As is the way with the snooker calendar at the minute as one tournament finishes another begins soon after and this time it is the qualifying event for the German Masters which takes centre stage from Tuesday onwards.
By the end of the four days we will know the 32 men heading to Berlin for the final stages of the tournament in February. The biggest names in the game are in the qualifying event so we should get four days of good snooker beginning on Tuesday where there are three sessions of play with each match being over the best of nine frames.
Morning Session
Two matches in each session will be streamed on the various bookmaker consoles and Jimmy White is the main attraction on the first of them in this session. He plays Zhou Yuelong while Liam Highfield takes on Hammad Miah on the other main table.
On the other tables we have Cao Yupeng against James Cahill, Robert Milkins taking on Gareth Allen, Ryan Day plays Thor Chuan Leong, Josh Boileau meets Noppon Saengkham while Dave Gilbert plays Kurt Dunham. Elliot Slessor and Allan Taylor meet in the other match.
Afternoon Session
The main match in this session is the battle of two men who caused big surprises in the UK Championship last week as Jamie Jones meets Oliver Lines. Peter Ebdon faces Michael Georgiou on the other streamed table.
Away from the bright lights and cameras Jason Weston and Craig Steadman meet in a match which is big for both. Andy Hicks and Robbie Williams also meet while Matt Selt faces Ian Preece. Mark Davis has a clash with Fraser Patrick while two out of form players meet when Zhang Yong takes on Mike Dunn. Martin O’Donnell faces Adam Stefanow in the other game in the session.
Evening Session
One of the ties of the first round is on a streamed table in this session when Joe Perry takes on Kurt Maflin. On the other main table John Higgins takes on Rory McLeod in a match the Scot is a huge favourite to come through.
It shows the strength of this session when the defending champion and number one seed is on one of the outside tables but that is the case for Martin Gould when he faces Sanderson Lam to begin his title defence. Ricky Walden is another high profile name on the outside tables. He faces Daniel Womersley. Stephen Maguire plays Mitchell Mann while Zhao Xintong plays Li Hang in an all-Chinese battle. Marco Fu meets David John and Michael White plays Chen Zhe.
Betting
This week of qualifiers is definitely not the time to go pushing the boat out for bets. Berlin looks a long way off and some players are coming off the back of heavy schedules and some won’t have played for a fortnight so picking and choosing is paramount this week and as such I’m only going with one bet on Tuesday.
It is in the all-Chinese battle between Zhao Xintong and Li Hang. Li Hang might have won their only previous meeting 6-1 but he hasn’t beaten anyone of any significance since August so I think he is there for the taking here. Zhao Xintong had a good opening win at the UK Championship last week and was competitive against Stephen Maguire.
We remember his match against Ronnie O’Sullivan at the English Open when he banged in two tons and an 80 break in a 4-3 defeat and that highlighted the class he has. Consistency isn’t there yet but he rarely loses matches he shouldn’t and I don’t think he will lose this one. His scoring power can come through here.
Tips
WON – Back Z.Xintong to beat L.Hang for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with Bwin
Back him here:
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