The second round of the World Open will be played out in full over in China on Wednesday as we build towards the concluding stages of the event which is back on the schedule for the first time in five seasons.
In the main the majority of the big names have made it through to this stage so we certainly aren’t going to be short of entertainment, although this is where it gets annoying that we only have two streamed tables.
Morning Session
The world champion Luca Brecel is back on the main table first up on Wednesday when Luca Brecel looks to make it into the last 16 when he goes up against the quality of Stephen Maguire while on the other main table the Chinese superstar Ding Junhui will take on his compatriot Cao Yupeng in what should be another decent match. Six other matches take place at this time with Shaun Murphy going up against Joe Perry in one of them while Robert Milkins meets Hossein Vafaei in another. Barry Hawkins plays Robbie Williams in this session and we also see Ricky Walden taking on Ben Woollaston, Ashley Hugill meeting Kyren Wilson and Dominic Dale up against David Lilley.
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Afternoon Session
The defending champion Judd Trump will be on one of the main tables in the second session of the day on Wednesday. He will continue his title defence against Fan Zhengyi in a good looking game. Over on the other main table Ronnie O’Sullivan will be on show when he faces another Chinese player in the form of Lyu Haotian. There are plenty of other good players on show away from the streamed spotlight with Mark Selby and Neil Robertson the leading lights among them. They both have Chinese challengers in Long Zehuang and Yuan Sijun respectively. Ali Carter is another household name on show when he faces the former Shootout champion Chris Wakelin. The other three matches sees Jackson Page taking on Wu Yize, He Guoqiang facing Daniel Wells and Matthew Stevens up against Elliot Slessor.
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet over the course of the day on Wednesday and it comes in the later session as Elliot Slessor meets Matthew Stevens in a match I expect the former to win. He has been in good form recently, reaching the semi-final of the Welsh Open and then having a couple of decent spins at the Championship League over the last few weeks. He has taken that form into this week with him and has already dispatched of Zhang Anda, which is a decent win based on this season.
Matthew Stevens had a good win over Ryan Day in the previous round and that deserves respect but I’ve long since thought that the Welshman is better over the longer formats and in the biggest events and already I fancy Sheffield will be on his mind. Slessor has been knocking on the door of a really big event for a while now and that run in Llandudno was no real surprise. He beat Ali Carter and Fan Zhengyi among others en route to the last four and I think he has the better of Stevens if he replicates the form he showed against Zhang.
Tips
Back E.Slessor to beat M.Stevens for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
