The last 16 of the International Championship takes place out in China on Wednesday when two more sessions of tasty snooker will be played out as we head down to the quarter final stage of the biggest ranking event of the season so far.
We have seen plenty of big names fall by the wayside already this week but there are also a number of them still in the competition and they are likely to be on their toes with a huge opportunity now in front of them to win a big title.
Afternoon Session
We begin the day on the two main tables with two men who have eight world titles between them as Mark Selby and John Higgins take to the baize. The former meets his fellow Leicester cueist Tom Ford in a clash between two men who will know each other pretty well. Higgins has looked in good form this week and he’ll need to maintain that when he goes up against the former Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown, who has seen off Neil Robertson and Kyren Wilson in the last couple of weeks.
We have an all-Chinese clash on the outside tables in the first part of the day as Zhang Anda meets Lyu Haotian for the second event in China in succession. They previously met at the Wuhan Open where Haotian won 5-2 but that was a few days after Zhang made the English Open final. Ali Carter made the final of that Wuhan Open earlier in the season and he is also in action in the first session of the day. He goes up against a Daniel Wells who has dropped just two frames so far this week in defeating Neil Robertson and Zhou Yuelong.
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Evening Session
The biggest star the game has ever seen and the best player to have come out of China headline the evening session as Ronnie O’Sullivan and Ding Junhui take to the baize. O’Sullivan has already won one Chinese event this season and he’ll look to make the quarter final of another when he goes up against former World Championship semi-finalist Anthony McGill. Ding faces his fellow Chinese player Pang Junxu in what should be another appealing match.
Barry Hawkins is another player on show in the later session who has already won a tournament this season and he’ll look to move to within three wins of another when he takes on the exciting talent of Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in what could be a great contest. The other match sees the man who finally ended the winning run of Judd Trump in Stephen Maguire, going up against the former ranking event winner Ryan Day for a place in the quarter final.
Betting
I’ll go with one bet over the course of the play on Wednesday and it comes in the form of Stephen Maguire to beat Ryan Day. Back at the Northern Ireland Open a couple of weeks ago I suggested that Maguire was beginning to find his best form again and I still believe that to be the case. He should have beaten Judd Trump in the quarter final there but did the job in the previous round here and I think he’ll come past Day on Wednesday.
Day is a good player who has played well enough this week but to my eye he plays the game Maguire wants his opponent to play and that is highlighted in the 8-5 advantage the Scot has in their previous meetings, which extends to 16-5 when you include their Championship League battles which don’t go on the official head-to-head. Maguire beat Trump fair and square on Tuesday and should have taken a lot of confidence from that. I think he takes care of a far too open and therefore inconsistent Day here.
Tips
Back S.Maguire to beat R.Day for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back him here:
