Barry Hawkins vs Elliot Slessor Prediction: Hawkins to qualify for next round

The second day of the Northern Ireland Open will feature a clash between Barry Hawkins and Elliot Slessor, and it will take place at Waterfront Hall. This will be the first time in their respective careers that Barry Hawkins and Elliot Slessor will come face-to-face with one another. In the following section, I will discuss the players' form coming into this one and then present some betting choices. 

Prior to this encounter, Barry Hawkins had a winning record of three matches out of his previous five matchups. In those matches, Barry Hawkins emerged victorious with scores of 4-1, 2-5, and 1-5, respectively, over Anthony Hamilton, Sanderson Lam, and Jamie Jones, respectively. In the interim, Barry Hawkins' most recent match was a loss to Judd Trump in the 1/8th round of the Wuhan Open. On the other hand, Barry Hawkins is the heavy favorite to win this match, so we can anticipate that he will be performing at his very best and will get back to his winning ways.

Elliot Slessor's most recent two matches both resulted in losses; the first was against Zhang Anda in the first 1/16 of the English Open, and the second was a 2-5 loss against He Guoqiang in the round 1/32 of the Wuhan Open. However, before he suffered those losses, Elliot Slessor won matches against notable opponents such as David Lilley, Hammad Miah, Ryan Davies, and Jack Lisowski. In the meantime, Elliot Slessor will have another opportunity to make things work out in his favor here, and we fully anticipate that he will be performing at his best.

I believe that expertise and high-level performance will be the deciding factors in this matchup. Elliot Slessor has not been performing at his best recently, and the fact that he is the underdog further puts him at a disadvantage in this situation. The top player here is Barry Hawkins. As a result, Hawkins will undoubtedly emerge victorious from this contest.