The first Judgement Day of the two in the World Championship qualifying competition takes place inside the English Institute of Sport on Tuesday and by the end of the day we will know the first eight qualifiers for the Crucible Theatre.
There are just the two sessions of play on Tuesday with the eight matches on show beginning in the morning session before they return to conclude in the evening on a day where drama, tension and excitement is guaranteed.
Monday Recap
16 players booked their spot in the final round of qualifying on Monday. The will play on the second of the Judgement Days on Wednesday. Dave Gilbert was the first through when he saw off Barry Pinches 10-3 before Hossein Vafaei came past Andrew Pagett 10-4. Matthew Stevens returned to the final round as a 10-3 winner over Jamie Clarke while Jackson Page had a good 10-6 win over Martin Gould. Andrew Higginson and Joe Perry were both 10-8 winners over Joe O’Connor and Sanderson Lam respectively with David Grace taking care of Sam Craigie 10-8 and Anthony Hamilton outlasting Oliver Lines 10-9.
Zhou Yuelong was the first man through in the evening session when he saw off James Cahill 10-4. Pang Junxu then completed a recovery from 4-0 down to beat Ken Doherty 10-6 before Jimmy Robertson ran out a 10-6 winner over Ben Mertens. Mark Davis kept his hopes of staying on tour alive with a 10-8 win over Lyu Haotian and Xu Si saw off Jamie Jones 10-7. Ryan Day laboured past Ashley Hugill 10-8 and there was a deciding frame win for Elliot Slessor over Liam Highfield. Scott Donaldson concluded the day with a 10-7 victory against Yuan Sijun.
Streamed Matches
Barry Hawkins is the biggest name on show on Judgement Day on Tuesday. He struggled through the previous round and will probably need to offer a lot more if he is going to beat Jak Jones for a spot at the Crucible. Anthony McGill has already gone early and said that he isn’t just interested in making it to the Crucible but going all the way when he gets there. In order to be in the main draw he is going to have to take care of Cao Yupeng.
Graeme Dott is a former winner of this event and he is a match away from securing another visit to the Crucible Theatre but he definitely has his work cut out to get there as he goes up against the Indian Open champion Matthew Selt in arguably the match of the day. The other streamed table will be occupied by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. The Thai star takes on former semi-finalist Ricky Walden for a spot in the main draw.
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Other Four Matches
There is a cracking match in store away from the streamed cameras as the former European Masters champion Fan Zhengyi takes on a player who is a regular at the Crucible but needs one more win to get back there in Stephen Maguire. The Shootout winner Chris Wakelin has made qualifying look easy in recent years and he takes on Wu Yize for a spot at the Crucible with the Chinese player looking to make his debut at the famous venue.
Another Chinese youngster looking to reach the Crucible for the first time is Si Jiahui. He took care of Tom Ford in the previous round and his reward is a clash with the former Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown, who is looking for just a second appearance in the main draw. The other match is an all-Asian clash as Noppon Saengkham looks to make it back to the Crucible Theatre when he takes on Zhang Anda in an even looking contest.
Betting
Barry Hawkins cut the look of a man who is under all sorts of pressure to make it through the qualifying competition in the previous round. In the end he cruised past David Lilley 10-4 but the fact he never made a single 50 break tells us that his game isn’t in great shape and he is feeling the heat. Jak Jones had to survive a deciding frame against Robbie Williams in the previous round but when you have to go the distance you might as well win the decider in one visit and that is what Jones did.
Actually, from 8-7 down Jones won the last three frames he won in one visit which tells us that if he is feeling any pressure then he is able to cope with it very well and I think he’ll lay it down to Hawkins here. Whether that is enough to get him over the line remains to be seen but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this one goes very deep. When these two met in the English Open last season it went to a deciding frame so Jones knows he can go toe-to-toe with Hawkins and I expect him to remain within three frames here, if not get a little closer.
Tips
Back J.Jones (+3.5 frames) to beat B.Hawkins for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with BetVictor
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