The opening day of the English Open is a very busy one as the tournament gets underway in Crawley on Monday. Three sessions of play make up the first day as the first of four Home Nations events begins in style.
32 matches will take place throughout the day and as ever when there are that many clashes we have some huge names to enjoy on the two TV tables that are running throughout the event. That should ensure we get a decent day of snooker.
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Morning Session
There is an Asian feel to the TV tables in the first session of play on Monday. Liang Wenbo will be on the main table when he goes up against the talented Gary Wilson while on the other table Marco Fu will be in action. He meets another player who is established at this level in Mark Joyce in what looks a very tough battle.
The outside tables will be full in this first session with six other matches on the schedule. Scott Donaldson goes up against Allan Taylor on one of them while Eden Sharav meets the Shootout winner Michael Georgiou on another. Craig Steadman faces Joe Swail with Ken Doherty playing Chris Wakelin. David Lilley will look to build on his good season when he meets Tom Ford while Oliver Lines takes on Joe O’Connor in the other match.
Afternoon Session
The biggest name of them all will be in action first up on the TV table in the afternoon when Ronnie O’Sullivan takes on Kurt Maflin. Yan Bingtao will be doing battle on the other table at the same time when he takes on the Hong Kong newcomer to the tour in Andy Lee in a match the Chinese star will be expected to win.
Once again the outside tables will be full in this session with Matthew Stevens meeting Chen Zifan on one of them and Alan McManus playing Fan Zhengyi on another. Martin O’Donnell faces Stuart Carrington away from the cameras with the other matches seeing Adam Duffy facing Luo Honghao, Zhao Xintong taking on Michael Judge and Li Hang and Ian Burns battling it out.
The second set of matches sees the world champion Mark Williams on the main table when he meets Dominic Dale while there is a Welshman on the other TV table when Ryan Day takes on Ashley Hugill. Alfie Burden meets peter Ebdon away from the cameras and Robbie Williams faces Mark Davis. The two other matches are scheduled for the main tables and see Neil Robertson playing Ross Muir and Ali Carter facing Rory McLeod.
Evening Session
The evening begins with another full set of matches with the first game on the main table seeing the world number one Mark Selby in action. He meets Sanderson Lam with Joe Perry up against Daniel Wells on the other TV table. Elsewhere we have a Chinese tussle between Zhang Yong and Chen Feilong while Jamie Clarke meets Adam Stefanow on another one. Martin Gould is on the outside tables when he faces Billy Joe Castle with Tian Pengfei going up against Nigel Bond. The other two matches sees Ben Woollaston meeting Graeme Dott and Michael White facing Hossein Vafaei.
Two more matches round off the opening day on the main tables in this evening session. Shaun Murphy will be the main man on the TV as he takes on Mike Dunn while on the streamed offering it will be Anthony McGill in action. He goes up against the German player Simon Lichtenberg.
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Betting
I’ll go with two bets over the course of the opening day although we have to wait until the evening session for both of them. The first one sees Michael White taking on Hossein Vafaei and I expect the Iranian to continue his good form here. Only Mark Selby has beaten Vafaei this season and the Iran star saw off Dave Gilbert and Ryan Day in China recently. White hasn’t won a match since the Paul Hunter Classic so he will be lacking in confidence and it remains to be seen how the Jamie Jones debacle has affected him with the pair being good friends. Whatever impact it has or hasn’t made I expect Vafaei to win this.
Shaun Murphy was thrashed 6-0 by Sam Baird in the International Championship qualifiers on Friday and that sort of result makes me think that all his not well with him behind the scenes. He pulled out of the lucrative Shanghai Masters recently and Murphy never pulls out of events unless he has to so it might be that he hasn’t been able to see as much of the practice table as he would like. The sheer close proximity of that match to this makes me think Mike Dunn might be worth trying. Dunn is a good competitor and if Murphy’s mind isn’t on it the veteran is certainly good enough to see Murphy packing. If Murphy clicks he’ll win but 3/1 is a nice enough price on the outsider to pay to find out.
Tips
WON – Back H.Vafaei to beat M.White for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with Unibet
Back him here:
Back M.Dunn to beat S.Murphy for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with 888sport
Back him here:
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