The first day of the Welsh Open is a busy one as the tournament gets underway with a burst of matches as all of the Home Nations events do. We have more than 30 matches taking place on the opening day of action at the Motorpoint Arena.
It might be the start of the tournament but that does not mean that we are devoid of big names right out of the gun. Some of the biggest names in the game get their campaigns underway on what should be an entertaining Monday.
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Morning Session
There are two main tables in this tournament, one TV table and one streamed one. Dominic Dale gets his chance on one of them first up when he faces Chris Totten while on the other one Barry Hawkins goes up against Niu Zhuang.
The other matches in this session see the Welsh amateur pair of Darren Morgan and Rhydian Richards taking each other on while another Welsh player Jackson Page faces Sean O’Sullivan. Scott Donaldson, a semi-finalist in this tournament last year, takes on Fergal O’Brien. There are a couple of all-Chinese battles as Fang Xiongman takes on Yuan Sijun and Chen Zifan goes up against Zhou Yuelong. The other match in the session sees Ian Burns facing Jamie Curtis-Barrett.
Afternoon Session
The defending champion Stuart Bingham gets his title defence underway when he takes on Chen Zhe on the main table. The streamed table has a former winner of this tournament in Ali Carter in action. He takes on Rhys Clark in a match he should win.
The outside tables are once again full in this session. Wang Yuchen takes on Peter Ebdon on one of them while Li Yuan faces Ricky Walden. Li Hang plays Liam Highfield in a match both will expect to win while our outright pick Xiao Guodong begins his tournament. He takes on Chris Wakelin. Andrew Higginson and Ashley Hugill meet on an outside table while Zhang Yong plays James Wattana.
Ryan Day will look to thrill the crowds in the second match of the afternoon on the TV table. He goes up against Kurt Dunham of Australia. The streamed table sees Jimmy White in action against the classy and talented Yan Bingtao. The outside tables are full in this second round of matches too. Rod Lawler takes on Tom Ford while Ding Junhui plays Hammad Miah. Tian Pengfei meets Akani Songsermsawad while Craig Steadman faces David John. The other two matches sees Sanderson Lam playing Graeme Dott and Daniel Wells taking on Lee Walker.
Evening Session
The action doesn’t stop as there is a busy evening session too. Judd Trump will be the first player on the main table when he plays local lad Duane Jones while on the streamed table Mark Allen will meet Cao Yupeng. The second sets of matches on the main tables sees world champion Mark Selby taking on Christopher Keogan while Neil Robertson plays Mark Davis in the other match.
There is one set of matches on the outside tables with Ian Preece up against Zhao Xintong, Hossein Vafaei meets Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Michael Holt plays Elliot Slessor and Anthony Hamilton goes up against Dave Gilbert in an intriguing match.
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Betting
I’m going to go with three bets on the opening day. Dominic Dale is not in the best of form at the minute and with TV commitments this week it won’t take much for his preparations to be distracted. He faces Chris Totten who is a newbie on the tour but who is clearly capable. He has wins over Neil Robertson, Matt Selt and Sam Baird this season which is a decent effort and it might not take much to beat Dale. Dale has lost to some indifferent opponents already this term so the 5/2 on Totten is good enough value for a wager.
Zhang Yong is another player who I think is good value in his match against James Wattana. Wattana hasn’t won a match since the English Open where to be fair he had three wins but they remain his only 15 red successes all season. We saw at the Shootout that Zhang Yong can play the game but it is difficult when you keep drawing big players. This is a chance to take on someone inferior and I expect him to capitalise on that.
Later in the day I think Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is coming back into form and I like him to beat a Hossein Vafaei who has just gone off the boil in recent times. Un-Nooh qualified for the German Masters prior to the Christmas break and in the China Open qualifying he nailed a big break and scored well in the other frames he won. When the Thai scores well he is tough to beat. Vafaei hasn’t won a match since the UK Championship and could be getting Un-Nooh at the wrong time. I’m on the Thai here.
Tips
Back C.Totten to beat D.Dale for a 3/10 stake at 3.50 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
Back Z.Yong to beat J.Wattana for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with BetVictor
Back him here:
Back T.Un-Nooh to beat H.Vafaei for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
Back him here:
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