Ryan Day with the other two matches seeing Scott Donaldson taking on Peter Lines while Kacper Filipiak will be looking to get the better of yet another veteran on show in the form of Alan McManus.
Afternoon Session
Ali Carter has been moved up to the TV table on Wednesday afternoon. He was due to be playing Ronnie O’Sullivan in this match but the Rocket withdrawing means Carter now takes on the amateur John Astley. Over on the streamed table Anthony McGill will look to maintain his place in the top 16 ahead of the World Championship cut off when he meets Louis Heathcote. The other two matches see Lee Walker meeting Jamie O’Neill and Pang Junxu facing off against Igor Figueiredo.
There is another set of matches in the afternoon session and they involve Thepchaiya Un-Nooh being on the main table when he takes on Sean Maddocks while Ben Woollaston will be over on the streamed table. He will be expected to see off Billy Joe Castle. .The other two matches in this session see Haydon Pinhey meeting Sunny Akani and Hamim Hussain, the late replacement from the draw for John Higigns, meets Jamie Wilson.
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Evening Session
Neil Robertson is the star name on show in the evening session. He meets Lei Peifan in a clash which the Australian should win but he hasn’t really been up to speed in recent times. Lu Ning made his debut at the Players Championship last week and he will be on the streamed table here for a clash with Simon Lichtenberg. Two other matches make up the remainder of the day. They see Dylan Emery meeting Ben Hancorn and Oliver Lines going up against Riley Parsons.
Betting
There is just the one bet that I like over the course of Wednesday and it comes in the form of Jamie O’Neill who looks to be finding his strides at tour level and should have the beating of Lee Walker. It has been no secret that Walker has struggled with back issues over the course of the campaign and he is going to need a miracle to stay on the tour at the end of next season even with a year of his tour card still to play.
O’Neill has had a much better time of it this season. He has a pair of wins over Shaun Murphy this term as well as wins over Kurt Maflin, Hossein Vafaei and Zhao Xintong so he is not afraid of mixing it in good company. To get back there he has to win this match and with the confidence those wins will have given him I expect him to win here. He needs to win because he is clinging onto his tour card by virtue of the one year rankings so each win he gets will strengthen that position. Even at 8/11 he’s a good thing here.
Tips
WON – Back J.O’Neill to beat L.Walker for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with Betfair
Back him here:
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