The second day of the World Grand Prix sees two sessions of play inside the behind closed doors setup at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes as 16 players get their final tournament of the year underway looking for a place in the second round.
We have already seen the shocks starting to come with the defending champion Neil Robertson dumped out on the opening night. That will keep the many star names on show on Tuesday on their toes and fully focused.
Afternoon Session
The world number one and number one seed for this week Judd Trump is first up on the main table on Tuesday afternoon. Trump will begin his quest for a third title this season already when he faces the last man into the field in the shape of the Shootout champion Michael Holt. When they are done the Chinese superstar Ding Junhui will be in action on the main table. He takes on Jak Jones who has done really well to make it through to this stage given how lowly he is ranked in the world rankings.
There are two decent enough matches on show over on table two with The Masters champion Stuart Bingham getting it underway. He takes on a Li Hang who came from 3-1 down to dump him out on his way to the semi-finals of the Scottish Open last week. After they are finished yet another Chinese player takes to the green baize when Lu Ning makes his debut in the tournament. He takes on Robbie Williams who is also a first timer this week.
Evening Session
We have a packed evening session full of quality and it begins on the main table with the world champion and recent Scottish Open finalist Ronnie O’Sullivan starting things off. He faces Ali Carter with the two men infamous for their battles in the past so this should be a really feisty encounter. When they are done we have another entertaining match in store when Martin Gould meets the winner of the Champion of Champions in Mark Allen.
Table two will also be loaded up with quality in the evening session as well. Yan Bingtao will make his debut at The Masters next month but before then he is in action in this tournament. He takes on the man who had a great run to the semi-final of the Northern Ireland Open earlier in the campaign in David Grace. The last match of the day on that table should be a good one as well when Kyren Wilson goes up against Kurt Maflin in a battle of two very good operators.
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Betting
I’ll take a couple of punts in the evening session where the focus of my attention is on table two with bets in both matches. In the first game David Grace looks a little overpriced to beat Yan Bingtao. I say that for two reasons. The first of them is that Grace beat Bingtao when the two met in the Northern Ireland Open quarter final not so long ago and has largely maintained his form since then. The other reason I say it is because Bingtao hasn’t been in the greatest form since that week with a couple of low key displays in the UK Championship and then a first round defeat in the Scottish Open last week. Grace also lost in the first round last week but he lost to Shaun Murphy which is no terrible result. He took care of Ding Junhui in the UK Championship though and feels a big price to win this one.
In the second match of the evening session I have to oppose Kyren Wilson who had a car accident on his way to his quarter final match in the Scottish Open last week and predictably performed indifferently as a result of that. He posted on social media over the weekend that he was still in pain in his neck and back and I understand that his car was a write off so it can’t have been a little prang. That might well open the door for Kurt Maflin to take advantage. I think this format suits Maflin as he is someone who likes to go for his shots but if he can just box a little smarter than usual then assuming Wilson performs below par once again the Norwegian looks a good bet here.
Tips
Back D.Grace to beat Y.Bingtao for a 3/10 stake at 3.25 with Sky Bet
Back K.Maflin to beat K.Wilson for a 3/10 stake at 3.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
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