The third day of the qualifying event for the Turkish Masters offers up a decent schedule as another 24 players take to the baize at the Morningside Arena in Leicester each looking for the one win which will secure their place in the main draw.
The four leading lights will all have their qualifying match held over to the main arena so on Friday we have one of the biggest stars of this opening stage taking to the tables as well as another form horse from the season so far.
Morning Session
Jamie Jones is the highest ranked player on show over the course of the morning session and he will get the main table treatment in the session. He will take on the fastest player on the tour in Jamie Wilson in a big match for both men. The other main table will see Li Hang on show. He has been a little quiet by his standards this season but he can still finish it well. He’ll be hoping that can begin when he takes on his compatriot Fan Zhengyi who had a decent week in Berlin last week.
Two other matches take place in this session on the outside tables when Mark Davis meets the Scottish amateur Ross Muir who has had some good results this term and could well get back on the tour if he can take advantage of a couple more opportunities before the season ends. The other match sees Tian Pengfei going up against the popular Allan Taylor in a clash of styles with the outsider quite the heavy scorer in that one.
Afternoon Session
Zhou Yuelong is the headline act in the afternoon session on Friday. He is fighting hard to qualify automatically for the Crucible but he hasn’t made it into the field for the Players Championship next week so he really needs to win this match to give himself a chance to win big points in the main draw. He faces Soheil Vahedi. Ricky Walden has already made a couple of semi-finals this season and he’ll look to give himself another tournament to go deep in when he takes on Ashley Carty on the other main table.
The match of the day might actually take place on one of the outside tables in this session when Ryan Day takes on Cao Yupeng. Both these men have played well at times this season and I’m expecting a very competitive match here as a result. The other match offers two men who have had up and down seasons the chance to pick up a win and qualify for the main draw when Mark Joyce takes on the German player Simon Lichtenberg.
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Evening Session
Mark Williams has been in good form this season and he has the chance to make it through to another main draw when he takes on the 12-time women’s world champion Reanne Evans in one of the standout matches of the week. That will obviously be on one of the main tables and on the other the Scottish Open champion Luca Brecel will look to make it through when he takes on the talented rap star Peter Devlin.
That leaves is with two other matches with the other Welsh star of the early part of this century in Matthew Stevens taking to the baize. He really needs some decent results soon to fend off the threat of losing his tour status. He will be hoping the first of those comes when he meets Farakh Ajaib. The other match sees Stuart Carrington in action when he takes on Fraser Patrick who will be hoping to turn his season around here.
Betting
If this event took place earlier in the season I might have thought twice about opposing Cao Yupeng but I’m happy to do it here. Cao began the season in great form but the longer it has gone on the more his level has dipped and he has only played a couple of Shootout frames since losing comfortably to Mark Allen at the World Grand Prix back in December, which is hardly the best preparation for what just looks like a tough match against Ryan Day.
Day has seen his form go the opposite way. He had some positive spins in the Championship League to build up some form and confidence and he took that to Berlin with him last week where he played very well on his way to the quarter finals of the German Masters where he was edged out in a deciding frame by Yan Bingtao. Day is one of those players you can tell how well they are playing by how they score and Day scored wonderfully well in Berlin. He has never lost to Cao in five meetings and the way the two are playing at the minute I don’t expect him to lose here either.
Tips
Back R.Day to beat C.Yupeng for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Willian Hill
Back him here:
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