The Wuhan Open has reached the last 16 stage of the competition and the entire round gets played out across two sessions of action out in China on Wednesday, where by the end of the day we will know the eight players who will compete in the quarter finals.
We lost the world champion Kyren Wilson on Tuesday but a stack of big names have made it into the last 16 which is the first round of this tournament where members of the top 16 can face off and we have a couple of marquee matches as a result of that.
Afternoon Session
We have two matches where two members of the top 16 face off against each other and in what can only be described as ordinary scheduling they both take place in the first of the two sessions. The marquee match is the one between the defending champion Judd Trump and the recent British Open finalist John Higgins. The other heavyweight clash will come along on table two where Shaun Murphy will look to reach another quarter final when he takes on the finalist here last year in Ali Carter. Two other matches take place in the earlier session of the day and both involve home players. Jack Lisowski is in the pick of them when he meets Wu Yize while Long Zehuang takes on Ben Woollaston in the other game.
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Evening Session
There are three top 16 players on show in the evening session on Wednesday but none of them face off against each other which is a little disappointing. The pick of the matches will see the home star Ding Junhui back on the main table when he takes on the former Shootout champion Chris Wakelin. While they are going at it, over on table two another home ace will be looking to reach the last eight when Zhang Anda meets the amateur Mark Joyce who could well go close to securing his professional status again with a couple more wins this week. Barry Hawkins is the third member of the top 16 in action in this session. He faces another Chinese player in Xiao Guodong who took care of the world champion Kyren Wilson on Tuesday. The other match sees the promising Chinese star Si Jiahui meeting Duane Jones, who himself could do his career the world of good over the next few days if he can keep winning.
Betting
There isn’t a massive amount that I like over the course of Wednesday but the price on Ali Carter to get the better of Shaun Murphy looks a little big to me. I’ve long since thought that Murphy has to pot his way through matches but the reason why he doesn’t win as much as someone with his cue action should is because they can’t possibly all go in and when he comes up against someone who is solid enough in the safety department but who can take their chances he will often come unstuck.
Carter is one of those players and that might well be why he leads their head to head record 11-9, a surprise in a way because Murphy would have been ranked higher than Carter for much of their careers. Carter is a very solid player and a class act who is capable of beating anyone these days and having made the final here a year ago he clearly enjoys this place. Carter probably hasn’t had the season he would have wanted yet but he knows he has the game to beat Murphy and if he can score when the chances come I think the all-round package Carter has will be too much.
Tips
Back A.Carter to beat S.Murphy for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Spreadex
