Thursday at the Gibraltar Open sees the first round of the tournament conclude and the second round get underway on what is a busy day inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes and potentially a defining one too.
We’ve seen plenty of shocks already this week and on Thursday the likes of Mark Allen, Mark Williams, Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski will be among the names looking to avoid adding their name to the list.
Morning Session
There are four remaining first round matches and they form the first part of the morning session. Mark Allen will grace the TV table when he takes on the amateur player Jamie Curtis-Barrett whole over on the streamed table we have the chance to watch Luca Brecel taking on Mark King. The other two first round matches which will be played on the outside tables seeIulian Boiko taking on Fergal O’Brien and Brandon Sargeant going up against Aaron Hill on what is very much Irish morning in Milton Keynes.
It is the second round all the way after that and Kyren Wilson is the first to grace the TV table in the round when he takes on the Chinese player Fan Zhengyi. There is another star from Chinese on the streamed table as Zhou Yuelong meets Alexander Ursenbacher. Two other matches make up the session with David Lilley facing Mitchell Mann in one of them and Hossein Vafaei taking on Allan Taylor in the other one.
Afternoon Session
Mark Selby will be the first on the TV table in the afternoon session. He has a clash of former world champions with Ken Doherty to overcome if he is to keep his quest to win the BetVictor Euro Series alive. Ricky Walden heads up the action on the streamed table when he meets the man who took care of Ding Junhui in the first round in Si Jiahui. Chinese players are involved in the other two matches as well with Chen Zifan facing Leo Fernandez and Chang Bingyu going up against Chris Wakelin.
Jack Lisowski will follow Mark Selby onto the TV table. He was probably expecting to face Ryan Day in this match but Jak Jones had other ideas and he’ll take his place against the World Grand Prix and German Masters finalist. Matthew Selt did his popularity no favours when he took care of Stephen Hendry in the first round and he goes up against Barry Hawkins on the streamed table as a reward. Scott Donaldson meets Joe Perry in one of the other matches while our outright pick Zhao Xintong meets Daniel Wells in the other.
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Evening Session
Just the one set of matches takes place in the evening session once again and it is Judd Trump who will be the centre of attention. He meets Sunny Akani in a match which has a rather large clash of styles which might make it interesting. Another of our outright picks will be on the streamed table when Tom Ford takes on Jamie Jones in what looks like being a high scoring game. Two other matches complete the day and they see Andrew Higginson facing Stuart Carrington and Tian Pengfei going up against Anthony Hamilton.
Betting
I’ll go with just the one bet over the course of the day on Thursday which comes in the afternoon session as Chang Bingyu meets Chris Wakelin in a match I fancy the Chinese improver to come out on top in. I’ve often mentioned when previewing these best of seven events that I prefer the improving scorer over the plateaued or declining player and that is exactly what we have in this match so I’m very much on the side of Bingyu here.
I highlighted the indifferent come poor season that Wakelin has had when I took him on in the first round. He came through that in a deciding frame but he should have been 3-0 down having lost the first frame and then been 47-0 and 51-0 down in the next two. He escaped those positions but should he give Bingyu the same sorts of chances then I expect the Chinese player to put him away. Wakelin hasn’t been past this stage of a tournament all season and he shouldn’t be a level ball with Bingyu here.
Tips
Back C.Bingyu to beat C.Wakelin for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
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