The first round of the qualifying competition for the German Masters concludes on Saturday, with those who are yet to get their campaign underway in Barnsley doing so, looking to set up a date on Sunday where the places in Berlin are up for grabs.
There are just two days of snooker left in 2019 and Saturday promises to be an excellent one with the amount of top level talent that is on show across the three sessions, both on the main tables and the outside ones.
Morning Session
A former finalist inside the Tempodrom out in Berlin gets the action underway on one of the main tables on Saturday when Graeme Dott gets his campaign up and running. He will take on Craig Steadman for a place in a Sunday showdown. The other main table will be occupied by the grossly out of form Ryan Day. He plays Andrew Higginson who might only be a couple of high profile wins from really delivering something special in the near future.
Xhao Xintong looks in a rich vein of form at the minute and he’ll be on one of the outside tables in this session. He goes up against Ken Doherty while Dominic Dale meets Thor Chuan Leong on another. Zhou Yuelong is another form Chinese player. His first round test is the Ukrainian amateur Iulian Boiko. There is an all-Chinese battle as Yuan Sijun takes on Lei Peifan while Luo Honghao has a meeting with Ashley Carty. The other three matches sees Sam Baird taking on Kishan Hirani, Bai Langning playing James Cahill and Jamie Clarke going up against Brandon Sargeant.
Afternoon Session
If you have a ticket for the afternoon session there will be talent everywhere you look. On the main table the world champion Judd Trump will be in action. He goes up against Daniel Wells for a place in the second round, while on the other table with cameras on it the newly crowned Scottish Open winner, Mark Selby, will be up against the Chinese player Fan Zhengyi in a clash he will be expected to make progress in.
Such is the quality on show in this session that Shaun Murphy can only be reduced to an outside table. He goes up against the competent challenge of Joe O’Connor in a good looking match. Mark Davis is on another of the outside tables when he faces Chang Bingyu while Liam Highfield goes up against Nigel Bond. Dave Gilbert will be looking for revenge against Jordan Brown, the man who beat him in European Masters qualifying earlier in the week, while the Indian Open winner Matt Selt plays Peter Lines. Elsewhere Ricky Walden plays Martin Gould, Mark Joyce meets Michael Georgiou, Barry Pinches plays Andy Lee and Stuart Carrington faces off against Chen Zifan.
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Evening Session
The Scottish legend John Higgins is up on the streamed table in the evening session. He will be expected to do a good job on Adam Stefanow to move onto Sunday’s action but it is the other main table that looks to have the pick of the matches on it. That sees Mark Allen, reeling from a 5-0 hiding by Lu Ning in the qualifying for the European Masters, going up against a Kurt Maflin who he edged out 6-5 in the UK Championship recently.
That means that Barry Hawkins has been reduced to competing on the outside tables on Saturday evening. He plays the amateur Ross Bulman while Gerard Greene takes on Lee Walker on what could be a late night for the ref! John Astley meets David Grace elsewhere in the arena while Luca Brecel plays Louis Heathcote. The match of the round is on the outside tables when Yan Bingtao plays Marco Fu in what looks like an absolute cracker. The other three matches sees Joe Perry playing Fergal O’Brien while Jamie O’Neill meets Kacper Filipiak and Noppon Saengkham plays Mike Dunn.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the day on Saturday. In the morning session I like the look of Andrew Higginson to take care of Ryan Day. Day won a match in the European Masters qualifying but then got thrashed 5-0 by David Lilley which can’t have done a huge amount for his confidence. I sense Higginson is actually playing a lot better than his results would suggest and it might not take a huge amount for him to run away with this. Although his scoring isn’t leaping out off the page at us, it is being sustained at the minute and he is probably a little overpriced to come through this one.
The other bet I like is for the former champion Martin Gould to come through at the expense of Ricky Walden. Gould has been in a regression for far too long but we have seen in the past how he enjoys this tournament and I am guessing he will be itching to make it back there here. There are just a few signs recently that he is finding his groove again. He won a couple of matches in Scotland before running into Ronnie O’Sullivan and then last week he took care of Stephen Maguire. Walden keeps hurtling into Shaun Murphy which is unfortunate but he isn’t scoring to the potential that he can or that Gould is right now. That means me think the past winner is a good thing here.
Tips
WON – Back A.Higginson to beat R.Day for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back M.Gould to beat R.Walden for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betway
Back him here:
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