Xu Si vs Barry Hawkins Prediction: Can Xi win this first meeting?

The English Open snooker tournament continues at the Morningside Arena at Leicester, and in this round 1/16, Xu Si will play Barry Hawkins. With a win in their last game, the two teams will have high hopes going into this game. Who makes it to the next round?

Xu Si defeated Jack Lisowski in the round 1/32 of this tournament and will look to keep things going. In what was a seven-frame encounter, Xu Si had to come from behind to win after Jack Lisowski had started the game with two-point heads. With a bounce-back performance that saw him come from 3-2 to win 4-3, Xu Si has now won three of his last five matches. His losses in that run came against Artemijs Zizins and Kyren Wilson.

Barry Hawkins enters this game as a favorite, and the Englishman will eye a win. In his last game, which was in round 1/32, he defeated Jimmy Robertson 4-2. In what was a seven-frame encounter, Barry Hawkins came from a 0-2 score to pull off four consecutive points. Heading into this game, Barry Hawkins has three wins in his last matches, two others against Ryan Day and Mark Allen. However, other encounters ended in a defeat to Scott Donaldson and Daniel Wells. 

Barry Hawkins, coming in as a match favorite, is my pick. Xu Si was brilliant against Jack Lisowski, but he has still not convinced me he can remain at the top level every time. While the two snooker players will look to give this their all, I expect a close result, but Barry Hawkins should still win with a good margin.