The first round of the Northern Ireland Open concludes on Tuesday as the players yet to be in action in the tournament start their quest to win the second Home Nations event of the campaign inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
We’ve seen some star players already in the event but things go up a notch or two on Tuesday as Neil Robertson, Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan all get their title quest underway, as does the home star Mark Allen.
Morning Session
Once again the entire set of tables will be in use in the morning session. The TV table will be occupied by a couple of very capable players in Liang Wenbo and Kurt Maflin in a match where safety won’t be seen too much. On the other main table the European Masters winner Jimmy Robertson will go up against Igor Figueiredo in a match the Englishman is a warm favourite to come through.
Graeme Dott is a big name on the outside tables in this session, one of many on show out there over the course of the day. He takes on Duane Jones while Noppon Saengkham meets Billy Joe Castle. Ross Bulman will hope to use home advantage when he goes up against Zhang Jiankang. Another Chinese player is out there in the form of Bai Langning. He faces Craig Steadman while Jamie O’Neill meets Sunny Akani. The other match first up sees Louis Heathcote taking on Peifan Lei. Three matches have been saved for the second half of the morning and they see Lee Walker meeting Martin O’Donnell, Scott Donaldson taking on Albie Burden and Sam Baird playing Nigel Bond.
Afternoon Session
The world champion Judd Trump kicks off his title defence in the first match on the TV table in the afternoon. He only needs to look back to the World Championship to know he shouldn’t take his opponent James Cahill lightly. The streamed table first up will see Stuart Bingham going up against Lu Ning. The other matches to start the afternoon off sees Chen Zifan facing Patrick Wallace, Riley Parsons going up against Kacper Filipiak and Dominic Dale facing Luo Honghao.
The second set of games in this session sees the home star Mark Allen occupying the TV table. He faces a real banana skin first up in Sam Craigie while second on the streamed table is the Indian Open winner Matt Selt. He plays Daniel Wells while the other matches have Jamie Clarke meeting Ben Woollaston and two veterans going at it when Peter Ebdon meets Jimmy White. Two matches have been saved for a third match on the main tables if needed. Jack Lisowski will meet Soheil Vahedi on the TV table and Gary Wilson will meet Yuan Sijun on the other.
Evening Session
The return to Belfast of Ronnie O’Sullivan takes place in the evening session and he will be on the TV table first up as a result. He collides with the talented Oliver Lines while over on the streamed table Kyren Wilson meets Alan McManus. Elsewhere, Ricky Walden goes up against Alex Borg, Michael Holt meets Michael White, Fan Zhengyi goes up against Fergal O’Brien, Brandon Sargeant takes on Joe O’Connor, John Astley meets Stuart Carrington and Zhou Yuelong faces off with David Grace.
Two matches have been reserved for the second part of the evening on the two main tables with the Champion of Champions winner Neil Robertson being on the TV table after O’Sullivan. He’ll take on Mark Joyce while on the streamed table there is a quality looking match between Joe Perry and Zhao Xintong which really could go either way.
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Betting
Three more bets catch my eye on Tuesday as I look to back up a very strong return on Monday. In the morning session I like Lee Walker to beat Martin O’Donnell. O’Donnell is much higher up the rankings than his opponent here but a lot of that is down to last season rather than this. It hasn’t been a great campaign for O’Donnell this term yet. It wasn’t going great for Lee Walker either but his run to the quarter final of the English Open, where he took on Judd Trump at his own game and came out on top, should have kick started his season. Walker is always tough to beat but he scored well in Crawley too. If he has that form with him he can win this.
Luo Honghao hasn’t pulled up any trees since a decent enough run in the Riga Masters at the beginning of the season and he could be vulnerable to Dominic Dale, who has picked up a couple of eye catching results in the last two tournaments. That started when he beat Ding Junhui in the English Open and if you thought that was a fluke he dispelled that theory when he took care of Ronnie O’Sullivan in the World Open. Dale looks to be playing nicely at the minute and with the pressure all on the youngster from China, Dale could well cause another upset at odds against.
Later in the night I think Joe Perry can have too much for Zhao Xintong. Xintong is extremely talented but he only tends to win open matches where he can get in and fill his boots and I’m sure Perry is aware of that and will stop that from happening. Xintong is developing a habit of losing deciding frames too, often from in front, which suggests under intense scrutiny he goes missing which Perry isn’t going to do. Perry is all class and he’s in the mix for the race to The Masters so he’ll be eager to win this. I think his experience will be enough here.
Tips
Back L.Walker to beat M.O’Donnell for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
Back D.Dale to beat L.Honghao for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back them here:
WON – Back J.Perry to beat Z.Xintong for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back him here:
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