Welsh Open Snooker 2025 | Day Three Preview and Order of Play

Jonathan Davies in Welsh Open 12 February 2025

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Williams plays Maguire on Wednesday (Every Second Media/Alamy Live News)

Mark Williams aims to delight his home crowd again on Wednesday when he plays Stephen Maguire in the Welsh Open second round.

Round two of the season’s final Home Nations event takes centre stage at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, with seven former champions among the remaining 32 players in action.

Two of them – Williams and Maguire – go head to head in one of the standout ties of the day.

Williams is a two-time winner of the Welsh Open, though his most recent triumph came over a quarter of a century ago in 1999.

The 49-year-old, who was also victorious in 1996, was in superb form during his 4-1 win over Florian Nuessle in the opening round, hitting three centuries along the way.

He will be hoping to produce similar levels of performance against Maguire – the man who won this event back in 2013.

Two more former champions face off in five-time winner John Higgins and Robert Milkins, who lifted the Ray Reardon trophy two years ago.

Kyren Wilson hit the 500th century break of his career against Marco Fu on Tuesday, with a contribution of 103 in the decider sealing a 4-3 win.

Next up for the World champion is a clash with Joe O’Connor – a player he beat en route to his Crucible triumph last May.

Mark Selby – the 2008 winner – faces Elliot Slessor, who reached last year’s semi-finals, while Riyadh Season Championship victor Mark Allen plays German Masters semi-finalist Yuan Sijun.

Ali Carter and Neil Robertson – the two other former Welsh Open champions still in the draw – take on Hossein Vafaei and Tom Ford respectively, as 2023 Crucible king Luca Brecel locks horns with Noppon Saengkham.

There will also be plenty of other local interest, with Williams joined by five of his compatriots in the Last 32.

Williams’ protégé Jackson Page takes on Ishpreet Singh Chadha, who dethroned reigning champion Gary Wilson, with Jamie Jones playing Robbie Williams and Matthew Stevens clashing with David Gilbert.

Jamie Clarke, who received a walkover following the withdrawal of Ronnie O’Sullivan, locks horns with Matthew Selt, with Ryan Day up against Ma Hailong – the man who beat recently crowned Masters champion Shaun Murphy in round one.

Elsewhere, Zhang Anda faces compatriot Pang Junxu and International Championship runner-up Chris Wakelin takes on Jack Lisowski as Sanderson Lam, who beat Barry Hawkins on Tuesday, plays this season’s English and Scottish Open finalist Wu Yize.

Play gets under way at 10pm GMT on Wednesday with all matches contested over the best of seven frames at Venue Cymru in Llandudno.

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