The first round of the China Open concludes out in Beijing on another busy day of action in the penultimate tournament of the campaign on Tuesday and it does so with some mouth-watering matches on the schedule.
The tournament is still getting over the loss of the defending champion of the first day of it but there is no time to dwell on the demise of Mark Selby as John Higgins, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and Mark Williams are all in first round action.
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Early Morning Session
It is John Higgins who is on one of the main tables on Tuesday morning. He goes up against the man who beat him in the quarter final of the Welsh Open a couple of months ago in Joe O’Connor. The other match on the TV table in the first session of the day has all the hallmarks of being a pearler as Kyren Wilson takes on the Chinese hotshot Yuan Sijun.
There is some real quality on the outside tables too on Tuesday, not least in the form of Barry Hawkins, who faces up to Lu Ning on one of them while Jack Lisowski is another leading name on the outskirts of the venue on Tuesday. He takes on John Astley with Peter Ebdon and Yan Bingtao facing off in another match. The other two matches in this session see Thor Chuan Leong playing Rod Lawler and Oliver Lines meeting Lyu Haotian.
Morning Session
Judd Trump begins his quest for a second China Open title in this morning session when he goes up against Robbie Williams on one of the main tables. It is Robbie’s namesake Mark Williams that is on the other one. The Welshman, so impressive on Monday, takes on Ken Doherty in a battle of the current world champ and a former one.
As with the earlier session the stars on show on the outside table are pretty significant. Liang Wenbo is used to being the centre of attention in Beijing but he has been asked to play on the outside table. He takes on Gary Wilson while Ryan Day, for whom this is a huge tournament as he chases automatic qualification for Sheffield, meets Sam Craigie. Alexander Ursenbacher and Mark King face off in another match with the other two games seeing Adam Stefanow playing Andrew Higginson and a juicy looking battle between Scott Donaldson and Joe Perry.
Afternoon Session
Home star Ding Junhui is back on the main table on Tuesday afternoon when he takes on James Wattana in an all-Asian match up. The other TV offering in this session sees our pre-tournament pick Stephen Maguire going up against Xu Si which means that both the men we are on outright will be on the TV in this session.
As with the previous sessions, big names are everywhere you look on the outside tables. Dominic Dale goes up against the man who beat Mark Selby on the opening day in Craig Steadman while Alan McManus takes on the amateur Pang Junxu. Xiao Guodong will look to make progress against Michael Holt while Ben Woollaston meets Ashley Carty. The other match sees Ricky Walden going up against another Chinese player in Chang Bingyu.
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Betting
I’m going with just the one bet across Tuesday’s action and that comes in the form of a handicap in the final session of the day. I was going to take Mark Williams after his fine performance on Monday but sadly he spoke of tip issues on Twitter and I remember when he last had that issue at the German Masters he couldn’t make a 20 break so rather than risk that I’ll take a better looking bet in the last session of play.
That comes through Xiao Guodong who was an emphatic winner over Soheil Vahedi on Monday and can use that experience of conditions to take care of a Michael Holt, who apart from the Shootout has offered very little this season. It wasn’t too long ago that Guodong was in the semi-final of the World Grand Prix and the signs on Monday was that he isn’t too far from that form. Of course, he isn’t going to lack for motivation here with this being his home tournament and with Holt in no form at all, to the extent he lost to an amateur, albeit a capable one, in the first round of the Indian Open in his last start, I’ve got to think Guodong wins this and does it no worse than 6-4.
Tips
Back X.Guodong (-1.5 frames) to beat M.Holt for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with 888sport
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