Just some opinions on the matches to come
Lu Haotian vs Dom Dale: You'd expect Dom to come through here and he was impressive against Dott, but these wildcards are full of surprises. Lu already beat Marco Fu from 0-3 and Mike White from 2-5 so he can play. It's just whether he can put up with Dom's tablecraft.
Stevens vs Robbo: Normally I'd say Robbo wins hands down. But Robbo doesn't like China and he has got into the habit of playing well early in tournaments and then losing later. Plus Stevens seems a bit more up for this than the earlier tournaments in the season.
Smurph vs Ding: One of the ties of the round for me and really unpredictable. Both have started well. Ding has beat Murphy recently in the EPTC3 and the Welsh semi in February. But this is in China and if Ding's put under pressure his free flowing game from today'll tighten up. Murphy also has a habit of playing well early and then dipping in level later, but that usually from the quarters onwards. He's normally on the ball at this stage of tourneys and he had biiger margin of victory against a better opponent.
Fu vs Mavis: Both good players on their day, Fu probably more so than Mavis it has to be said. Mavis looks to be scoring pretty heavily and normally I'd favour him but if he wins this match he'll get into the top16 and we all know what Mavis is like one match away from a top16 place...
Trump vs Adi: Massively pleased for Adi, didn't believe he could do, and glad he gets to be on TV against Judd now instead of a random wildcard. Doubt he'll trouble Judd though, so he should just go out there and enjoy himself.
Allen vs Cao: Grudge match! Hoping Cao will win, but Allen seemed to be scoring very heavily against Milkins from what I saw on live scoring. Still Cao doesn't lack bottle and may take confidence from the fact that he's already beaten Allen. Fingers crossed. Don't make any push shots Cao
or rather do, so Allen says something stupid and gets banned from Chinese tournaments
.
Mags vs Ebdon: Repeat of last season's marathon China Open Final. They have already met in Shaghai this season which Mags won. Plus Ebdon's coming in completely cold and normally needs to play himself into events before becoming really dangerous. Plus Mags winning would set up a cracking quarter against Selby.
Walden vs Selby: Another good match. Walden looked to be playing well from live scoring, much better than Carter was yesterday, although Selby hadn't hit top gear then either. Should be close, but Selby, being the master of brinksmanship that he is, will probably get through. Think the only time Ricky's beaten him is en route to his famous Shanghai win.