As ever with the Home Nations events the first day of the Northern Ireland Open is a very busy one with three sessions of play at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast and plenty of matches for us to enjoy on a wide number of tables.
The tournament gets the home players involved right from the start so we have the likes of Mark Allen playing on the first day. Other big names on show on the opening day are Shaun Murphy, Kyren Wilson, Neil Robertson and Jimmy White.
Morning Session
The live table in the morning session will see Ricky Walden in action. He takes on Hammad Miah while the streamed table has the all-Chinese affair between Cao Yupeng and Li Hang. There are five matches on the outside tables. They see Jamie Curtis-Barrett playing Ian Preece, Robin Hull meeting Eden Sharav, Soheil Vahedi playing Tian Pengfei, Craig Steadman meets Yu Delu and Hamza Akbar plays Noppon Saengkham.
[the_ad id=”16640″]
Afternoon Session
There are three sets of matches in the afternoon session. Neil Robertson is first on the TV table when he takes on Jamie Jones while the streamed table will contain Jimmy White and Dominic Dale. On the outside tables Josh Boileau plays Ashley Hugill, Niu Zhuang meets Ian Burns, Allan Taylor plays Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Hossein Vafaei faces Anthony Hamilton in a great looking match, Rory McLeod faces Adam Duffy and Alex Borg plays Peter Ebdon.
There are five matches in the next set of games and they see Shaun Murphy gracing the table for the first time since he won the Champion of Champions. He plays Chen Zifan while local amateur Declan Brennan faces Billy Joe Castle on the streamed area. Alfie Burden plays Robert Milkins on one of the outside tables with Liam Highfield playing Mark Davis and Oliver Lines facing Xu SI in the other matches.
The final two matches in the session are both due to be on the main tables. Kyren Wilson will take on Sam Craigie on the TV table and Ken Doherty will go up against Peter Lines on the streamed table although these could be moved depending on the schedule.
Evening Session
The crowds will pack in to see Mark Allen on the main table in the evening. He should make it through against Sanderson Lam while the streamed table will show Joe Swail and Lu Haotian. The outside tables are fully in use in this session too. Mei Xiwen plays Jordan Brown, Elliot Slessor takes on Kurt Dunham, Andrew Higginson meets Kurt Maflin and Ross Muir plays Thor Chuan Leong.
The final two matches of the day sees the defending champion Mark King begin his title defence against Matthew Bolton while local player Gerard Greene faces Joe Perry. They are both on the main tables.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I’m going to restrict myself to just a couple of bets on the opening day and they both come in the evening session. Joe Swail will have the crowd support but he doesn’t have much form and I think the talented Chinese youngster Lu Haotian can take care of him. Haotian pushed Mark Selby all the way in the European Masters recently and is a player on the up. Swail is on the decline and with the pressure of the crowd on him he might struggle further. I like the Chinese player.
Kurt Maflin was scoring brilliantly in the Shanghai Masters and these best of sevens are made for the scorers. Andrew Higginson is a solid player who is having a better season than recent ones but generally when Maflin is scoring he is hitting the ball well and he maintains his form for long periods. With that in mind he looks a worthy bet at 10/11.
Tips
WON – Back L.Haotian to beat J.Swail for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Bwin
Back him here:
WON – Back K.Maflin to beat A.Higginson for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
