As always, the opening day of a Home Nations event is an extremely busy one and Monday is no different with a whole host of matches taking place in the first round of the Welsh Open inside the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff.
Among the stars on show over the course of the day are local hero Mark Williams, defending champion John Higgins and the recent winner of The Masters and World Grand Prix, Judd Trump which should ensure we get a decent day of action.
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Morning Session
The local ace Ryan Day will occupy the TV table in the morning session when he takes on the Thailand star Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in what looks like being a pretty tasty match. There is a streamed table this week too and first up on that is the German Masters semi-finalist Stephen Maguire. He faces Zhou Yuelong in another extremely appealing clash.
Six matches take place on the outside tables. Dominic Dale will be looking to make it into the second round of his home event when he faces Li Yuan of China. There is an all-Asian clash between Chen Feilong and Soheil Vahedi while two Englishmen also battle it out as Craig Steadman and Alfie Burden get it on. Ken Doherty is also in action when he faces Sean O’Sullivan while Mark King plays Sam Craigie in an appealing match. Chris Wakelin meets Hammad Miah in the other game.
Afternoon Session
John Higgins begins the defence of his title in the first match on the TV table in the afternoon. He faces fellow Scot and former world champion Graeme Dott while two Welshmen do battle on the streamed offering when Jak Jones goes up against a Matthew Stevens who is coming nicely back into form.
The outside tables will be full to begin with in this session. The pick of the matches on them is the one between Tian Pengfei and Marco Fu. The other matches see Robbie Williams playing Rod Lawler, Anthony Hamilton going up against Sam Baird and Jamie Clarke taking on Matthew Selt. Martin O’Donnell meets Hamza Akbar in one of the other matches and Liam Highfield faces Liang Wenbo.
Mark Williams will begin his quest for another home title when he takes to the TV table in the second set of matches in the afternoon. He plays Kishan Hirani in what should be a routine win. Shaun Murphy will be on the streamed table taking on the Polish player Adam Stefanow. Chinese players take centre stage on the outside tables when Zhang Jiankang meets Fan Zhengyi while Yan Bingtao plays Alexander Ursenbacher and Allan Taylor meets Yuan Sijun. One other match is on the TV table if there is time. Michael White meets Peter Lines in it.
Evening Session
Judd Trump begins his quest for another title on the season when he takes to the main table in the evening session. He meets Harvey Chandler with his good mate Jack Lisowski going up against Niu Zhuang on the streamed table. The outside tables are full once again and Adam Duffy meets Zhang Yong, Eden Sharav plays Xu Si and Stuart Carrington meets Noppon Saengkham. Peter Ebdon takes on the German player Lukas Kleckers with Hossein Vafaei meeting Ashley Hugill. The other match sees Ross Muir playing Daniel Wells.
Two matches are held back for a second game on the TV and streamed tables should there be time. Mark Allen meets his nemesis Mark Joyce on the TV table and then on the other table Dave Gilbert faces Jimmy Robertson in what looks like an even money match.
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Betting
There are a lot of one-sided looking matches on Monday but with a strong number of the players in action competing for the first time in 2019 there is the potential for a lot of surprise results so I’m going to ease my way into the week for once and go with just the one bet for the opening day of competition.
Anthony Hamilton is having a very quiet season by his standards and I think he is vulnerable to a Sam Baird who has dished out a couple of heavy beatings to Shaun Murphy already this term. Since he made the semi-final of the European Masters in October, Hamilton has only won one match away from the Championship League so confidence must be pretty low. Baird made the quarter final in the previous Home Nations event and probably has a point to prove after letting a 4-1 lead slip to Joe Perry in Berlin. He’s good enough to take care of the Sheriff.
Tips
Back S.Baird to beat A.Hamilton for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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