The second round of the Shanghai Masters concludes out in China on Wednesday when the four matches in the bottom half of the draw take place across two sessions of play on what should be another decent day of action.
We’ve seen four standout stars qualify for the quarter finals in the top half of the draw and on Wednesday the world champion Luca Brecel, Neil Robertson, Ding Junhui and Mark Williams are among those looking to make progress.
Afternoon Session
The world champion Luca Brecel begins his quest for the Shanghai Masters title on the main table in the afternoon session when he takes on a man who he beat on his way to winning the world title in Mark Williams. The Welshman played well against Pang Junxu to come through to this stage. There is a good match in store on the other table as well as the player of last season, Mark Allen, goes up against the former ranking event winner Fan Zhengyi, who has seen off Gary Wilson already in this competition.
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Evening Session
We have two good looking matches in the evening session to round off the second round of the tournament. On the main table Neil Robertson will look to enhance his relatively poor record in this tournament when he takes on the biggest player to be produced from these shores in Ding Junhui. The other match is a repeat of the Welsh Open final from last season as Shaun Murphy takes on the man who beat him to land that title in the form of Robert Milkins.
Betting
Luca Brecel beat Mark Williams at the World Championship recently but his three efforts against him prior to that ended 4-1, 4-1 and 5-1 if we ignore their meeting in the Shootout. The Belgian then admitted on a video on the Stephen Hendry YouTube channel that the win over Williams in the World Championship gave him most satisfaction because he finds the Welsh player the hardest in the game to play against and that makes me think Williams can come through this one.
We saw on Tuesday that there is no doubt that having had a match already is an advantage. One of those players won on Tuesday and two others took much higher ranked opponents to a deciding frame and Williams has already had a match on these tables whereas Brecel comes in a little cold. Brecel made it to the last 16 in the European Masters last month but didn’t really look great at any stage and he’ll be a little cold having not played since whereas Williams has had his Wuhan Open qualifier and the match here. I think the Welshman will come through here.
Tips
Back M.Williams to beat L.Brecel for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
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