It is the penultimate day of the Gibraltar Open on Saturday and even though we are so deep into the event in terms of days remaining, we only see the third round completed and the last 16 played out on what is another busy day of action inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
We have had the first quarter of the third round matches already and they conclude over the morning and first part of the afternoon on Saturday before the last 16 is played out. Time restrictions will deny us the chance to preview that stage but we’ll have a look at the remainder of the third round.
Morning Session
There are two sets of matches in the morning session once again and it is Jack Lisowski who gets to go on the TV table first. He will meet Fraser Patrick for a place in the last 16 later in the day. Over on the streamed table we will get to see Dave Gilbert taking on another of our remaining outright bets in Zhao Xintong. The other two matches to make up the first part of the morning session sees Lei Peifan going up against Stuart Carrington and Lu Ning meeting his countryman Pang Junxu.
The second part of the morning has plenty of big names on show and it is the former world champion Shaun Murphy who will don the TV table. He meets the veteran Anthony Hamilton who will be eyeing up a second ranking event success. The streamed table will see the in form Ali Carter meeting Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in what should be a watchable match while the other matches are Chen Zifan going up against Jimmy White and Tom Ford taking on Sohail Vahedi.
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Afternoon Session
All eyes will be on the newly crowned winner of the BetVictor Euro Series in the form of the world number one Judd Trump in the first part of the afternoon session on Saturday. He takes on the dangerous Robert Milkins on the main table while over on the streamed table we will get to see Mark Allen looking to continue his progress when he meets Hossein Vafaei while away from the main tables Martin Gould takes on Jamie Clarke and there is another all-Chinese clash between Zhao Jianbo and Xiao Guodong.
Betting
Amazingly among the 12 matches left in this third round, four of them contain players I’ve backed outright so I’m going to let them ride especially as only one of them is an outsider for their match and even then Zhao Xintong is only a marginal underdog. Hopefully we can get as many as possible into the last 16 later in the day and then into the quarter finals for Sunday when the payouts will look much closer.
The bet I like from these games comes in the middle set of games where I think Chen Zifan can see off Jimmy White. I’m a big White fan so it is with a heavy heart that I take this bet but you have to back what you think will win and I think that will be the Chinese player, who like most of the season has scored pretty well so far this week. Zifan beat Yan Bingtao at the UK Championship so he can clearly play whereas Jimmy’s best days are behind him. He has had a bit of an adventure this week too having been 3-0 down in his first match against Joe O’Connor. He came back to win 4-3 and then beat Stuart Bingham on Friday but Bingham was absolutely woeful in that match so I’m not sure we can use that as a form guide. Zifan had to go the distance in the last frame but he’s made a ton in both matches so far so he is clearly cueing well and should be a firmer favourite than he is.
Tips
Back C.Zifan to beat J.White for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back him here:
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