The first round of the International Championship draws to a close on Monday when those yet to play their last 64 clash do so on a day with just two sessions of action out in China. This tournament escalates pretty quickly so hitting form here would be no bad thing.
We saw a bit of carnage with some big names going out on the opening day while a couple of others such as Mark Selby and Ding Junhui were forced to work very hard in their held over qualifying matches. Those two are back on the tables on Monday along with a number of others.
Morning Session
It is Ding Junhui who will headline the morning session. He takes on his Chinese compatriot Zhang Anda in a match which is sure to be on one of the main tables while Judd Trump is expected to be on the other TV offering. He faces the former World Championship semi-finalist Alan McManus in what is likely to be a clash of styles.
The outside tables are full throughout the day with Robert Milkins facing Noppon Saengkham on one of them while Liang Wenbo goes up against Ian Burns on another. Marco Fu takes on Andrew Higginson on an outside table while the piano playing Luo Honghao faces Michael Holt away from the spotlight. Tom Ford meets the European Masters champion Jimmy Robertson and the final match sees Graeme Dott taking on Hossein Vafaei.
Afternoon Session
All eyes will be on the world number one Mark Selby to see if he can find an easier route through on Monday when he takes on Ken Doherty than he did on Sunday. That match will occupy one of the TV tables with the world champion Mark Williams being on the other one. The Welshman goes up against Akani Songsermsawad.
That leaves some big names on the outside tables with Mark Allen one of those. He will face Liam Highfield while Neil Robertson meets Matt Selt. Dave Gilbert begins his tournament away from the spotlight when he takes on John Astley while the talented Zhao Xintong meets James Wattana. David Lilley plays Ben Woollaston in another match and two Chinese players meet in the final game when He Guoqiang goes up against Zhou Yuelong.
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Betting
I’ll go with three bets over the course of the day. I’ll start with Noppon Saengkham who hit three centuries in his wildcard match on Sunday which should have tuned him up nicely for a clash with Robert Milkins who he beat in the English Open just over a week ago. The Thai is playing some nice snooker this season. He made the quarter final in Crawley before he ran into Stephen Maguire in good form and he was a semi-finalist in the World Open earlier in the season where Mark Selby was among his victims. Milkins has nothing like that form on his CV this term and I think he is vulnerable to the Thai here.
Luo Honghao showed all of his talent when he was laying it down to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the English Open a couple of weeks ago. He looked the real deal in that event and I’m expecting to see good things from him off the back of that when he faces Michael Holt on Monday. Holt is struggling a bit these days in fairness. His qualifying match for this tournament was the only 15 red match he’s won since August and he didn’t beat anyone in that. Honghao took out Neil Robertson and Anthony McGill in Crawley. Holt can go the same way here.
In the later session I like the look of Mark Allen to come through with a fair bit in hand. I’ve heard so many players comment on the pockets here and that should play to Allen’s liking. He is a really heavy scorer and he can have too much scoring power for Liam Highfield who is not enjoying a particularly good start to the season. Allen can be guilty of getting bogged down but it is usually the Chinese players who smash them in from everywhere that catches him out. That isn’t what he faces here and I fancy Allen can win no worse than 6-3.
Tips
Back N.Saengkham to beat R.Milkins for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Betfred
Back him here:
Back L.Honghao to beat M.Holt for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with NetBet
Back him here:
Back M.Allen (-2.5 frames) to beat L.Highfield for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back him here:
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