The opening day of the International Championship is a three session day of action out in China as the matches that were held over from qualifying take place as well as the start of the first round of the biggest ranking event of the season so far.
Given the held over matches are of the top names we do not have to wait long for the tournament to light up and get going with the likes of Mark Selby, Mark Williams and Ding Junhui among a packed card on the first day.
Early Morning Session
The world champion Mark Williams is the main attraction in the first session of the day. He takes on Zhang Jiankang on one of the match tables while Kyren Wilson takes on Yuan Sijun in what is a first round match on the other of the TV tables. Sijun has some big scalps on his slate this season and will be eyeing up another there.
The outside tables will be full in this opening session with Noppon Saengkham on one of them when he takes on Chang Bingyu while Ben Woollaston meets Bai Langning on another. Liam Highfield faces Luo Zetao in the wildcard round with Gary Wilson facing He Guoqiang in the other. The remaining first round matches in this session sees Martin Gould playing Li Hang and Sam Baird up against Alfie Burden.
Morning Session
The Chinese superstars of Liang Wenbo and Ding Junhui will play their held over qualifying matches. Wenbo takes on Ashley Hugill while Ding goes up against Robin Hull. It goes without saying that both games are on the main tables over the course of the session.
There are some decent players on show in first round matches in the second session of the day. Anthony McGill is one of them. He faces Stuart Carrington while Mark Davis and Joe Perry meet in one of the matches of the day. Xiao Guodong is on an outside table when he faces countryman Fan Zhengyi while the other juicy looking clash sees Jack Lisowski playing Chris Wakelin. Stuart Bingham plays his first match as English Open champion when he takes on Eden Sharav with Matthew Stevens meeting Jordan Brown.
Afternoon Session
The world champion Mark Selby begins what he hopes will be a busy week when he meets Li Yuan on one of the main tables while the Shanghai Masters finalist Barry Hawkins will be in action on the other one. He faces Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and if the proper Thai turns up that could be something of a cracking contest.
Yan Bingtao will look to see off Jimmy White in an appealing match on an outside table while Tian Pengfei will go up against Ryan Day on another of them. Peter Lines and Martin O’Donnell clash in another match while Craig Steadman faces Mark King. Kurt Maflin goes up against Ali Carter in what is a good looking match with Stephen Maguire the other leading name in action when he faces the Shootout champion Michael Georgiou.
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Betting
I’ll go with two bets over the course of the opening day of action with the first bet coming on Joe Perry who I think can see off Mark Davis. Both men have displayed good results this month losing in finals of events. Perry lost the final of the European Masters while Davis lost in the final of the English Open. Perry generally has the better of their previous matches and he generally plays well in the heavier Chinese conditions. Davis won’t have had much time between losing the final last Sunday and getting ready for this tournament. He might need a bit more than he’s had though so I’ll take Perry here.
I also think Ryan Day could be worth taking on. Day was having troubles with his tip the last time we saw him at the English Open and that was only nine days ago so with the trip to China and everything else he won’t have had long to practice with a new tip so he could be there for the taking. Tian Pengfei is having a decent enough season. He is scoring plenty of tons by his standards and when he is being beaten it is by the narrowest margin. He gets a 2.5 frame start in this match so another narrow loss or any kind of win sees us profit. That will do me.
Tips
WON – Back J.Perry to beat M.Davis for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back T.Pengfei (+2.5 frames) to beat R.Day for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back them here:
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