The first round of the China Open concludes and the second round of the tournament is also played out in full on a busy day in Beijing on Wednesday as the China Open Snooker Day 3 continues. This is the final event prior to the World Championships and the players are seeking top form.
Review
More big names came and went in another crazy day in the Chinese city on Tuesday. Ali Carter, Martin Gould and Peter Ebdon were all beaten during the first round.
The two first round matches that were delayed because of the late arrival of Barry Hawkins and Shaun Murphy after their exploits in Manchester last week. These matches are to be played in a specially arranged morning session. They take on Tian Pengfei and David Grace respectively. If both suffer no ill effects from the travel you would expect them to progress to their second round matches later in the day.
China Open Snooker – Day 3 – Round Two
The second round will be played out over two sessions, the afternoon and evening ones in China. In the afternoon Stephen Maguire and Kyren Wilson continue their bids to qualify automatically for the Crucible while John Higgins is the biggest name in action. There is one bet I like in this session but it doesn’t come in the games involving those three.
Instead it is in the Rhys Clark vs Alfie Burden match. Unfortunately for followers of our outright bets Burden was so good in the first round Joe Perry didn’t have a sniff against him. But for all the reasons I took Perry in the tournament, the draw opening up and the incentive, Burden now has that and this could be a big week for the Londoner.
In fairness to Rhys Clark he has done well to come through this far in the tournament. However, generally when he gets here he rarely goes any further and that has to be an issue. Clark rarely gets the chance to play someone of Burden’s ranking whenever he gets this far but even so he’s not used to going beyond this stage.
With that in mind and given how well Burden played in the first round I’ll take the Englishman to come through here and to do it with a couple of frames in hand if not more.
The later session has Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham in action while Murphy and Hawkins will also be playing should they come through earlier in the day. All eyes will also be on the 15 year old Chinese star Yuan Sijun who has been making a big name for himself already this week. Once again though my bet comes on the outside tables.
It comes in the form of Marco Fu who takes on Robert Milkins. Milkins hasn’t played well for a while this season and although he saw off the challenge of Ross Muir in the first round, he had to go to a deciding frame to do it and produced little of any note at any stage in proceedings.
That is the exact opposite of Marco Fu’s progress. He dominated Yu Delu yet again! Fu won 5-2 with three centuries and a couple of other big breaks in the match. I’ve always said when Fu scores well he is more than a match for anyone and that is the case. It is especially the case when he faces a low in confidence opponent who is struggling for form.
I’m expecting Fu to come through here quite comfortably. At the very worst 5-3 but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is much easier than that come the final outcome.
Tips
Back A.Burden (-1.5 frames) to beat R.Clark for a 4/10 stake at 2.15 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back M.Fu (-1.5 frames) to beat R.Milkins for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
