The last 32 of the Northern Ireland Open concludes on Thursday and the entire last 16 of the tournament takes place on a busy day inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast as we finalise the quarter final line up in the opening Home Nations event of the season.
The last 32 concludes in the morning session and the first part of the afternoon and then the second bit of the afternoon and the evening session will be all about the last 16 with some players playing twice throughout the day.
Morning Session
The Championship League winner Luca Brecel will be the highest ranked player on show in the morning session and as a result of that he will be on the TV table. Our outright bet faces a tricky test against the Chinese youngster Pang Junxu. The pick of the matches is likely to take place on one of the other tables as Anthony McGill goes up against the former Masters champion Yan Bingtao while in the other match Lyu Haotian takes on the one remaining amateur in the event in Daniel Wells.
Afternoon Session
That leaves three matches to finish off the last 32 of the tournament and the match on the TV table sees the Gibraltar Open champion Robert Milkins going up against the losing finalist from here last year in John Higgins. Shaun Murphy is involved on one of the other tables in this session. He will go up against Zhou Yuelong while the other game to round off this stage of the event sees Tian Pengfei going up against the man who beat Ronnie O’Sullivan on Wednesday in David Grace.
The first three matches in the last 16 take place in the latter part of the afternoon session. Two star names are on show to open up this round of games and both have tricky tests. Neil Robertson goes up against a Li Hang who is showing some good form again while Mark Selby will go up against a rejuvenated Michael White. The other match sees Tom Ford and Dave Gilbert meeting in what looks like another quality encounter.
Safer Gambling Week
This week is Safer Gambling Week, an initiative we are fully supportive of on this website. If you are having a problem with your gambling click the image below for help.
Evening Session
We only know the line-up for two of the matches in the evening session with the earlier winners completing the other three matches that are to be played. We know that first up on the TV table will be the defending champion Mark Allen. He takes on the heavy scoring Xiao Guodong while on one of the other tables Mark Williams faces Stephen Maguire in a heavyweight clash. The other match sees the winner of the clashes between Lyu Haotian and Daniel Wells meeting the victor between Luca Brecel and Pang Junxu.
Two more matches will take place in the evening session. Assuming they both come through the TV match could see John Higgins facing Shaun Murphy with Zhou Yuelong and Robert Milkins looking to make sure that doesn’t happen. The other match sees the winner between Anthony McGill and Yan Bingtao facing whoever comes out on top between Tian Pengfei and David Grace. That is likely to be on one of the other tables.
Betting
Zhou Yuelong has a pretty ordinary record over Shaun Murphy having lost all four of their past meetings and only picked up six of the 28 frames they have played in that time, however the heavier two beatings were six and seven years ago while Murphy was more in his prime and Zhou was establishing himself on the tour. The Chinese star is much more established now and I don’t really think there is a case for claiming that Murphy is as good as he was back then.
That makes me think that the 13/10 on Yuelong to win this match is worth taking. He has only played one match this week but he scored a couple of centuries in it which shows that he is in decent form. Murphy has played two matches and won them for the loss of just the one frame but they were against lesser opponents and he didn’t play overly well in either. It might be that Murphy turns it on here but I certainly think he’ll need to play better than he has so far this week. Yuelong is quietly having a decent season having qualified for all the events so far and has wins over Graeme Dott and Jack Lisowski. He can add Murphy to the list.
Tips
Back Z.Yuelong to beat S.Murphy for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with William Hill
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
