It is the second day of qualifying for the International Championship on Friday with three more loaded sessions of best of 11 matches the order of the day in what is the penultimate day of the event.
There was an absence of big names on Thursday with the obvious exception of Ronnie O’Sullivan but that isn’t the case on Friday as a number of powerhouses come out to play once again.
Morning Session
We have eight matches in the morning session with Marco Fu taking on Andy Hicks on one of the streamed tables. The other one sees Mark Davis facing Yan Bingtao in a match where the underdog will be eager to make it into the main draw.
The other matches see Sam Baird playing Michael Georgiou, Joe Swail faces Akani Songsermsawad, Michael White plays Zhang Yong, Mike Dunn meets Jason Weston while Robin Hull takes on Daniel Womersley and Barry Hawkins plays Lee Walker.
Afternoon Session
Stuart Bingham is one of the headline attractions on the streamed tables. He takes on Peter Lines while on the other table Stephen Maguire meets Michael Wild. Both are heavy favourites to come through those matches.
Elsewhere Yu Delu takes on Ross Muir, Luca Brecel plays Fang Xiongman, Dominic Dale meets Boonyarit Kaettikun, Ali Carter is back on the green baize when he meets Chen Zhe and Robbie Williams plays Zhang Anda. Rod Lawler plays David Lilley.
Evening Session
Neil Robertson leads this session when he takes on Sam Craigie. Joe Perry plays Christopher Keogan and both matches are on the streamed tables. Perry could be vulnerable having tweeted a slightly cryptic message after his loss in the European Masters qualifying.
In the other matches Kurt Maflin plays Sanderson Lam, Matthew Selt faces Hamza Akbar while Xiao Guodong goes up against Hammad Miah. Jamie Jones meets Cao Yupeng, Michael Holt plays Elliot Slessor and Stuart Carrington will take on Kurt Dunham.
Betting
This is a really tough card with a number of odds on favourites and heavy ones at that and there aren’t really any handicap lines which grab my fancy either so I will take just the one bet across the three sessions.
That comes on the improving Akani Songsermsawad. He is enjoying a really good season and I fancy that he could improve still when he takes on Joe Swail. Songsermsawad is already a quarter finalist at the Indian Open this year and he took Anthony McGill the distance in the European Masters qualifying earlier in the week.
Joe Swail is the solid player he has always been but he is nothing special and if you play well against him you will beat him. I think Songsermsawad can do that. He has taken Mark Selby the distance already this season and so this is a match he should be able to win.
Tips
WON – Back A.Songsermsawad to beat J.Swail for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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