The second round of the German Masters qualifying competition begins on Friday when the first half of the qualifiers will make themselves known inside the behind closed doors setup at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Thursday was not a good day to be a big name in this tournament with the likes of Mark Selby and Neil Robertson being eye catching casualties. Their demises will make sure the star players on show on Friday are on their toes.
Morning Session
There are six matches in the morning session, four of which are live on the streamed tables. Stephen Maguire is the biggest name on show in the first session. He will meet his fellow Scot, Alan McManus for a place in Berlin. There is another Scot in action on the streamed tables as Graeme Dott goes up against Leo Fernandez while Chinese players occupy the other two streamed tables. They see Xiao Guodong taking on Mark Davis and Zhao Xintong meeting Jamie O’Neill.
Two places in the main draw in Berlin will be decided away from the spotlight of the live streams. The first of those matches sees the young Polish player Kacper Filipiak going up against the Chinese ace Luo Honghao who had a decent enough win over Scott Donaldson in the previous round while the other match sees two Welshmen battling it out when Jamie Jones looks to continue his solid return to the tour when he meets the veteran Dominic Dale.
Afternoon Session
Two men stand out in the five match schedule in the afternoon session. Shaun Murphy made a maximum break in the first round of this tournament and he’ll be looking to take that form into his battle with Ian Burns while Ding Junhui overcame Martin Gould to start his campaign and he has an easier test against Ashley Carty on Friday. The other two streamed matches sees Joe Perry taking on Steven Hallworth and Sam Craigie looking to back up his win over Yan Bingtao when he faces Jordan Brown. Duane Jones goes up against Lei Feifan in the match away from the streaming cameras.
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Evening Session
Plenty of big names are on show in the evening session on Friday beginning with the world number one and English Open champion Judd Trump. He takes on Peter Lines while Kyren Wilson is also on show when he goes up against Jak Jones. The other two streamed matches shouldn’t lack for attention as Aaron Hill faces Liang Wenbo and Barry Hawkins meets the popular Jimmy White. Away from the streams Michael White will look to make it back to a main venue when he goes up against Elliot Slessor.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets on Friday and they both involve Welsh players. The first of them comes in the morning session where I think Jamie Jones can come through with a bit in hand against Dominic Dale. I say that because these two have already met this season in the European Masters and Jones won that match 5-1. Dale looked alright in the Championship League but I’ve long since thought that in the main he needs to be let into matches by his opponents if he is to win games and I’m not sure Jones will do that. Jones clearly has something to prove after the way he dropped off the tour and he has played well since winning his tour card back. It has taken Michael Holt and Tom Ford to beat him this season so far and he isn’t up against that quality yet. I always say that I prefer scorers over veterans who lose their scoring power so I’ll take Jones to win and cover a 1.5 frame handicap here.
Michael White is another Welsh player with something to prove having failed to get his tour card back at Q-School. As it turns out in terms of playing the tournaments it doesn’t matter that he hasn’t got his card because Covid and various disruptions are stopping players like Marco Fu and one or two others from coming over so White is getting in but he’ll want the guarantee of a tour card soon and the more matches he can win the better his chances will be. Elliot Slessor is a player who should really be doing better than he is. He had a good win over Mitchell Mann in the first round but Mann didn’t really turn up in that match so Slessor is yet to build on his run to the World Championship at the end of last season. I think this match is a little more even than White being an 11/8 shot so I’ll side with the value of the Welshman here.
Tips
Back J.Jones (-1.5 frames) to beat D.Dale for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
WON – Back M.White to beat E.Slessor for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Coral
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