The opening day of the International Championship kicks off with three sessions of play as the held over matches from the qualifying event mixes in with the first round of the main draw on what should be an action packed day of action out in China.
With all the held over matches on the schedule we are guaranteed some top level names on show including the world champion Judd Trump and local hero Ding Junhui. Neil Robertson is among the men playing in the first round so the quality should be high from the start
Early Morning Session
Four held over matches take place in this first session of the day and they include the defending champion Mark Allen in action. He takes on Peter Lines for a place in the main draw while Sam Craigie, Sunny Akani and Anthony McGill are the other professionals on show in this round. They take on Chinese amateurs in the form of Pang Junxu, Li Yingdon and Zhao Jianbo respectively.
Neil Robertson is the headline act in those in first round action in this section when he takes on the former world finalist Nigel Bond. Matt Selt will be looking to build on a decent weekend in Riga last week when he takes on Mark Davis while the other two matches in this session sees Graeme Dott facing Michael White and Elliot Slessor goes up against the Q-School graduate Louis Heathcote who could be something of a one to watch this year.
Morning Session
The two televised matches in the second session of the day both come from the held over matches and we get to see the new world champion Judd Trump in one of them. He faces off with the Northern Ireland World Cup player Jordan Brown while the other table will see the new Riga Masters champion Yan Bingtao going up against Alfie Burden in a great looking match for a place in the main draw on Monday.
Six first round matches are on the card in this session and Ali Carter is one of the highlighted players in them. He meets Alan McManus in a veteran battle while Barry Hawkins meets Daniel Wells in another of them. Stuart Bingham has a tricky draw against the Riga finalist Mark Joyce. Ryan Day takes on the man who made the semi-final last week in Kurt Maflin while the other two matches have the Shootout winner Thepchaiya Un-Nooh playing Ricky Walden and Zhou Yuelong taking on Robert Milkins.
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Afternoon Session
The remaining two held over matches takes place in this session and they are both on the televised tables. John Higgins is on one of them when he takes on the Chinese amateur Wu Yize in a match he will be expected to win pretty comfortably. The attention will be on the other table though as Ding Junhui meets Simon Lichtenberg for a place in the main draw later in the week.
The World Championship semi-finalist Gary Wilson is in first round action in this session. He takes on Peter Ebdon while the other losing semi-finalist from the Crucible, Dave Gilbert, takes on the former world champion Ken Doherty. European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson is on show in this session too. He plays Matthew Stevens while Joe Perry takes on Chris Wakelin. The other two matches sees Stuart Carrington up against Stephen Maguire and Scott Donaldson facing Martin Gould.
Betting
I’ll take a couple of bets throughout the course of the day. I was tempted with one or two in the middle session but ultimately the bets come from the final session where I like Gary Wilson to cover a 1.5 frame handicap against Peter Ebdon. Ebdon is another who tends not to start the season too well and although he is probably better in the longer format, he is up against a man in Wilson who should be buzzing after his exploits at the Crucible. Wilson picked up a couple of wins in Riga last week which should have him nicely set up for this one. Ebdon hasn’t played competitively since the qualifying round for this event which was a good seven weeks ago. I expect Wilson to win this no worse than 6-4.
I’ll also play Stuart Carrington against Stephen Maguire. Carrington saw off Mark Selby and Joe Perry in Riga last weekend and while he’ll have been disappointed to lose in the quarter final, he is clearly trending in the right direction. Maguire never played last week and I fancy that will be a disadvantage here. Clearly Maguire is the better of the two players but Carrington is more than competent as he showed last week and if the Scot is having an off day or suffering from a little rust then the Englishman could be a spot of value in this one.
Tips
WON – Back G.Wilson (-1.5 frames) to beat P.Ebdon for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back S.Carrington to beat S.Maguire for a 3/10 stake at 2.88 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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