The held over qualifying matches will all be played out on the opening day of the English Open inside the Marshall Arena on Monday and the main draw will also begin on a busy start to the tournament in Milton Keynes.
The fact the top 16 players in the rankings had their qualifying match held over to the main venue means that we get to see all the stars on show right from the get go in this tournament so we should be in for a great day of action.
Morning Session
We have four tables in operation this week and it is held over qualifying matches all the way in the morning session. Kyren Wilson is the biggest of the names on show and he has a clash with Noppon Saengkham to overcome. Stephen Maguire is another of the top 16 players playing it out in this morning session. He will need to beat Mark King to make it into the main draw. Ding Junhui is a third top 16 member on show and he takes on Andrew Pagett while the other match sees Anthony McGill looking to continue his recent good form when he plays Gao Yang.
Afternoon Session
As ever in a Home Nations event we have two sets of matches in the afternoon. Judd Trump begins his title defence first up on the main table in this session. He takes on Matthew Selt for a place in the main draw. Shaun Murphy is the other elite name who will be on one of the streamed tables. He meets Duane Jones. The other two tables will be accessible to watch with certain bookmakers which is good because Barry Hawkins and Yan Bingtao are on show. Hawkins faces the women’s star Reanne Evans while Bingtao meets Aaron Hill.
The world champion Mark Selby is the leading name on show in the second set of matches in the afternoon. He takes on the amateur Sanderson Lam in what will be the TV match in this slot of games. Over on the streamed table Stuart Bingham will be on show when he meets the other woman to have a tour card in Ng On Yee. Jack Lisowski also gets his campaign underway in this session. He takes on Mark Joyce while the other match sees Oliver Sykes facing Allan Taylor.
Safer Gambling Week
This week is Safer Gambling Week, an initiative we are fully supportive of on this website. If you are having a problem with your gambling click the image below for help.
Evening Session
We have two sets of matches in the evening session as well but this session sees a mixture of qualifying action and first round games. It is Ronnie O’Sullivan who will play his qualifying match on the TV table first up in this session. He faces David Lilley while over on the streamed table the Northern Ireland Open finalist John Higgins meets Zhao Jianbo. Mark Lloyd faces Paul Deaville in another match with the former being the replacement for Mark Williams. The first round match in this set of games sees Alexander Ursenbacher taking on Tom Ford.
We have just the three matches to finish off the evening session but the match of the day is saved for this part of the day as the Northern Ireland Open winner Mark Allen meets Luca Brecel. That match might not be on the TV table though because Neil Robertson is also on show in this session. He takes on the veteran Andy Hicks for a place in the first round. There is a main draw match on show too. That sees the British Open finalist Gary Wilson taking on Ben Woollaston.
Betting
I’ll go with just the one bet over the course of the day. There are a number of one-sided looking matches and given that a lot of the favourites have been in action over the last couple of weeks in German Masters and European Masters qualifying, I don’t really see any of them looking particularly weak so I’m going to leave them alone and take one of the first round matches where I expect a more comfortable win than the bookmakers seem to.
That comes in the match between Alexander Ursenbacher and Tom Ford where I fancy the latter to win and win with a bit in hand. I saw both of Ursenbacher’s matches in the qualifying over the last week or so and his safety looks like it has completely disappeared and he isn’t going to get a lot of joy out of Ford if he can’t keep things tight. Ford won all three matches in qualifying last week and scored very heavily. He can play safety and with the chances that are likely to come his way if Ursenbacher’s displays last week are anything to go by, I expect Ford to win no worse than 4-2.
Tips
Back T.Ford (-1.5 frames) to beat A.Ursenbacher for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2021
