The third round of the UK Championship gets up and running on Monday when the first half of the last 32 action takes place across another two sessions of play inside the behind closed doors setup at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
We saw a bunch of big shocks in the second round with former champions Shaun Murphy, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ding Junhui all biting the dust as well as Mark Allen and others so those big names who are left in will certainly have their minds focused on the job from here on in.
Afternoon Session
The world number one Judd Trump has managed to avoid the carnage so far but he faces a sizeable banana skin on the main table on Monday afternoon when he goes up against a man who has been to the final of this tournament before in Liang Wenbo. The streamed table will see another former winner of this event in action when John Higgins looks to reach the last 16 when he goes up against Welsh player Jak Jones.
The other two matches are also going to be able to be streamed but you’ll need accounts with the bookmakers to view them. There is a tasty looking all-Chinese battle between Zhou Yuelong and the youngster who is making a big name for himself in the form of Chang Bingyu while the other match has the makings of being a cracker as well as Barry Hawkins continues his last-gasp attempt to make The Masters when he goes up against Robert Milkins who is playing well again.
Evening Session
The evening session is pretty entertaining as well and yet another former winner of this tournament is on show on the main TV table when Neil Robertson continues his quest for another Triple Crown title. He faces Li Hang who he has had plenty of battles with in the past. The streamed table has two former champions of the world on it and it is a big game for both men as Stuart Bingham meets Graeme Dott. Dott needs to keep winning to push for a back door route into The Masters while Bingham will want to go into his defence of that title with some form to his name.
The other two matches will once again be available on the streaming tables on the bookmaker websites The World Championship semi-finalist Anthony McGill is on one of those tables when he takes on the man who took Yan Bingtao out in the previous round in Chen Zifan while on the other table the conqueror of Ding Junhui, David Grace, has another Chinese opponent to overcome in the form of the competent Xiao Guodong.
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Betting
This is a pretty awkward set of matches to bet on. I say that because the handicaps are either right or 0.5 out on the wrong side for my liking. There is nothing in the frames or breaks markets that I like the look of so I’ll take the one bet to reverse the poor day from Sunday and save the deeper days for the rest of the tournament where hopefully the cards will be a little kinder from a betting standpoint. The bet I like comes in the Li Hang against Neil Robertson match.
Hang wasn’t in the best of form coming into this tournament but to be fair he has never truly convinced over the best of seven frame matches so he might have been waiting for this event to come around. He has had a couple of good wins over Fraser Patrick and Zhao Xintong to build himself up for this match. These two have met on five occasions and Robertson only leads 3-2 with one of his wins coming in a deciding frame. The Australian has come through the draw having lost just one frame so far but he hasn’t faced an opponent of note yet and we’ve seen all season that when he’s up against someone he can get tied down in a match he doesn’t want to play. In the past Hang has drawn him into that and while I would be surprised if the Chinese player wins here I certainly think he is good enough to make it to three frames before he goes down, if he does go down. Hang is scoring fine this week so I expect this to be much more competitive than the bookies do.
Tips
Back L.Hang (+3.5 frames) to beat N.Robertson for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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