The first round of the Ladbrokes World Grand Prix is in the books and the second round is played out in one potentially quality day of action in Wales on Thursday as the 16 players left battle it out for places in the quarter finals and the one table set up.
The second day of competition very much followed the pattern of the opening day as the big names kept on coming and going on Wednesday with the world number one being the biggest name to fall on what was another busy day.
Mark Selby was beaten by Tom Ford and Marco Fu fell victim to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and there were also defeats for former world champions Mark Williams and Graeme Dott although both were expected if the odds were anything to go by.
We’re left with eight solid looking matches for Thursday where the pick of them comes in the afternoon session when the defending champion Judd Trump takes on Stuart Bingham on the TV table.
Trump looked fantastic in taking care of a Mark Williams who didn’t do an awful lot wrong in the first round. Judd picked up where he left off here 12 months ago and that must please him immensely.
At the outset of his match against Dave Gilbert, Bingham and indeed his opponent were truly awful. Bingham improved slightly as the match went on whereas Gilbert plateaued out to be very disappointing and although Bingham won he can’t have been too happy with how he played.
Bingham’s entire season mirrored that performance really. He’s been 20% off his best all year and paid the price and I fancy he’s going to pay the price again here because I like Trump not just to win but to do a bit of a job on Bingham. Bingham needs to win frames in one visit to come through here and he just isn’t doing it. I’ll take Trump to win with a bit in hand.
The other matches in the afternoon see Ding Junhui taking on a Peter Ebdon doubtlessly buoyed by a win over Neil Robertson in the previous round, Mark Allen playing Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and John Higgins playing Ryan Day. I’m not sure how I see the first two matches going and while I would fancy Higgins to see Day off Day is playing ok at the minute and has the potential to keep that tight.
Moving into the evening session and I guess all eyes will be on the Martin Gould vs Shaun Murphy battle. This is the battle of the current German Masters champion and last year’s Masters winner.
Both men looked good in the first round although I’m not entirely sure what Murphy beat because Michael White shot himself in the foot so many times he must’ve run out of bullets in the end. Gould scored well in the first round as Gould does and I see no reason why he won’t do that here.
This is one of those testing matches that Murphy has been losing all season and I fancy he might get edged out here as well. Murphy hasn’t gone well this season whereas Gould has won in Berlin and he has history with this event to put right. At 7/4 I’ll take the Londoner in this one.
The other match on the TV table in the evening looks ripe for betting on as well as Joe Perry plays Kyren Wilson. Perry surprised me when he beat Barry Hawkins 4-0 in the first round but he has his work cut out against a very solid Wilson here.
Wilson beat Perry on the way to winning the Shanghai Masters. That was his real breakthrough on the tour and so the fact he has also beaten Perry before then and taken him to a deciding frame prior to establishing himself tells me Wilson likes playing his East-Anglia rival.
With Wilson odds against in the match coming into it off the back of a solid looking win over Jamie Jones on Wednesday and with the knowledge he can score well as he showed in that crazy China Open qualifying match with Anthony Hamilton which had six successive centuries a few weeks back I’ll side with Wilson here.
On the other table in the evening Ali Carter faces a Tom Ford who will be buzzing after beating Mark Selby in the first round while Liang Wenbo plays Michael Holt who will still be bouncing himself after he beat Ronnie O’Sullivan on Tuesday. You could make a case for both Ford and Holt there but backing up big wins so soon is never easy and I’ll let those matches play out without a bet.
Back J.Trump (-1.5 frames) to beat S.Bingham for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back K.Wilson to beat J.Perry for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back M.Gould to beat S.Murphy for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with BetVictor
