The third day of action at the English Open on Wednesday sees the first round of the main draw come to a close and the second round of it gets underway as we have another three sessions of snooker inside the Centaur at Cheltenham.
This is one of those tournaments where the big names are always vulnerable with the random draw and we’ve already seen a few of those fall by the wayside, which will keep those who are on show on Wednesday very much on their toes.
Morning Session
The first round of the main draw continues on Wednesday morning when Zhang Anda is the sole top 16 player in action. He meets Hossein Vafaei in what is one of the ties of the round. That will be on the main table while Lyu Haotian will compete on table two. Allan Taylor will be his opponent. There is a huge opportunity for the four players on show on the other two tables though. Oliver Lines meets Ka Wai Cheung for a spot in the last 32 while the Ukrainian amateur Anton Kazakov goes up against Liam Davies. The winners of those two matches would be guaranteed 6,000 ranking points with the potential for more.
Afternoon Session
There are two sets of matches to round off the first stage of the main draw on Wednesday afternoon and the first part of the session will be all about the world champion Kyren Wilson. He is looking in a good groove at the minute and he’ll take on Duane Jones on the main table. Table two should open up the afternoon in decent fashion as Dave Gilbert meets Ben Woollaston. As with the morning, the opportunity is strong for the four men on the other two tables as Sunny Akani looks for more ranking points against Antoni Kowalski while Rory Thor will aim to build on his win over Mark Williams on Monday when he meets a Mark Joyce who is now an amateur and making to make the most of the chance he has been given in this event.
The first round concludes in the second part of the afternoon and on the main table we have the blockbuster clash between Shaun Murphy and John Higgins, which would ordinarily be taking place much later in the competition but such is the nature of the random draw it is a last 64 clash. Ricky Walden will look to make progress on table two when he meets Jamie Clarke while the trend of huge chances continues on the outside table with David Grace facing an amateur in the form of Lewis Ullah while Hammad Miah and Ben Mertens meet with one player doing his tour survival chances no harm by winning there.
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Evening Session
The second round of the main draw begins on Wednesday evening where once again we have two sets of matches including some players who will have to return for the second time in the day such is the quirky nature of the schedule here. Mark Selby will be on offer on the main table first up when he takes on the Chinese player Yuan Sijun while over on table two the winner of the morning match between Hossein Vafaei and Zhang Anda will face Stan Moody for a place in the last 16. Iulian Boiko will go up against Jak Jones while Haris Tahir will be on the other table against whoever comes through when Allan Taylor meets Lyu Haotian in the morning session.
The English Open champion Neil Robertson will continue his quest for successive ranking titles on the main table in the second part of the evening when he meets the winner of the earlier match between Rory Thor or Mark Joyce. Stuart Bingham will be on the second table when he meets Stephen Maguire while on the other two tables we have our outright pick Xu Si taking on Elliot Slessor while Ashley Carty will be waiting for the winner of the match between Dave Gilbert and Ben Woollaston from earlier in the day.
Betting
Upsets have been the norm so far this week and I think there could be a big one in the evening session where Yuan Sijun looks a big price to overcome a Mark Selby who hasn’t played badly recently but who needed a deciding frame to get the better pf Pang Junxu and he probably should have been knocked out in that. That comes after the English Open where Si Jiahui and Ishpreet Singh Chadha took him the distance with the latter eventually beating him.
Sijun has wins over Neil Robertson and Noppon Saengkham this season and he made two centuries in his first round win over Robbie Williams so he looks to be playing decent snooker this season. There is a feeling that the heavy conditions have been a big leveller here as they were in the English Open and that might allow Sijun to be close to Selby but he won their penultimate meeting and took Selby to a decider in their last battle at the World Grand Prix at the beginning of the year. I think the 2/1 on the Chinese player is a little too big here.
Tips
Back Y.Sijun to beat M.Selby for a 3/10 stake at 3.00 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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