The first of two big days in the European Masters takes place on Friday when the third round and the last 16 are played out on the same day inside the bio-secure bubble in the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Everyone left in the tournament will be hoping they have two matches to play on Friday but one man who won’t be featuring in any of them is Ronnie O’Sullivan after he was surprisingly dumped out on Thursday evening. Time restrictions means that we won’t have a chance to preview the last 16 in the evening on Friday but we’ll look at the last 32.
Morning Session
Neil Robertson continues his title defence in the morning match on the TV table. The Australian will be looking to make it through to the last 16 when he takes on a man who he will be expected to beat well in Allan Taylor. There is an all-Chinese battle on the streamed table in the morning session. That sees the UK champion Ding Junhui going up against the talented youngster Lyu Haotian in what could be a compelling contest.
There are going to be plenty of big names on the outside tables throughout Friday with one of those being Barry Hawkins who goes up against Pang Junxu while the pick of the clashes on the outside tables looks like being the one between Tom Ford and Stephen Maguire or Zhou Yuelong and Shaun Murphy. Mark Allen has been scoring for fun in this tournament and he will look to continue that against Ashley Carty while the other two matches sees Mark Davis meeting Mark Selby and Liam Highfield faces Stuart Bingham.
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Afternoon Session
The former world champion Judd Trump is the headline act in the afternoon session and as ever he is on the TV table. He meets the Shootout winner Michael Holt who will fancy his chances here with little to lose. Over on the streamed table we have a battle of World Championship semi-finalists from the past two years as Dave Gilbert takes on Anthony McGill in what should be a keenly fought contest between the two.
Luca Brecel is one of the bigger names on the outside tables in this afternoon session. He meets Jackson Page who will be looking to build on his win over Jack Lisowski in the previous round. World Championship finalist Kyren Wilson is also on the outskirts of the arena when he meets Martin O’Donnell while Martin Gould takes on Jamie Clarke. The other three matches sees Peter Devlin facing Joe O’Connor, Duane Jones going up against Yan Bingtao and Matthew Stevens meeting Aaron Hill, the man who beat Ronnie O’Sullivan in the previous round.
Betting
I’ve got all four outright bets through to this round and I’m pretty happy with the position that they are all in so this isn’t the easiest round to find bets in. After a good look high and low I’ve decided to go down the route I went with on Thursday which is to take an outsider on a + handicap which is probably a shade bigger than it should be based on what we’ve seen so far. It comes in the match between Peter Devlin and Joe O’Connor.
O’Connor has played pretty well in this tournament but he might have his work cut out to win this 5-2 or better so I like Devlin on the handicap. Devlin should be full of confidence through beating Mark Williams in the previous round. He didn’t just beat him but he made a century in the deciding frame which suggests that he has something about him. It might be that O’Connor runs out the winner of this match but I see no reason why Devlin won’t get to three frames before he does.
Tips
WON – Back P.Devlin (+2.5 frames) to beat J.O’Connor for a 3/10 stake at 1.73 with Coral
Back him here:
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