The first round of the Welsh Open concludes inside the Motorpoint Arena on Tuesday when those who didn’t get their campaign up and running on the opening day of the tournament will do so on another extremely busy day of action in the last Home Nations event of the season.
We saw players such as Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Mark Williams get their tournament underway on an entertaining Monday and on Tuesday the man of the moment Neil Robertson and Ronnie O’Sullivan are among the stars on show.
Morning Session
The action gets underway early in the day and on the main table we will see the former Masters champion Mark Allen on show. He goes up against the very competent Andrew Higginson for a place in the second round, while on the streamed table we have what actually looks like a potentially more competitive match when Yan Bingtao, familiar with this format having won the Riga Masters earlier in the season, takes on a Michael Holt who nearly got the better of Neil Robertson in Cheltenham last week.
There are one or two tasty matches on the outside tables first up as well. Local eyes will be on the table featuring David Lilley and Dominic Dale while elsewhere we have Sam Baird facing Chen Feilong, Mitchell Mann meeting Bai Langning, Tian Pengfei going up against Jamie O’Neill and Peter Lines playing Fan Zhengyi. Three matches have been saved for second games in the morning and they see Fergal O’Brien taking on Mark Joyce, Noppon Saengkham meeting Alan McManus and Nigel Bond facing Ricky Walden.
Afternoon Session
It is all about Ronnie O’Sullivan in the first of the two sets of matches in the afternoon session. He is in real need of some wins this week to try and make it to the Players Championship and Zhang Jiankang could well be his first victim on the TV table. Last week’s runner up Graeme Dott is on the streamed table. He plays Zhao Xintong in one of the best matches of the opening round. On the outside tables we have Kurt Maflin taking on Chen Zifan, Alfie Burden up against Amine Amiri and two veterans battling it out when Jimmy White takes on James Wattana.
The second set of matches sees the World Grand Prix semi-finalist Kyren Wilson on the main table. He meets the home youngster Jackson Page while over on the streamed offering, the man who will defend his Shootout title next week, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, will go up against Sohail Vahedi. A couple of Chinese players will be on the outside tables when Xiao Guodong plays Fraser Patrick and Zhou Yuelong faces Elliot Slessor while Eden Sharav meets Ben Woollaston. If a third TV match is required then Barry Hawkins will play Sam Craigie but that will be on an outside table if the two live games overrun.
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Evening Session
All eyes will be on the form horse coming in and defending champion Neil Robertson on the main table in the evening session. He opens up against Jamie Clarke while on the streamed table Shaun Murphy takes on the veteran Welsh player Darren Morgan, who made it through the qualifying round on Monday. Elsewhere Gary Wilson will go up against Chang Bingyu, Jak Jones plays Robert Milkins, Ian Burns meets Harvey Chandler, Hossein Vafaei plays Igor Figueiredo and there is a good looking match between Mark Davis and Luo Honghao. Craig Steadman plays Billy Joe Castle in the other game.
Two matches have been saved for second games on the main tables. The TV table will see former winner John Higgins in action. He has a date with the man who knocked him out here last year in Joe O’Connor while over on the streamed table two classy European youngsters collide when Luca Brecel will look to keep his revival going when he takes on Kacper Filipiak from over in Poland.
Betting
There are a few bets which interest me over the course of the day but after a bit of a disaster to start the tournament with I’ll play it a little safer on Tuesday and take just the one bet, which comes in the form of Sam Craigie to beat Barry Hawkins in what is slated to be on the main table but could very well be moved to the extremities, which probably doesn’t really do Hawkins much in the way of a favour.
If there was one thing we saw on Monday it was that form isn’t lying at the minute. On the main table we saw Martin Gould struggling like mad and on the streamed one Ryan Day likewise and anyone who has watched the action in 2020 will know Barry Hawkins hasn’t been at the races at all. He was terrible at The Masters, fell over the line from 4-0 up in Austria against Mark Selby before losing and couldn’t beat Mark Williams on one leg last week. Sam Craigie hasn’t had many results this season but he’s had some proper tough draws. He can play though and I’ll keep the faith that his quality hasn’t gone in the wake of some unfortunate defeats. Hawkins is likely to be there for the taking and at 13/8 I’ll back Craigie to do just that.
Tips
Back S.Craigie to beat B.Hawkins for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Betfair
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