The opening day of the Scottish Open sees almost half of the first round draw being completed at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, the venue for this tournament because Covid has stopped the tour playing the event in Scotland itself.
These familiar surroundings have been graced by some big players over the course of the last six months and on Monday it is due to witness the likes of Mark Selby, Ding Junhui and Judd Trump booking their place in the second round over the three sessions of play.
Morning Session
It is the Tour Championship holder and ‘home’ man Stephen Maguire who will have the honour of opening the tournament up on the main TV table when he meets the relatively unknown Zak Surety for a place in the second round. The streamed table will be occupied first up by the Chinese star Yan Bingtao. He faces a tricky little test against Jak Jones who has been in decent form so far this season. Two other matches can be viewed on the streams with the bookmakers. They see Ben Woollaston going up against Amine Amiri and Alan McManus taking on Xiao Guodong.
There are four other matches in this session that are not in front of the cameras. They involve the amateur player Gary Thomson taking on Nigel Bond while Mark Joyce goes up against Xu Si. The Chinese player who is making a bit of a name for himself, Pang Junxu, meets Ricky Walden who had a decent UK Championship while Sunny Akani takes on Ian Burns. Two other matches take place in the morning session. They see the Shootout champion Michael Holt meeting Gerard Greene and the UK Championship semi-finalist Zhou Yuelong taking on Peter Lines.
Afternoon Session
The defending champion Mark Selby is up on the first of the two matches that will definitely be on the TV table in the afternoon session. He has a potentially tricky little encounter against the Chinese player Yuan Sijun who is highly rated. It is another Chinese player who is on the streamed table as Ding Junhui takes on Mark Davis in another tasty looking match. Two other matches take place in this first slate of matches. They see Gao Yang meeting Duane Jones and Barry Pinches facing Jordan Brown.
Mark Allen is the main attraction in the second set of matches on Monday and he will be on the TV table when he takes on the ever popular Jimmy White for a place in the second round. There is another juicy clash on the streamed table on Monday when Dave Gilbert meets Matthew Stevens. The three other matches in this slot have Iulian Boiko going up against Joe O’Connor, Liam Highfield playing Fan Zhengyi and Steven Hallworth meeting Brian Ochoiski.
There is also a third set of matches in this afternoon session. If there is time for a third game on the TV table it will see Thepchaiya Un-Nooh meeting Michael Collumb while the streamed table will have the ‘home’ man Anthony McGill meeting Sam Craigie in what could be the match of the day. The other two matches have James Cahill playing Jamie Clarke and Louis Heathcote taking on Si Jiahui in an even looking battle.
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Evening Session
The evening session should begin on the TV table with the UK Championship finalist and winner of the first two Home Nations tournaments in Judd Trump taking on the man who beat Ronnie O’Sullivan last week in Alexander Ursenbacher but there is a good chance that match will get moved to Tuesday to allow Trump some recovery time. If it is moved then the 2019 finalist Jack Lisowski will get the TV treatment when he faces Oliver Lines. If Trump does play that will be on the streamed table. The other three matches in the first part of this session sees Andrew Higginson playing Luca Brecel, Liang Wenbo facing David Lilley and Sean Maddocks meeting Brandon Sargeant.
The second TV table match in the evening session will see Kyren Wilson looking to make it through to the second round when he meets the German player Simon Lichtenberg while the streamed table action will be finished off by Barry Hawkins when he meets Stuart Carrington in what could be a close match if Hawkins allows it to be. There are two other matches in this session. They have Chen Zifan playing Mark King and Dominic Dale meeting Igor Figueiredo.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets on Monday although it might be that one of them ends up being played on Tuesday. The one which definitely will get played on Monday unless there are failed Covid tests is the one between Gao Yang and Duane Jones where I think the Chinese player is a huge price. This might be the first year on the tour for Gao but he is already going along nicely. He has won the majority of his first round matches but then in the second round has come up against a high ranked player who he isn’t ready to beat just yet but he doesn’t play anyone of that ilk here in Jones. Jones hasn’t really got going this season other than when he qualified for the German Masters but even then the draw was extremely kind. Either side of that he has lost his three first round matches and I think the teenager will add to that list in this one.
I’ve got to take Judd Trump on. Admittedly Alexander Ursenbacher will have less of a chance if this match is moved to Tuesday but even then the Swiss star took care of Ronnie O’Sullivan so he wouldn’t be a forlorn hope against the world number one, especially if Trump is still feeling the effects of losing the UK Championship final. Should this match take place on Monday then I am really keen on the chances of the Swiss as I can’t believe Trump will be able to get himself up here less than 18hrs after last being on the baize. The price on Ursenbacher is good enough to merit a bet even should this match get moved especially when you think back to the English Open which Trump ended up winning but fell 3-1 behind to his first three opponents who couldn’t finish him off. I fancy should a similar occasion arise here the Swiss ace will do the job.
Tips
WON – Back G.Yang to beat D.Jones for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back A.Ursenbacher to beat J.Trump for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with Coral
Back him here:
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