The opening day of the Scottish Open takes place in Glasgow on Monday and as always with these Home Nations events it is a busy first day of action with a whole host of matches on the many tables in play in the Emirates Arena.
It might only be the first day of the tournament but there are a number of stars on show, including the defending champion Neil Robertson and the home star John Higgins to name but two of them. Shaun Murphy and Barry Hawkins are also on the baize.
Morning Session
Dave Gilbert gets the tournament underway on the main TV table. He comes into the tournament in good form and is expected to ease past the Scottish amateur Craig MacGillivray while on the other streamed offering in this session Martin O’Donnell will look to build on his UK Championship quarter final when he takes on Chris Wakelin.
As ever the outside tables will be full in this session. Anthony McGill will be the leading light on them when he faces Zhang Yong of China. Alexander Ursenbacher meets another Scot when he plays Ross Muir while Rod Lawler and Sam Baird do battle. Michael Georgiou plays Sean O’Sullivan and Liam Highfield meets Robbie Williams in the other matches.
Afternoon Session
Neil Robertson begins his defence of his title on the TV table in the afternoon session. He meets Peter Lines with Barry Hawkins on the streamed table when he takes on the significant challenge of Zhou Yuelong. Over on the outside tables Li Hang plays Paul Davison, Nigel Bond goes up against Andy Lee, Allan Taylor meets Michael White and Sam Craigie faces Michael Holt. The other matches sees Lyu Haotian playing Fan Zhengyi and Stuart Carrington takes on Gary Wilson.
The second set of matches sees Ding Junhui in action. He takes on Niu Zhuang on one of the main tables while Marco Fu plays Chen Zifan on the other. There are two matches on the outside tables in this session with Hossein Vafaei meeting Eden Sharav and Robin Hull playing Kishan Hirani. Stephen Maguire and Billy Joe Castle have been saved for a third match on the main table if needed with Yan Bingtao playing Basem Eltahhan on the other. They will play on the outside tables if the earlier matches overrun.
Evening Session
John Higgins will take centre stage on the main table to get the evening session underway. He plays the amateur Adam Duffy while on the streamed table Ali Carter will go up against Luo Honghao. On the outside tables Lu Ning plays Duane Jones while Sanderson Lam meets Jak Jones. Matthew Selt plays Ian Burns and Joe O’Connor goes up against Mike Dunn. The other two matches sees Hamza Akbar playing Soheil Vahedi and Zhang Jiankang going up against Simon Lichtenberg.
Two matches have been saved for second games on the live tables. Shaun Murphy will be on the TV table when he goes up against the competent Sunny Akani while on the streamed table Graeme Dott will begin his tournament against Xu Si.
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Betting
I’ll go with two bets on the opening day of the tournament with Zhou Yuelong my first bet. He has been showing some good form in recent tournaments but has run into Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last two. There is no sign of the Rocket for him here so I’m prepared to play the Chinese star against Barry Hawkins. His results are definitely not highlighting how well he is playing and to be fair to Hawkins I always think he is better over the longer distances. This looks a trappy match for the Hawk and at the prices Zhou looks the obvious bet.
The match between Hamza Akbar and Soheil Vahedi would normally be one to swerve like the plague but with Vahedi still not winning a match this season I have to get stuck into the Pakistan player here. To be fair to Akbar he made it through to the third round in Belfast where he was never going to have a chance against Mark Selby but he should have every chance here. Akbar has been competitive in a lot of matches he has lost this season unlike the Iranian. I’m on the Pakistan man here.
Tips
WON – Back Z.Yuelong to beat B.Hawkins for a 3/10 stake at 2.80 with Betfred
Back him here:
Back H.Akbar to beat S.Vahedi for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with 888sport
Back him here:
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