The second round of the WST Classic concludes on Monday and the third round will get underway on yet another bumper day of snooker at the Morningside Arena in Leicester as we head towards the closing stages of the competition.
The action comes thick and fast from here on in so all those in action on Monday will not just want to get their match won, they will want to win as quickly as possible to keep enough in the tank for what they hope will be two big days to follow.
Morning Session
Two top 16 players headline the action in the first of the two sets of matches on Monday morning. Mark Allen has been the player of the season and he will be looking to confirm that status when he goes up against a Mark Davis who is battling for points to stay on the tour. Stuart Bingham is the other top 16 player on show. He has a tricky test awaiting him too in the form of Matthew Stevens. Anthony McGill usually comes to the boil at this time of year and he also has a tough test. He meets Martin Gould while in the other game Noppon Saengkham goes up against the former European Masters winner Fan Zhengyi.
Two more top 16 players will be on show in the second part of the morning session. Shaun Murphy is in a really rich vein of form at the minute and he’ll look to keep that going when he faces a man who is no stranger to a giant killing in the form of James Cahill. Ali Carter is the other top 16 player taking to the baize in this set of matches. He is also in excellent form and will expect to continue that when he meets Muhammad Asif who plays for the first time this week after a bye in the first round. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is also on show here when he meets Xu Si and Anthony Hamilton faces Matthew Selt in the other game.
Afternoon Session
The second round of the tournament concludes in the afternoon session with two more top 16 players taking to the baize in the first part of the session. John Higgins is one of those and he meets Mark Joyce while Kyren Wilson, the other from the elite band, faces Stuart Carrington for a third round spot. The Shootout champion Chris Wakelin can still qualify for the Tour Championship if he wins this title and he’ll go up against Tian Pengfei looking to make the third round. Andrew Pagett plays Jamie Clarke in the other match.
There are another two top 16 players who will be on show in the second part of the afternoon. Mark Selby is looking to hold off the cavalry charge in the race for the Tour Championship and he can take a step closer to sealing his place if he can overcome Zhang Anda. Robert Milkins is riding the crest of a wave at the minute and is guaranteed to be at the Tour Championship and he’ll look for another win to go there with when he meets Robert Milkins. Stephen Maguire faces Daniel Wells in one of the other matches while Dave Gilbert takes on Jak Jones in the other one.
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Evening Session
The third round of the tournament begins on Monday evening where there is just the one set of matches. There isn’t a single top 16 player on show in this session but Gary Wilson is teetering just outside that bracket. He is chasing a spot at the Tour Championship so his battle with Cao Yupeng is particularly important for him. David Grace was due to play Ronnie O’Sullivan in the second round but got a bye and his reward is a meeting with Jamie Jones. There is a huge chance for either Lukas Kleckers or Haydon Pinhey to make the last 16 when they meet on an outside table while the other match sees Zhou Yuelong, another in the chase for the Tour Championship, taking on Jackson Page.
Betting
I took on Stephen Maguire in the first round on Saturday and when he was 3-0 down to Alexander Ursenbacher I was counting my chips but at 0-3 the Scot freed up and came up with the goods. I’m still not convinced by him though and I’m happy to take him on again when he meets Daniel Wells. Ursenbacher carried plenty of rust into his meeting with Maguire but that certainly can’t be an issue with Wells because he has been active all year without him holding a tour card.
Wells has been a fixture on the amateur circuit. We saw him in The 900 and he has won a Q Tour event as well as making a couple of quarter finals and courtesy of his ranking at Q-School he has got into most of the professional events. He made the semi-final of the Shootout and the last 16 of the Welsh Open where Judd Trump was among his victims before he walked into a rampant Shaun Murphy who scored the lights out of the night. Wells had a good win over Xiao Guodong and will be back on the tour next season. He would have still been on it had he not suffered with Covid and had to miss a bunch of tournaments and if he was on tour and we were matching these two up in current form Wells would be the favourite. He isn’t but he probably should be because as I eluded to in the previous round, a sterile behind closed doors environment has never brought the best out of Maguire. I’ll go with the form of Wells here.
Tips
Back D.Wells to beat S.Maguire for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with William Hill
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