The opening day of the UK Championship from the Barbican Centre in York sees two sessions of play to get the tournament underway and there are some big names on show right from the beginning of the tournament.
The televised stages of the tournament don’t begin until the second round on Saturday so we are restricted to the live streaming consoles for our viewing fix for the first three days but there are lots of quality on show on those tables.
Afternoon Session
The big name on the main table in the afternoon session is Ding Junhui. He takes on the Brazilian player Igor Figueiredo while the other streamed match in this session sees Marco Fu going up against Ireland’s Josh Boileau.
Away from the streamed tables we have Joe Swail taking on Ross Muir, Fergal O’Brien faces Zhang Yong, Rory McLeod goes up against Jak Jones, Barry Hawkins meets David John with the other two matches seeing Ryan Day meeting Jimmy White and Kurt Maflin playing Allan Taylor.
Evening Session
It is the turn of Judd Trump to begin his campaign in this session. He takes on James Wattana on one of the main tables with the other one staging the match between Kyren Wilson and Mitchell Mann.
Elsewhere we have Sam Baird against Sean O’Sullivan, Anthony McGill taking on Craig Steadman, Michael Holt against Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn while there is an all-Chinese battle between Tian Pengfei and Zhang Anda. Another Chinese player is in action when Zhou Yuelong takes on Duane Jones while Oliver Lines and Martin O’Donnell meet each other.
Betting
With the top 64 facing someone outside of the top 64 in this first round there are going to be a lot of mismatches on show and as such there are a lot of handicaps that need to be covered so it is really important to pick and choose bets through this round. We’re not going to be short of betting opportunities over the 11 days of this event so we don’t need to force bets.
I’m going to take that advice on board and take just the one bet on the opening day. That is in the match between Sam Baird and Sean O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan has only won one match since the end of June and that isn’t a run of form which is going to inspire confidence in himself. It would be natural for him to be a bit nervy and negative.
Sam Baird doesn’t have those problems. He’s beaten Marco Fu in the last two tournaments so he is playing some decent stuff and I expect him to be the more positive of the two here. This is a big event for Baird as he is slowly climbing up the rankings and that climb can continue with a comfortable win in this one.
Tips
WON – Back S.Baird (-1.5 frames) to beat S.O’Sullivan for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Winner Sports
Back him here:
DAY ONE OFFERS – CORAL
EARLY SESSION
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Swail, McLeod & O’Brien All To Win 10/3
LATE SESSION
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Zhang Anda, McGill & Baird All To Win 2/1
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