The Northern Ireland Open continues on Thursday with the entire round of 16 being played out across two sessions of action inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on a day where by the end of it we will know the quarter final line-up.
A number of big names have made it through to the last 16, the first round where top 16 players can face off against each other, while as always in a Home Nations event there are a number of surprise packages at this stage too.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon session contains two sets of matches with only the two main tables in use for the remainder of the competition. On the main table there is a battle of the former world champions as Shaun Murphy looks to make the last eight when he goes up against Stuart Bingham while over on the other table two lower ranked players meet for a quarter final spot when Pang Junxu takes on the durable Martin O’Donnell.
The second part of the afternoon will be headlined by the current world champion Kyren Wilson as he looks to make it into another quarter final for the season when he takes on a Stan Moody who is running into some nice form and showing the talent that he has at his disposal. Speaking of talent, one of the most talented ever to play the game will be on the other table in the later part of the afternoon when Mark Williams bids for another Belfast quarter final when he faces Ma Hailong.
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Evening Session
There are two more sets of matches on the main two tables in the evening session and it is the English Open champion Neil Robertson who will be the main draw in the first of them. He faces the in form Oliver Lines who is looking to back up his run to the semi-finals of the British Open. While that match is going on Elliot Slessor will be on the other table looking to reach another quarter final when he takes on the Chinese player Lei Peifan.
Judd Trump will be the headline act in the second part of the evening as the defending champion bids to take his title defence through to the last eight stage. He will go up against the former finalist here in Barry Hawkins in what is the pick of the matches on the Thursday card. The other match present a huge opportunity for two lower ranked players to make it into the last eight of a ranking tournament when Louis Heathcote meets Tian Pengfei.
Betting
It is that last game which grabs our attention from a betting point of view with Louis Heathcote potentially a wrong outsider in his match against Tian Pengfei. Pengfei is a solid campaigner who doesn’t do a whole lot wrong but at the same time he can get a little bogged down and while he has had two very good wins over Si Jiahui and Robert Milkins, the former might be suffering a comedown from losing in a major final while the latter has shown no form at all this season.
Based on that, I think the two wins that Heathcote has had over Mark Selby and then Jimmy Robertson carry a lot more weight to them. As you would imagine, Heathcote had to battle hard through the first of those matches but showed his scoring range in the second of them and if he can score well here I think he will fancy his chances. Pengfei is probably the better all-round player but I’m still a big believer in the scorers being the ones to be on in these best of sevens and Heathcote is the better in that department. I think he’s the bet here at odds against.
Tips
Back L.Heathcote to beat T.Pengfei for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
