It is what is called ‘Moving Day’ at the English Open on Thursday as the remainder of the second round of the last ranking event of the year is played out along with the whole of the third round, leaving us with just eight players at the end of it.
The afternoon session sees the conclusion of the second round while the evening session will be where the third round gets played out. With the amount of big names still remaining we should be in for a great day.
Afternoon Session
As always there are two sets of matches in the afternoon session with the main table action seeing the world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan going up against Martin Gould in what should be a cracking contest. The big names are everywhere you look on Thursday with Mark Williams another of them on show. He goes up against Matt Selt while two former ranking event winners also meet when Barry Hawkins takes on Marco Fu. The other match offers up a good opportunity for Pang Junxu and Ashley Hugill to make it into the last 16.
More great matches come along in the second part of the afternoon with the TV table being occupied by Jack Lisowski and Ali Carter who meet for the second Home Nations event in succession. Shaun Murphy has looked in decent touch this week and he will go up against Anthony McGill for a place in the last 16 while Luca Brecel will be looking to make progress when he meets Scott Donaldson. The highest ranked player on show in the second part of the afternoon will be Zhao Xintong. He faces John Astley.
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Evening Session
We could have an incredible evening session if the big names make it through the afternoon but at the time of writing we only have a couple of matches confirmed. They come in the first part of the evening with the defending champion Neil Robertson going up against Ryan Day while also in this slot of games Judd Trump will meet Thepchaiya Un-Nooh for the second time in successive tournaments after the Thai took the ‘Ace in the Pack’ out in the Scottish Open quarter final. They might both have to play on an outside table because Ronnie O’Sullivan will be in action if he beats Martin Gould. He’ll face the winner of Pang Junxu and Ashley Hugill. The other match first up in the evening will see the winner of the match between Mark Williams and Matt Selt taking on whoever comes out on top between Barry Hawkins and Marco Fu.
We could have another tasty bunch of matches in the second part of the evening as well. Mark Selby, Mark Allen and John Higgins are already through with Selby facing the winner of Anthony McGill against Shaun Murphy. Higgins will meet either Jack Lisowski or Ali Carter while Mark Allen could be taking on the German Masters winner Zhao Xintong if he comes past John Astley. Jamie Jones is already through in the other game. He awaits either Scott Donaldson or Luca Brecel.
Betting
There are a lot of 50:50 matches in which not a lot stands out but it was hard not to notice the confidence that Shaun Murphy spoke with after his win over Sam Craigie on Wednesday. That in itself was a very good win where he polished off a very good opponent with relative ease and while the ranking list will tell us that he has a tougher time of it on Thursday afternoon against Sam Craigie, I’m not actually so sure the form guide suggests that.
McGill has just been plodding along for a while now. In the main we only really see him make the latter stages of the truly bigger events, the ones where the format is higher than this and while he is extremely competent as a player, these best of sevens don’t seem to suit him unless the draw opens up, which is certainly hasn’t done here. Murphy was spot on when he said he is playing well on Wednesday. If you look at the last two tournaments he ran into four ton Jack Lisowski who missed nothing and Scott Donaldson who scored like a dream too. I don’t see McGill blowing Murphy away so the 1.75 on a Magician win looks fair to me on present form.
Tips
Back S.Murphy to beat A.McGill for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with Betway
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