The second round of the UK Championship concludes on what is another busy day inside the Barbican Centre in York on Sunday. When the action has finished we will know the line up for the last 32 of the opening Triple Crown event.
Saturday saw the TV stages begin with the majority of the big names all making it through to the last 32 and there are plenty more looking to join them over the course of what looks a decent schedule on Sunday.
Afternoon Session
There are big names everywhere you look in this afternoon session. The TV action will revolve around Judd Trump as he looks to begin to correct his poor record in these major events when he takes on Chris Wakelin. Ding Junhui was the champion the last time the tournament was held here and he’ll be looking to make progress and defend some more of his ranking money when he plays Sam Craigie. The other two matches in the main arena sees Stephen Maguire going up against Tian Pengfei and Martin Gould going up against Cao Yupeng.
This is the final day where there will be action in the sports hall and it is a shame that one of the matches that has been reduced to that part of the venue is the one between the exciting ton machines Zhao Xintong and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Ricky Walden is having a decent season and he’ll be hoping that continues when he meets Li Hang while the other two matches sees Peter Lines going up against Fan Zhengyi and Robert Milkins meeting Xiao Guodong.
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Evening Session
The world champion Mark Selby will take centre stage on the main table on Sunday evening. He has a tricky assignment against Hossein Vafaei who is more than capable of troubling Selby if he isn’t a rabbit in the headlights. Mark Williams will look to make it through to the third round at the expense of Anthony Hamilton on the other main table. Stuart Bingham and Anthony McGill are the other leading lights on show in the main arena. They take on Stuart Carrington and David Grace respectively.
Much like in the afternoon session one of the better looking matches on paper has been reduced to the sports hall where Luca Brecel will go up against Tom Ford in what should be a fluent match. Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown will look to make it into the last 32 when he goes up against Farakh Ajaib while in the other two matches Zhou Yuelong will continue his push for a place at The Masters when he takes on Ashley Hugill and Jimmy Robertson meets Graeme Dott, who like Zhou has his eyes on Alexandra Palace.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of Sunday with the first one coming in that exciting clash that nobody than watch when Zhao Xintong takes on Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Un-Nooh equalled history in the first round when he smashed in five centuries against Stephen Hendry and for all the safety game of Hendry isn’t up to scratch, the Scot didn’t actually do much wrong the Thai was just in insane form. He should score well here too against a Xintong whose strength is to get the balls open and dish them up. Earlier in the season the Chinese star bashed in four tons and an 85 in a best of nine in the German Masters qualifying against Stuart Carrington. These two don’t need a second invitation to dish the table so the 5/6 on over 1.5 tons looks decent enough to me.
Carrington actually won three frames in that match against Xintong which highlights that he isn’t playing too badly and he showed that in the first round here when he beat Zhao Jianbo 6-1 in a match he made six breaks of 50 or more in. I think Carrington has a great chance to beat Stuart Bingham in the evening session but the 4/5 on him winning four frames is a perfectly adequate bet. Bingham is not playing well this season and literally fell over the line against the amateur Dean Young in the first round. Prior to that Bingham had lost his previous four matches and while the defeat to Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Champion of Champions was excusable, losses to Luca Brecel, Fraser Patrick and Fergal O’Brien were less so. It might be that the venue and the format allow Bingham to edge home but he doesn’t look in the sort of form to win this without Carrington getting four frames to me.
Tips
Back Z.Xintong vs T.Un-Nooh – Over 1.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back S.Carrington (+2.5 frames) to beat S.Bingham for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfair
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