The World Open qualifying continues on Tuesday when another bunch of players look to win the one match they need to do to book a spot in the main event in China in March as we head deeper into the second half of the season.
We saw some big names make it through to the main draw on Monday and on Tuesday the biggest star of them all is due to play when Ronnie O’Sullivan is on the schedule. There are plenty of other household names on a good looking card.
Morning Session
Two of the big names in terms of the rankings are on show in the morning session with Kyren Wilson being on one of the main tables when he takes on the legendary Jimmy White while his namesake Gary Wilson is on show in this session as well. He meets Stuart Carrington. The other high ranked player on show in the morning part of the day is Ali Carter. He takes on Ahmed Aly Elsayed in what should be a routine match for the finalist of The Masters. Jackson Page will also be on a streamed table when he meets Liam Graham. Chinese players are involved in the three other matches. Si Jiahui takes on Stan Moody in an appealing match while Lyu Haotian and Xiao Guodong look to qualify for a home tournament when they meet Ashley Carty and Sean O’Sullivan respectively.
Afternoon Session
Shaun Murphy is the big name taking to the baize in the afternoon session. He goes up against the Egyptian player Mohamed Ibrahim while Murphy’s fellow top 16 player Robert Milkins will look to qualify for the Chinese event when he takes on the veteran Barry Pinches. Hossein Vafaei is teetering on the edge of the top 16 and he’ll be in action for the first time since that bewildering incident with Mark Williams at the World Grand Prix last week when he takes on Liam Pullen. The other streamed table sees Jak Jones taking on Ryan Thomerson. The leading women’s player Reanne Evans is up in one of the other matches when she meets Elliot Slessor while Sam Craigie will look to book his spot in China when he goes up against the former world champion Ken Doherty while two Asian players battle in the other match as Noppon Saengkham meets Himanshu Jain.
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Evening Session
Ronnie O’Sullivan graces Barnsley in the evening session when he looks to continue the form which took him to The Masters and the World Grand Prix titles earlier this month. He meets Alfie Burden in what should be a watchable game. Barry Hawkins is another leading name on show in the evening. He’ll be on a streamed table when he goes up against Dean Young while Tom Ford will be looking to push his way into the top 16 in the world rankings. A trip to China would help and Ma Hailong stands in his way of that. The other streamed match sees Liam Highfield going up against Daniel Wells. The three other matches sees Michael White taking on Haydon Pinhey, who has replaced Stephen Hendry in the draw, Oliver Lines going up against Louis Heathcote and Mark Joyce facing Oliver Brown.
Betting
Daniel Wells and Liam Highfield have already meet this season in the qualifying stage for the International Championship and Wells won that match 6-2 and in truth that is in keeping with the season which Highfield has had. Highfield had a good run at the Wuhan Open where he beat Neil Robertson and Zhou Yuelong in the main draw but he has only won one match all season outside of that tournament and can’t be exuding confidence at the minute.
Wells beat the same two opponents when he got to the main draw of the International Championship and has generally been pretty competitive this season. He won a couple of matches in the qualifying for the UK Championship before losing out to the eventual finalist Ding Junhui and then took care of Hossein Vafaei in Scottish Open qualifying and gave John Higgins a game in the German Masters qualifying. He is playing better of the two this term and I think he can repeat the comfort of his win over Highfield from earlier in the season.
Tips
Back D.Wells (-1.5 frames) to beat L.Highfield for a 3/10 stake at 2.15 with 888sport
Back him here:
