The first round of the English Open concludes inside the Metrodome in Barnsley on Tuesday with the remainder of the field who are yet to get going in the competition looking to negotiate their way into the second round and a step closer to that tantalisingly elusive £1 million Home Nations series bonus.
The big names made it through on Monday and we have plenty more trying to do likewise on Tuesday including the world champion Mark Selby and the big box office draw Ronnie O’Sullivan on what is another heavy day of action in the tournament.
Morning Session
As with on Monday there is one round of matches in the morning session. On the streamed tables Marco Fu is in action when he plays Tian Pengfei with Robert Milkins facing Stephen Maguire on the other. On the outside tables Craig Steadman will face Robin Hull while good friends Matt Selt and Alfie Burden do battle. James Wattana meets Martin O’Donnell and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh takes on Kurt Maflin. Mike Dunn plays Alex Borg in the other.
Afternoon Session
The big match of the afternoon is Luca Brecel against Ryan Day. That is in the first set of matches and will be on the streamed table with Mark Selby taking on Scott Donaldson on the main table. Lu Haotian plays Allan Taylor on one of the outside tables with Rhys Clark facing Alan McManus on another. The other matches see John Astley playing Paul S Davison, Ken Doherty meeting Gerard Greene in an all-Irish battle and Michael Georgiou plays Hammad Miah.
The second set of matches begin with Ding Junhui on the main table. He takes on Christopher Keogan with Joe Perry going up against Yuan Sijun on the streamed offering. There outside tables will be well stocked up. Anthony Hamilton plays Alexander Ursenbacher on one with Stuart Carrington playing Boonyarit Kaettikun on another. Zhou Yuelong faces Andrew Higginson and Mark King plays Fang Xiongman.
The final round of games in the afternoon sees Dave Gilbert and Josh Boileau on one of the streamed tables while Michael White plays Lukas Kleckers on the other. Hossein Vafaei and Niu Zhuang meet on one outside table with Martin Gould playing Zhao Xintong on another. Dominic Dale plays Daniel Wells in an all-Welsh contest in the other match.
Evening Session
There is one final set of matches in the evening with two extra games on the main tables to make up a full TV programme. Ronnie O’Sullivan is first up on the main table when he takes on Zhang Anda while the streamed table sees Mark Williams playing David Grace. The outside tables will have Ben Woollaston meeting Peter Ebdon, Thor Chuan Leong playing Graeme Dott, Cao Yupeng going up against Hamza Akbar and Sam Baird faces Ross Muir.
In the extra two matches in the evening Neil Robertson will go up against Billy Joe Castle live on the TV table with Ricky Walden finishing of the day on the streamed one. He will go up against the Welsh player Jak Jones.
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Betting
I’m reserving myself with just two bets on a day where there are actually plenty of 50:50 matches. I would not be surprised to see the action going on well into the late evening once again as a whole bunch of matches look to have deciding frame possibilities.
My bets come from much earlier in the day where unconditioned players are there to be taken advantage of. The first of those is Mike Dunn. He has been quite candid on Twitter in the lead up to this tournament that he is suffering with a health issue and you get the feeling he will only show up here to play and avoid a fine rather than have any genuine ambitions of winning. Alex Borg is nothing special but he might not need to be. We wish Dunn a speedy recovery but in light of the news odds against has to be taken.
https://twitter.com/mikedunn147/status/919176899645132800
Another man who is struggling right now is Anthony Hamilton. He arrives here having pulled out of matches recently and then got done 5-0 by Lu Haotian in Shanghai Masters qualifying last week. He now takes on an Alexander Ursenbacher who is playing some nice stuff this season when he doesn’t run into John Higgins. The Swiss ace has wins over Jamie Jones and Andrew Higginson this season and a win over Hamilton can’t be ruled out.
Tips
Back A.Borg to beat M.Dunn for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back A.Ursenbacher to beat A.Hamilton for a 4/10 stake at 2.40 with Bwin
Back him here:
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