The UK Championship continues on Sunday and by the end of the day the second round will be completed and our third round line up will be confirmed.
Saturday didn’t pass by without the odd surprise along the way with Joe Perry and Mark Williams victims of surprises but the likes of John Higgins, Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham all came through relatively unscathed.
The big names continue to come on Sunday with Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Mark Allen and Neil Robertson all on the baize across the two sessions of action inside the Barbican Centre in York.
All four men look to have comfortable assignments in their respective matches so I would expect them all the come through fairly easily so I’m going to look to the other matches for better betting potential over the course of the day.
In the afternoon the bet I like sees Michael Holt taking on Chris Wakelin. Wakelin had a good win over Matthew Stevens in the first round but Stevens isn’t the player he once was and while I wouldn’t want to take anything away from Wakelin that win might not be what it could be.
Michael Holt is going well this season and I wouldn’t be surprised if he breaks into the top 16 at some point in the foreseeable future. He no longer seems to have temperament issues and is pretty consistent these days.
He is often found wanting against the top players but he can relax here because he isn’t up against one of them and I think he will have too much for Wakelin and come through here with a bit in hand.
Looking into the evening and one man who has played really well this season is Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and I fancy him to come past Fergal O’Brien. O’Brien was pretty ordinary in the first round and actually had to come back and finish his match off in a second session so slow was he going and I sense he might struggle here.
Un-Nooh has won the Six Red World Championship this season which has noticeably boosted his confidence and he is rising up the rankings as a result. The Thai can score pretty heavily when the occasion suits him and that scoring power can be too much for the Irishman here.
Back M.Holt (-1.5 frames) to beat C.Wakelin for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with Sportingbet
Back T.Un-Nooh to beat F.O’Brien for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfred
