The second round of the World Championship qualifying concludes on Friday when the remaining 16 to be played start out on their journey. Eight of them will finish which means that the season will end for eight while the others will be two wins from the Crucible Theatre.
The drama and tension is beginning to mount up at the English Institute of Sport with not just third round places on the line for some of these players but remaining on the tour is also in play. The stakes are very high on Friday.
Thursday Recap
16 matches concluded on Thursday and it was heartbreak for Jimmy White when he lost 10-4 to Martin O’Donnell. The other good story of the week so far was Stan Moody but he exited 10-3 to Zhang Anda. Mark Joyce ended the run of Anton Kazakov 10-3 while elsewhere Peter Lines beat Haydon Pinhey 10-6, Andy Hicks saw off Jamie O’Neill 10-7, Ben Woollaston ended our outright hopes with Daniel Wells 10-6, Ian Burns took out Dylan Emery 10-9 and John Astley beat Craig Steadman 10-8.
There was a big surprise in the evening session when Aaron Hill beat Michael White 10-3. The other matches were all a lot closer with Wu Yize beating Allan Taylor 10-7, Dominic Dale took care of Asjad Iqbal 10-6 while there were 10-7 wins for Si Jiahui over Florian Nuessle and Alfie Burden against Alexander Ursenbacher. Iulian Boiko continued his good run when he beat Stuart Carrington 10-5 while Jak Jones beat Adam Duffy 10-6. David Lilley edged out Gerard Greene 10-9.
Morning Session
Eight matches will start out in the morning session ahead of concluding in the evening. Four of those will be streamed on Discovery Plus and among those on show we will see the former finalist Matthew Stevens on the main table when he takes on the enigmatic Dechawat Poomjaeng. Stevens’ fellow Welsh player Jackson Page is also on show in the morning session. He starts his campaign against Ross Muir while David Grace faces Sean O’Sullivan in another match. Mark Davis meets the former Shootout champion Michael Georgiou in the other streamed game.
It might be that the pick of the matches isn’t actually on the streamed tables as Louis Heathcote will go up against Andrew Higginson away from the cameras in what should be a good quality game. Elsewhere, two Welsh players meet when Duane Jones meets Andrew Pagett while Fraser Patrick is due to face Barry Pinches in an open looking contest. The other match sees Mitchell Mann facing Sanderson Lam.
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Afternoon Session
Some recognisable names will be on show in the afternoon session with the first session of these matches being played here before they return on Saturday afternoon to conclude. Scott Donaldson is the highest ranked player on show in this round and he will be on the main table when he takes on the amateur Liam Davies. Oliver Lines will look to make progress when he faces Michael Holt while Hammad Miah will meet the former champion Ken Doherty. The two Belgian youngsters also meet when Julien Leclercq takes on Ben Mertens.
Four other matches take place across the session away from the streamed cameras. The pick of those is probably the one which sees Lukas Kleckers going up against Ashley Hugill but Elliot Slesser against Ian Martin is another one which could be close throughout. Xu Si begins his quest on Friday when he takes on Zak Surety with Lei Peifan going up against the man who ended the title tilt of Stephen Hendry in the first round in James Cahill.
Betting
Two bets standout for me on Friday. The first of them is for Sanderson Lam to beat Mitchell Mann. Mann is under all sorts of pressure in this match. He has to reach the Crucible in order to keep his tour card and we saw on Thursday how much pressure that creates on a player. Lam has no such problems in that regard and actually if you look deeper in his form over the last month or so there is reason to think he can do some damage here. He took care of Anthony Hamilton in Welsh Open qualifying and only got knocked out of the main draw in a deciding frame by John Higgins. He then came through the first round here where he had breaks of 122, 85 and 76 along the way. Mann has only won two 15 red matches since the British Open and one of those was against Reanne Evans who has been out of her depth. Mann has only played twice since the Shootout losing 4-1 to Mark Allen and 4-0 to Oliver Lines. I think Lam is a big price at 11/8 given the pressure Mann is under.
I said in the outright preview for this competition that I’m keen on Ben Mertens this week and I think he should be a hotter favourite to see off Julien Leclercq than he is. Leclercq showed all of his quality when he made the final of the Shootout but I do think there is lot more upside to the Mertens game. LeClercq is definitely talented but he’ll be coming in here cold compared to his opponent who has already played a match this week. Mertens flowed nicely once he settled into that first round match and by the end of the match he looked quite good. I think both of these men will be regulars on the tour over the next few years but I like the Mertens safety game a little more. Leclercq goes for a ball or two too many for me and that might be the difference here.
Tips
Back S.Lam to beat M.Mann for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Betway
Back B.Mertens to beat J.Leclercq for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
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