Into the second day and Shaun Murphy opened the show with a nice win against Rod Lawler while Martin Gould survived a decider against Michael White having previously seen 2-0 and 3-2 leads wiped out. Mark Selby then beat a very under par Dominic Dale and fellow Mark's Davis and Williams beat Ricky Walden and home favourite Thepchaiya Un-Nooh between. Judd Trump eased to victory against Belgium's Luca Brecel, while Stuart Bingham won with similar simplicity against Alan McManus while the day finished with
Last 32 Results:
Shaun Murphy 4-2 Rod Lawler
Martin Gould 4-3 Michael White
Mark King 4-2 Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump 4-0 Luca Brecel
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Robert Milkins
Matt Selt 4-1 Oliver Lines
Mark Williams 4-1 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Mark Selby 4-0 Dominic Dale
Stephen Maguire 4-3 John Higgins
Michael Holt 4-2 Jimmy Robertson
Anthony McGill 4-1 Peter Ebdon
Joe Perry 4-1 Ding Junhui
Neil Robertson 4-3 Marco Fu
Mark Davis 4-2 Ricky Walden
Stuart Bingham 4-1 Alan McManus
Mark Allen 4-3 Ryan Day
That all sets up a very exciting line-up for tomorrow's Last 16 games in Thailand remaining with the two table set up with four games in the afternoon and four in the evening local time. Here's what you can expect from Thursday's 8 games
Last 16 Preview: (Picks in Bold)
Shaun Murphy Vs Martin Gould - These two always have good contests with each other, and to start off the Last 16 in Thailand I expect this one to be no different whatsoever. The pair are both incredibly attacking players who will always go for their shots and give it absolutely everything out on the table. When in they score heavy and they both have the long potting ability to give them those chances. Martin has been playing well in the last week or so getting to the World Grand Prix semi-finals before a disappointing loss, and he had to fight hard today in order to make sure that the same thing didn't happen again. Shaun Murphy meanwhile did get bogged down a little at times against Rod Lawler but once he warmed in to the game he looked confident again, and after some good practice following the Grand Prix he looks sharp for this event and those to follow. I expect this to go close but as I said in my preview, when Shaun's been on it in these types of events, he's really blown the field away, so if he's at his best you'd expect him to win.Judd Trump Vs Mark King - Judd Trump is playing fairly close to his best at the moment after his win in Llandudno last week, and when he's anywhere near his best matches like this don't usually pose much of a problem. The issue that Mark King will have here is that he really makes too many mistakes, and against a player like Judd he's going to get severely punished for any kind of weakness that is shown. However, King did play some good snooker against Barry Hawkins despite losing the second frame on the three miss rule, so if he can replicate his scoring from that game then Judd will have a game on his hands.
Matt Selt Vs Chris Wakelin - Chris Wakelin had very much what was a surprise victory against Robert Milkins, but he is in decent form after a run to the Indian Open quarter-finals, and even though he is the lowest ranked player remaining in this tournament, he deserved to qualify just like everyone else and he has a great chance of victory again here. Matt Selt had no problem in round one beating Oliver Lines and Matt is now starting to show results on a consistent basis, after making a European Tour final in December and the Winners Group of the Championship League.
Mark Selby Vs Mark Williams - This should be an absolutely cracking game between two very classy match players who have had a lot of great matches down the years. Selby didn't have to do anything too special today against Dominic Dale, but that's the nature of the game and something Mark is good at is doing what is required to win. Mark Williams though is full of confidence right now after a brilliant month and a half, everything Mark seems to be doing is working out and I certainly don't think he's finished yet. His scoring was great against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh today and if he keeps that up he's going to take some stopping this week.
Stephen Maguire Vs Michael Holt - Both of these guys came through what at least turned into very tough first round games. Stephen Maguire had to come from 3-2 down to beat John Higgins, and it's always much tougher when you know that you have to win to help towards your Crucible seeding when a defeat could've left him in big trouble to stay in the top 16. Now that Michael White and Robert Milkins are both out, the pressure is off a little bit and he can just relax and play his own game. Michael Holt pulled off one of his best performances for some time to pull off a much needed win after what's been a serious of defeats and underwhelming performances. On his day Michael is as good as anyone in the top 16. What Holt needs to do though is work up his confidence and self-belief by beating the top players in the big events, so a victory tomorrow would be great, but it's going to be tough against an in form player like Stephen.
Joe Perry Vs Anthony McGill - Anthony McGill had a good win in round one against Peter Ebdon, and he hasn't done a lot wrong recently given that he's lost a lot of games in deciding frames against a lot of the top players. Joe Perry meanwhile is playing well at the moment and if he can continue on that way I expect him to win this game, because on the day he is the better player, scoring well when in amongst them, but also having a very shrewd tactical brain. The one thing you can notice differently with Joe in the last two years is that he is clearly a lot more confident in his game believing again that he can compete at the top of the game, winning tournaments and beating the games best.
Neil Robertson Vs Mark Davis - These two guys met only a week ago where they played out on epic that could only be decided by an 82 minute decider that went down to the black. Neil has been playing pretty well since the beginning of 2015 without doing anything special. Mark Davis seems to have turned his slightly dwindling fortunes around in the last couple of months with quarter-finals at both the Grand Prix and Indian Open. For me though, Robertson is much more of a consistent player and deep down he'll be annoyed by his defeat to Davis last week and he knows he should've won that match, so he'll be determined to make amends tomorrow.
Stuart Bingham Vs Mark Allen - This looks to be one of the ties of the round in a repeat of the Shanghai Masters Final. I honestly can't split these two players as they seem to be very evenly matched in most departments. Mark Allen came through a close game in round one and that will sharpen him up for the rest of the tournament. Stuart Bingham played decent snooker today, but wasn't really tested like Allen was. Bingham is in better form than Allen though, but Mark has had a few unlucky results in recent events losing a lot of deciders, so it's about time his fortunes around, so there's no reason why this can't be his week.
The prize money starts to rise up now we get to the last 16 with the losers here getting £7,000 while the winners are guaranteed £12,500 towards their ranking at the very least. It's all set to be three brilliant days of snooker to finish this event off now and with it being best-of-7's all the way to the line now it really is anyone's tournament still to win, with the majority of the 16 players left being more than capable of lifting the title on Saturday.
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