The Welsh Open begins with 32 matches taking place inside the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff on Monday as half of the first round is played out on what is an extremely busy day to kick off the final Home Nations event of the season.
We have to wait until Tuesday to see the likes of defending champion Neil Robertson and Ronnie O’Sullivan in action but the world champion Judd Trump and Home Nations king of the season Mark Selby begin their title challenges on Monday.
Morning Session
All eight tables are getting a workout in the morning session with the televised one seeing the home favourite Matthew Stevens in action. He has a tough test against Dave Gilbert in what is a cracking way to get the event up and running. The streamed table will also be in operation in this session when it shows the match between Joe Perry and Ashley Carty which The Masters quarter finalist will be a heavy favourite in.
All the outside tables are in use in this session with Hammad Miah playing Alexander Ursenbacher. Welsh player Daniel Wells takes on Barry Pinches on another of the tables while Yuan Sijun meets Thor Chuan Leong and Jimmy Robertson faces Riley Parsons. Martin O’Donnell meets Andy Hicks and Zhang Anda takes on Liam Highfield in the other game. Two matches will commence when tables become available and one of them sees Lee Walker facing John Astley while Si Jiahui plays Lei Peifan in the other.
Afternoon Session
Two sets of matches take place in the afternoon and it is the home favourite Mark Williams who will grace the TV stage first. He goes up against Oliver Lines who might fancy his chances with Williams’ well-documented foot issues. Jack Lisowski is on the streamed table. He faces a Li Hang who looked very good against Judd Trump at the World Grand Prix. The outside tables have the only qualifying match for this tournament on it as Welsh amateurs Gavin Lewis and Darren Morgan meet for a place in the main draw. Elsewhere, Tom Ford plays Xu Si and Robbie Williams meets Chris Wakelin while Lu Ning faces Louis Heathcote.
The big all-Asian clash between the UK champion Ding Junhui and the former top 16 player Marco Fu will be the second live game on the TV table on Monday afternoon. That leaves the twice former champion Stephen Maguire to compete on the streamed table when he goes up against Rod Lawler. Gerard Greene faces Liang Wenbo on one of the outside tables with Jordan Brown taking on Alex Borg on another. Anthony McGill plays Duane Jones in the other match while the game between Stuart Bingham and Martin Gould will form a third TV game if there is time. If not it will be on an outside table.
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Evening Session
The tables are full again for the evening session with the world champion Judd Trump kicking off his tournament on the TV table first up. He plays James Cahill for a place in the second round while on the streamed table we will be getting the chance to watch Ryan Day taking on Simon Lichtenberg. Matthew Selt is on one of the outside tables. He meets Andy Lee while Anthony Hamilton plays Michael White. Lu Haotian plays Kishan Hirani and Stuart Carrington takes on Mike Dunn. Mei Xiwen meets the former Michael Georgiou and the other match sees Mark King playing Ken Doherty.
The English Open and Scottish Open winner Mark Selby will be the main man in the second televised match in this session. He meets the competent and popular David Grace while on the streamed table The Masters finalist Ali Carter will be looking to start out on another deep run in an event when he takes on Adam Stefanow who needs a few wins to boost his paltry ranking.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets on the opening day. Michael White will be well up for his match with Anthony Hamilton for a couple of reasons. The first one is fairly obvious in that this is his home tournament but also because his ranking is outside the top 50 which is far too low for a man of his talents. To be fair White had an awful season prior to the UK Championship but he showed signs of coming back there and then belted Jack Lisowski in European Masters qualifying a few days after the Englishman made the final of the Scottish Open. Anthony Hamilton lost in qualifying for both Austria and Germany so hadn’t played for six weeks which is quite a while at this stage of the season. His form isn’t fantastic either if you take a run to the quarter final in Northern Ireland, where he has good memories, away. I’m not sure Hamilton should be favourite here. With home comforts on his side I’ll go with White in this one.
Another man who I’m not sure should be favourite for his match on Monday is Mei Xiwen. He takes on Michael Georgiou who he has played three times in his career and has lost all three. I can only think the Chinese player is the favourite here because he had that run in the English Open where he beat Ronnie O’Sullivan but that looks to have been his peak because since then he has lost in the first or second game of each tournament, including the qualifiers for Austria and Germany. Georgiou also lost in Austrian qualifying, to Luca Brecel who was in scintillating form but the signs were there for the Cypriot as he hit a 142 break in that match. He followed that up by qualifying for the Tempodrom with convincing wins over Mark Joyce and Martin Gould where he banged in runs of 137, 142 and 124. He won two matches in Berlin before going down 5-1 to eventual winner Judd Trump but his frame came via a 112 break. Georgiou is in rich form right now and at odds against looks a great bet.
Tips
Back M.White to beat A.Hamilton for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back M.Georgiou to beat M.Xiwen for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
Back them here:
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