As with the rest of the Home Nations snooker events the opening day of the Welsh Open is a busy one as half of the first round is played out on a hectic day inside the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff.
This might be the first day of the tournament but that doesn’t mean that we are without big names from the get go. Stuart Bingham, John Higgins and Neil Robertson all take to the tables on the first day of play which will be played out across three sessions.
Morning Session
Eight matches make up the morning session. The two televised tables see Dominic Dale facing Aditya Mehta and then two top 32 players colliding when Ben Woollaston takes on Thapchaiya Un-Nooh.
Elsewhere the players in action see Li Hang facing Mark Davis, Akani Songsermsawad playing Chris Wakelin, Scott Donaldson meets Jack Lisowski, Paul Davison and Joe Swail take each other on while Mark Joyce meets Ross Muir and Jamie Cope faces Nigel Bond.
Afternoon Session
There are three rounds of matches in this session. First up on the TV tables we have the wildcard Jackson Page taking on Jason Weston and Stuart Bingham playing Matthew Stevens in a really interesting game.
The other tables see Fergal O’Brien meeting Cao Yupeng, Jimmy Robertson playing Aditya Mehta, Michael Wild plays Adam Stefanow, Rhys Clark takes on the local man Lee Walker, Hatem Yassin goes up against Alex Borg and Michael Georgiou meets Allan Taylor.
The televised matches in the second set of games see John Higgins playing Sam Baird and Kyren Wilson meeting Sean O’Sullivan while the outside tables have John Astley facing Ian Preece. The live matches in the final round of games sees Stephen Maguire playing Zhang Yong and Fang Xiongman taking on Kurt Maflin. On the outside tables the session ends with Hossein Vafaei Ayouri playing Sanderson Lam and Dechawat Poomjaeng meeting Darryl Hill.
Evening Session
One of the ties of the first round gets us underway on the live table when Neil Robertson takes on Jimmy White. On the other table with cameras Luca Brecel plays the German Masters winner Anthony Hamilton. Tian Pengfei plays Chen Zhe and Zhou Yuelong faces Noppon Saengkham away from the spotlight.
The final set of matches on the opening day get going with Dave Gilbert playing Ryan Day on the TV table with Shaun Murphy facing Jamie Curtis-Barrett on the other. Jak Jones meets Craig Steadman on one outside table with Ian Burns playing James Cahill on another. Ricky Walden and Graeme Dott also play in this session.
Betting
As ever in these busy days it is important to pick and choose our bets although naturally there will be more of them in this tournament than others because we’ve had a fair amount of snooker recently and have been able to get a good grip of the form. With that in mind there are four I like here.
The first two are up in the morning. I watched Ben Woollaston and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in Berlin and Woollaston looked in really good touch while Un-Nooh looked so shorn of confidence it was untrue. He missed some balls against Mark Selby there which you wouldn’t expect an amateur to miss and there were a lot of them. Since he made the semi-final of the World Open the season has gone pear shaped for Un-Nooh. Woollaston is going along nicely and I think he’ll win this with a bit to spare purely taking advantage of the chances he is left.
Dominic Dale will be looking for a big run in the event given it is his home tournament but I’m not convinced he will get one. He takes on Anda Zhang on Monday and I think the Chinese player is good value to see him off. Dale has played three matches in 2017 and lost the lot whereas Zhang had a good win in China Open qualifying and took care of Anthony McGill among others in the UK Championship recently. Zhang looks in better nick and he can take this one.
I am taking one Welshman on the opening day though and that is Matthew Stevens. He takes on a Stuart Bingham who has looked horrible over the last couple of weeks. Whether it is the amount of snooker he plays, sleepless nights having recently become a father or a combination of the two his form looks gone at the minute. Matthew Stevens is never in brilliant form these days but we saw signs of life from him at the UK Championship and he has qualified for China and with this being his home event we know he’ll be up for it. He’s decent value to see off a struggling Bingham.
Finally I have to stay with the German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton. His Home Nations record reads QF, SF, L16 so far so the nature of these events is right up his street. He did lose early in the World Grand Prix but a couple of days after a huge win we can forgive him that and in any rate Mark Allen was brilliant against him. Luca Brecel isn’t in the greatest touch. Since the UK Championship he’s played three matches and lost the lot and lost to some ordinary opponents. Hamilton has to be the call there.
Tips
Back B.Woollaston (-1.5 frames) to beat T.Un-Nooh for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Bet365
Back him here:
Back Z.Anda to beat D.Dale for a 4/10 stake at 2.30 with Bwin
Back him here:
Back M.Stevens to beat S.Bingham for a 3/10 stake at 2.90 with William Hill
Back him here:
WON – Back A.Hamilton to beat L.Brecel for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with 188bet
Back him here:
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