There is one last assignment for the snooker tour in 2017 which comes in the qualifying event for the German Masters and that gets underway on Tuesday. The 128 players who have entered the tournament will all be desperate to secure the two wins needed to make it to one of the best venues of the season in terms of the Tempodrom so it should be a competitive end to the year.
We have three sessions of play on what is a busy start to the qualifying competition and although this first round takes place over three days we have some decent players on show from the start.
Morning Session
Stephen Maguire will be looking to continue his strong run of form when he takes on Gary Wilson in one of the matches that is available on the streaming services. Michael White plays Robin Hull on the other main table.
The outside tables will be full all week and they kick off with Kurt Maflin against Josh Boileau, Fergal O’Brien taking on Akani Songsermsawad, Xu Si meeting David Grace, Peter Lines facing Scott Donaldson, Jimmy Robertson playing Rhys Clark and Mitchell Mann against Zhang Yong.
Afternoon Session
The defending champion Anthony Hamilton gets his first title defence underway in the afternoon session when he is on one of the main tables. He faces Chen Zhe while on the other main table Ding Junhui will take on Gerard Greene in what looks a potential banana skin.
Martin Gould will play Alfie Burden on one of the outside tables with Aditya Mehta facing Ben Jones on another. Yan Bingtao is reduced to the outside part of the arena to take on Matt Selt while Nigel Bond meets Christopher Keogan for the second week in a row. Daniel Wells enjoyed a better week in Scotland and he plays Thor Chuan Leong while Yu Delu meets Jamie Rhys Clarke.
Evening Session
The two biggest names of the day are on show in the evening session and both have potentially tricky tests. The Northern Ireland Open winner Mark Williams is due to take on Oliver Lines while world number one Mark Selby will face Sam Baird on the main tables.
Matthew Stevens will go up against the Egyptian player Basem Eltahhan on the outside tables while Chris Totten plays Matthew Bolton. Ben Woollaston meets Alex Borg with Hamza Akbar facing Allan Taylor. Xiao Guodong will look to build on a positive week when he takes on Sanderson Lam while Jamie Jones meets Zhang Anda.
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Betting
I like three bets over the course of this opening day. Gerard Greene has been playing some tough stuff in recent times and he has what it takes to give Ding Junhui problems. Ding’s issues have been well documented and while he looked better in Scotland last week he still didn’t look like the player that we know he can be. Greene had a couple of solid wins last week so he should have a bit of confidence here. Ding’s wins were all a struggle in Glasgow and while I would expect him to win here the Asian line on Greene is too big given the potential battle this could turn into.
Christopher Keogan thrashed Nigel Bond 4-0 last week and he has to be a fair bet at even money to beat him again this week. Bond isn’t going to blow anyone away with a barrage of scoring these days and while Keogan may not be the best player in the world he did show some good signs in his defeat to John Higgins after his win over Bond. That suggests to me that he’ll have the confidence to see off the veteran again.
Jamie Jones had a very good win over Barry Hawkins in Scotland last week but was then taken apart by one of Yan Bingtao’s special performances which he couldn’t really do a whole lot about. His opponent here, Zhang Anda, had a couple of decent wins last week but they were drops in the ocean of plenty of defeats. I liked what I saw from Jones against Hawkins in Glasgow and a repeat of that can get him home here.
Tips
WON – Back G.Greene (+2.75 Asian Hanidcap) to beat D.Junhui for a 4/10 stake at 1.88 with Bet365
Back C.Keogan to beat N.Bond for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
WON – Back J.Jones to beat Z.Anda for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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