We move into the second half of the qualifying event for the English Open on Monday as another 16 hopefuls go in search of the win which will book them a place in the main event in Milton Keynes in November.
The action has started slowly in terms of the bigger names, partly because the elite players have had their match held over to the main venue but some more recognisable players take to the baize on Monday hence we start our previews for the week.
Morning/Early Afternoon Session
The opening phase of the day sees matches taking place at 10am and 1pm. All the matches can be viewed on the bookmaker streaming services with Li Hang the highest ranked player on show first up. He faces an all-Chinese battle against Si Jiahui who has a place in the tournament even though he isn’t on the tour anymore. The other match sees Jamie Clarke looking to kick his campaign into life when he takes on Zak Surety, who has been playing some decent stuff in recent times.
The second session of action on Monday sees a couple of the more recognisable names on show when two former world finalists take to the baize. Ali Carter will probably be the centre of attention when he bids to make it through to the main draw when he takes on Fan Zhengyi. The other name of note is Matthew Stevens and he’ll be looking to make it into the first round proper too. He will have to overcome the challenge of Peter Devlin if that is going to happen.
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Late Afternoon/Evening Session
Three more well-known names are up in the later of the two sessions of play on Monday. Starting off the late afternoon into the evening session is the former German Masters champion Anthony Hamilton. He takes on the highly rated Leicester potter Louis Heathcote while over on the other table the entertaining Thepchaiya Un-Nooh will be in action. He faces Jamie O’Neill, who will be wanting to kick his season into life after he was forced to miss an event earlier in the campaign for a disciplinary reason.
Dave Gilbert has already won one tournament this season when he landed the Championship League and as a former finalist in the English Open he’ll be eager to make it through to the main draw here. He has to overcome the challenge of David Grace if he is going to make it to Milton Keynes. Over on the other table at the same time Stuart Carrington will look to make progress. He will face Hammad Miah in a match which might be more competitive than it feels.
Betting
There is one bet that I like on Monday and it comes early on in that later part of the afternoon when Anthony Hamilton takes on Louis Heathcote and although I’ve taken him on a couple of times this season, I actually like Heathcote here. Hamilton didn’t play in the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers so he only has a couple of tame efforts in the Championship League and the British Open. He isn’t usually the best starter to a season and tends to need to play a run of events before we see his best form. He hasn’t had that.
Heathcote didn’t have the best start to the season but he does have the confidence of coming through his match in the Northern Ireland Open qualifying competition where he edged out Craig Steadman in a very good contest where there were six breaks over 50 in the seven frames. Heathcote accounted for three of those including in the decider so he has shown he is playing well and is able to hold himself under pressure. These two have only met once and Heathcote won that 4-1 in the Scottish Open a couple of seasons ago over this format. I think he wins here too.
Tips
Back L.Heathcote to beat A.Hamilton for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back him here:
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