The German Masters continues on Thursday with three more sessions of excellent action on the green baize as the first round concludes and the second round gets underway on another busy day in the Tempodrom in Berlin.
The opening day on Wednesday saw a number of one sided wins while there was also a couple of shocks as Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy headed for the flight home. Judd Trump, Stephen Maguire, Mark Selby and Barry Hawkins cruised into the second round and they all feature again on Thursday’s card.
There are three matches in the morning session with Marco Fu and Mark Allen among those in action although surprisingly neither feature on the main table. That honour goes to Zhao Xintong and Luca Brecel in a battle of the youngsters.
I fancy Marco Fu to see off Kurt Maflin but Mark Allen has had a few problems with Mark Joyce in the past and that could be a banana skin for the Northern Irishman. They’ve met four times and Joyce has won on three occasions so there is something about him which frustrates Allen but I don’t think I can take Joyce as his form hasn’t been brilliant this season it must be said.
Leaving the morning alone I’ll head to the afternoon where the world champion Stuart Bingham is on show on the main table. He takes on a Fergal O’Brien who has already beaten him twice this season but I just sense Bingham’s fortunes might be turning so I’ll leave that one alone.
I’m already on Kyren Wilson outright so I’ve no need to take him and I can’t really find a way in on the Mark King match or the Ian Burns match but there is one match which stands out to me and it comes in the shape of Liang Wenbo.
The Chinese star takes on Ryan Day in the first round and Wenbo has won their last two meetings which were both high profile so that will give him some confidence. I’m not overly surprised by that because if there is anyone who plays more aggressively than Day it is Wenbo.
Liang Wenbo has actually reined himself in a little bit in recent times and we’ve seen the results. He made the final of the UK Championship and he did nothing wrong against John Higgins in The Masters last month but Wenbo is in right good form at the minute.
With that in mind I’m a little surprised that Wenbo isn’t a bit shorter than he is but I think he is playing well enough for us to have confidence in him here especially given his better record over Day.
The evening session sees the second round begin with all those who won on Thursday back in action and the standout match sees Mark Selby taking on Stephen Maguire in the match which is almost sure to be on the main table.
Selby cruised through the first round but you would be hard pressed to make a case for what he beat. In truth Maguire didn’t beat much in Doherty but at least Doherty knows his way around the table enough to have to be beaten rather than give a match away.
Maguire often plays well at this time of year and we’ll find out just what form Selby is in here but I’ve a feeling Maguire might just be underrated in this match. He usually gives as good as he gets against the world number one and if the Championship League counts for anything Maguire has two recent wins over him which might be no bad thing.
This match looks pretty even to me. I get why Selby is the favourite but Maguire is just a touch overpriced and he is getting my money here.
The other three matches in the evening session don’t appear at first glance to yield a betting opportunity. You would expect Judd Trump to whizz past his stablemate Zhang Anda while Barry Hawkins and Martin Gould are warm favourites against Graeme Dott and Ben Woollaston which is probably fair too.
Back L.Wenbo to beat R.Day for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
WIN – Back S.Maguire to beat M.Selby for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Ladbrokes
