The second round of the Welsh Open will be played out on Tuesday on what is another busy day of action in the Welsh capital as the 64 remaining players look to take a step closer to a major title.
Monday’s opening round saw shocks, drama and plenty of intrigue as well as the bizarre occurrence of Ronnie O’Sullivan turning down a 147 because £10,000 wasn’t a big enough bonus and making a 146 break instead!
There were some big name casualties in the first round which included the current world champion Stuart Bingham and the former Welsh Open champion Stephen Maguire. Shanghai Masters winner Kyren Wilson also went in the first round from 3-0 up. He lost 4-3.
The format remains the same in the second round on Tuesday with the action coming thick and fast over five sessions of play to play down to the last 32 which will take place on Wednesday.
The TV game in the first session of play sees Michael White taking on Tom Ford in what should be an entertaining match. I’ve no bet in that match or in the morning session at all even though players like Ricky Walden and Shaun Murphy are in action.
I do have some bets for the afternoon matches although not in either of the TV table matches which see Judd Trump taking on Rory McLeod before Ronnie O’Sullivan takes on Tian Pengfei. I’ve a feeling Pengfei might make life difficult for O’Sullivan but not enough of one to get involved financially.
I will get involved in two in the afternoon though. The first sees a form horse in Mark Joyce taking on Alan McManus and I’m surprised the Englishman is the outsider here.
Joyce made the quarter finals of the German Masters a couple of weeks ago and eased through his first round match here all of which was to his credit after the way he bolted out of the UK Championship, losing 6-5 from 5-0 up.
Most of Alan McManus’ good work this season came at the beginning of the campaign and I just get the feeling he could be there for the taking here. He still has a really solid knowledge of the table but he doesn’t always score like he can so I’m happy to take Joyce at odds against there.
I’m going with another odds against poke too in the form of Martin O’Donnell. O’Donnell had a great win over Stephen Maguire on the opening day of the tournament to follow up an excellent win over Mark Williams in China Open qualifying last week so he’s hitting it nicely, as showed by the 130 he knocked in against Maguire.
Matthew Stevens can save his best snooker for this tournament but in truth we’ve seen nothing like his best for far too long now and I’m not sure we’ll see it here. He did well to come through the first round and should win this match but he hasn’t won many matches all season and so the weight of pressure might go against him. At the prices I think O’Donnell is a decent price to back up his win over Maguire.
Plenty of big names are in action in the evening session too but I’m going to pass them over at this time. I’m already on Mark Williams outright anyway and I don’t fancy anything else in the session but I will end the day with a double which pays odds against and looks solid enough.
That sees Ryan Day taking on Mike Dunn and Anthony Hamilton against Allan Taylor. Both are favourites to win their matches and I think that is justified on both counts. Day is playing really well at the minute and when he is playing aggressively like he is he is tough to beat. Mike Dunn is limited enough for Day to come past him.
Anthony Hamilton might have lost to Kyren Wilson last week but what a match it was. Their China Open qualifying match had no fewer than six centuries in a best of nine frame match and the Sheriff accounted for two of them. He followed that up with a win over Stuart Bingham with a sensational 72 dish from 71 behind to close out that match so Hamilton is dangerous.
This is a big match for the Nottingham man. He knows his tour life is in jeopardy so a big week could go a long way to helping him stay on the tour. Even now when Hamilton scores well he’s tough to beat and he’s doing exactly that so he can see off Taylor in their clash.
Back M.Joyce to beat A.McManus for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Bet365
Back M.O’Donnell to beat M.Stevens for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Ladbrokes
WON – Back R.Day to beat M.Dunn x A.Hamilton to beat A.Taylor for a 4/10 stake at 2.17 with Betfred
