The first round of the WST Classic concludes and the second round of the tournament gets underway on another busy day of the event inside the Morningside Arena in Leicester over the course of Sunday.
The big names have continued to make progress in this tournament and a number of them are back for their second round match on Sunday. As with the other days we have three sessions of play to enjoy over the course of the day.
Morning Session
There are two sets of matches in the morning session and in the first of them the first round comes to a close. Welsh Open winner Robert Milkins is the leading light on show and he will be on the main table when he goes up against Mink Nutcharut. There is another leading female on show in this first part of the morning too when Rebecca Kenna takes on Jamie Clarke. Elsewhere, Xiao Guodong goes up against a Daniel Wells who will be back on the tour next season while Zhang Anda starts his tournament against Peter Devlin.
The second of the tournament gets going in the later part of the morning session when Neil Robertson continues his campaign on the main table. He goes up against Oliver Lines for a place in the third round. At the same time as that match, Barry Hawkins will be in action when he goes up against Scott Donaldson while Zhou Yuelong will meet Liam Highfield. That leaves one other match which sees Cao Yupeng facing the amateur player Steven Hallworth.
Afternoon Session
Mark Williams is the standout star in the first part of the afternoon and he has a very interesting clash against the man he has mentored for a while in Jackson Page. When they met in the World Championship last year the master drubbed the apprentice and Williams will be looking for a repeat of that. Gary Wilson is on show in this part of the day as well with the Geordie going up against Yuan Sijun. Two exciting youngsters meet when Ben Mertens goes up against Pang Junxu while Joe O’Connor faces Lyu Haotian.
Judd Trump is the class act in the second part of the afternoon. He will be expected to come through when he goes up against Wu Yize. A more interesting match might be the one which includes the former Shootout champion Hossein Vafaei. He goes up against Ben Woollaston while elsewhere there is a great chance to make the third round for both Allan Taylor and Lukas Kleckers when they meet, while Hammad Miah faces Jamie Jones in the other game.
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Evening Session
As has been the case all week so far, there is just the one set of matches in the evening session with the world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan the star act on show in it. The Rocket goes up against David Grace for a place in the third round. Jack Lisowski is also in action on Sunday evening when he meets the talented Si Jiahui. We also have Jimmy White on the evening schedule. He faces a tricky test against Joe Perry while Elliot Slessor will take on Haydon Pinhey, who had two centuries in beating Luca Brecel in the opening round, for a place in the third round.
Betting
Lukas Kleckers has found some winning form in the latter part of the season. He took care of Joe Perry and Anthony Hamilton in the Six Red qualifying and only went down in a deciding frame to Anthony McGill in the Welsh Open so there is enough to suggest that he is a big price when he takes on Allan Taylor on Sunday afternoon. Kleckers is the higher ranked of the two and probably has more upside to him so odds against feels a big price on him.
Taylor had a good win over Jordan Brown in the opening round of this tournament but that was a rare bright spot in what has been a pretty disappointing campaign for the English player. I don’t think Kleckers has achieved what he could have done in the game but he has a chance to make the last 32 of an event here and I think he has enough momentum of the two to get the job done and come through this one.
Tips
Back L.Kleckers to beat A.Taylor for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
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