The qualifying competition for the Scottish Open continues on Wednesday when the first bunch of players will book their spots at the main venue when the opening half of the second round matches are played out inside the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan.
We have another four sessions of play on Wednesday with the Tuesday winners facing one of the players ranked between 33 and 64 in the world rankings with four frames the number needed to progress to the main draw.
Morning Session
Ben Woollaston is the leading player on show in the morning session and he’ll be looking to justify his ranking when he goes up against Liam Highfield in one of the higher profile matches of the day. Anthony McGill recently made the final of the British Open and he’ll be looking to qualify for his home tournament when he meets the Welsh player Liam Davies. Jordan Brown is sliding down the rankings and he’ll look to arrest that when he takes on Amir Sarkhosh while the other match in the session sees Oliver Lines taking on the amateur Stuart Carrington.
Early Afternoon Session
Jimmy Robertson is the highest ranked player taking to the baize in the opening half of the afternoon. He will meet the Latvian player Artemijs Zizins for a place in the main draw. We have an all-Chinese battle in this session as well as Liu Hongyu meets Huang Jiahao. Jamie Jones is another player who will get his campaign underway in the first part of the afternoon. He has a tough assignment in the form of Sam Craigie while Michael Holt is the other man entering the tournament at this stage. He will face the amateur Ryan Davies.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER TO USE ON THIS TOURNAMENT! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Later Afternoon Session
Martin O’Donnell is the top player in the later part of the afternoon and he will get his tournament underway when he takes on the amateur Ashley Hugill who came through a marathon clash in the previous round. Two of the leading Belgian players on the circuit battle it out when Ben Mertens faces Julien Leclercq while there is another all-Chinese battle as Long Zehuang meets Jiang Jun. The other match in this session has the former world finalist Matthew Stevens looking to make it into the main draw when he takes on Haydon Pinhey.
Evening Session
Ryan Day is the highest ranked player on show in this qualifying competition and he will look to make it into the main draw in the evening session when he faces one of the two Chinese players on show when Yao Pengcheng is his opponent. Aaron Hill is showing decent form this term and he will hope that continues when he meets Ian Burns. Sanderson Lam is beginning to pick up his own form and he will play the other Chinese player competing in this session when he takes on Lan Yuhao. The other match sees Robert Milkins going up against Iulian Boiko.
Betting
There isn’t too much that I like over the course of the day but Ashley Hugill might have landed in a good spot when he goes up against Martin O’Donnell. O’Donnell hasn’t pulled up any trees so far this season and that makes him vulnerable to a player who, although technically he is an amateur, is much better than that and who has been playing a lot of snooker in recent times and that is never a bad thing, and very much the advantage of not being on the tour.
O’Donnell goes into this match having only made six breaks of 80 or more all season and you would think that as a result of that Hugill is going to get plenty of chances to go well here. It wasn’t too long ago that Hugill took the world champion Zhao Xintong to a deciding frame and he probably should have beaten him. He has played a match this week and had a decent run in a Q-Tour event recently so he brings a lot of forward momentum into this match with him and at the prices I’m happy to take him to come out on top here.
Tips
Back A.Hugill to beat M.O’Donnell for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with William Hill
Back him here:
