The last 32 of the UK Championship comes to an end inside the Barbican Centre in York on Tuesday when the final eight matches will be played across the two sessions of action on a day where the last 16 line up gets finalised.
We are seeing big names continually fall by the wayside in this tournament so everyone who remains in the event will fancy their chances of going all the way to the first Triple Crown title of the season from here on in.
Afternoon Session
The two big matches of the day both come in the afternoon session on Tuesday. The televised action will revolve around the highest seed left in the tournament in Judd Trump. He takes on a familiar foe in the form of Matt Selt, who shouldn’t be taken lightly. The best match of this round will be on the second TV table when two tournament winners from this season meet as the Northern Ireland Open winner Mark Allen takes on the Championship League champion Dave Gilbert in what should be a pearler of a contest.
To be fair one of the matches on the two outside tables in the arena looks like being a cracker too as the 16 and 17 seeds collide when Anthony McGill meets Zhou Yuelong. It looks like both are going to be at Alexandra Palace for The Masters so the attention of both might be on securing a spot at the World Championship automatically. Whoever wins here will do their chances no harm. Sam Craigie will look to follow up his win over Ding Junhui when he takes on Peter Lines for a place in the last 16.
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Evening Session
There is only one member of the top 16 in action on Tuesday evening and it is the former winner Stephen Maguire. He has seen his quarter open right up and will sense a real chance of emulating his run to the final from two years ago. He has a tricky test awaiting him though in the form of Luca Brecel who is capable of special things. That will be the televised match in this session and over on the other TV table Anthony Hamilton will look to back up his fine win over Mark Williams in the previous round when he takes on Ricky Walden who is having a decent season.
Hossein Vafaei made a huge name for himself for the second time this season when he dumped out the world champion Mark Selby in the previous round. Having already beaten Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-0 this term he is clearly going well and will look to continue that form when he meets Xiao Guodong on one of the outside tables. The other match offers up the opportunity for the Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown to make the last 16. He faces Mark Joyce for whom this week has been something of a jump start to his season.
Betting
The only bet which interests me over the course of the day comes in the evening session where I think Hossein Vafaei can back up that win over Mark Selby when he takes on Xiao Guodong. Guodong is no mug but he has been around for a while now and hasn’t really ever done much in the game. He’ll stay around the ranking he currently has but I don’t see him as any better than that and although he’s played well this week, defeats to Mitchell Mann, Gao Yang and Steven Hallworth prior to it are more than a slight concern.
If you look at the rankings Vafaei is down at 64 going into this tournament but he’s so much better than that and had it not been for visa issues throughout his career he would be much higher than he is so I’m not too worried about that. This is a man who has wins over Mark Allen, Ronnie O’Sullivan and now Mark Selby to his name this season as well as the likes of Kurt Maflin and Jamie Jones. He looked in good touch against Selby and I expect him to come through this one fairly comfortably.
Tips
Back H.Vafaei to beat X.Guodong for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
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