The held over qualifying round matches and the first round action forms the menu at the Northern Ireland Open on Monday when the first Home Nations event of the season cranks up a notch inside the Waterfront Arena in Belfast.
There is one more qualifying round match to be completed on Monday with the other 14 matches on show over the course of the day all first round games. The big names all survived their qualifying game over the first two days so the quality will keep on coming on Monday.
Morning Session
There are three matches in the morning session and they all come from the main draw where the first round gets underway. The pick of the matches involves the former world finalist Ali Carter. He will look for a place in the last 32 when he takes on Lu Haotian in a session in which there is actually a Chinese player on each table. Yuan Sijun is another Chinese player on show in this set of matches. He takes on Alfie Burden while the other match sees Xiao Guodong looking to make progress when he goes up against Mitchell Mann, who has done well to make it this far.
Afternoon Session
Two sets of matches take place in the afternoon with the last of the qualifying round matches occupying the TV table first up. That sees the World Championship finalist Shaun Murphy in action when he takes on Bai Langning for the final place in the main draw. The other two matches in this first set of games sees The Masters champion Yan Bingtao on show. He meets Duane Jones but the best match could well be the one between the entertaining pair of Liang Wenbo and Luca Brecel.
The world champion Mark Selby is back on the baize in the second set of matches. He meets Cao Yupeng in what is one of the best matches in the first round. That will be on the main table while on the other live table we have a repeat of the inaugural final of this event as Mark King meets Barry Hawkins. King won that final 9-8 and will hope for more success here. The other match in the afternoon session sees Fergal O’Brien taking on James Cahill in a match which presents both men with a chance to go deeper into the tournament.
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Evening Session
We have another lit evening session on Monday night with the popular Ronnie O’Sullivan the first man onto the TV table in the first set of the two bunches of games. He meets Andy Hicks in a battle of the ages with those two facing each other for more than 25 years. Mark Williams is on the other main table. He takes on the British Open semi-finalist Elliot Slessor in what is the only other match in the first set of games after Tom Ford came down with Covid-19 and had to pull out.
John Higgins is the other star name on the TV table on Monday evening. He goes up against the lowly ranked Farakh Ajaib in a match you would expect the Scot to dominate. The better match in this session of matches might be on the second table where Kyren Wilson takes on Robert Milkins in what sees two class acts going up against each other. The other match on the day sees Oliver Lines going up against Ben Woollaston.
Betting
I like a couple of bets over the course of Monday and they become along in the evening session where we begin with Elliot Slessor against Mark Williams at a pretty big price. Williams is suffering from gout this week and a second match in as many evenings might not be ideal for that situation. He often needs an event or two to get up to speed anyway and although he won the British Open, by his own admission he never played well until the semi-final. That was the round of that tournament that Slessor got to so he has plenty of positivity to build on. Admittedly Slessor hasn’t followed up his run to the last four in Leicester as well as I would like but he is someone who thrives in the bigger matches and against an opponent who is struggling to get into position to play the shots the Englishman has to be a bit of value.
Another Englishman who looks a bit of value is Oliver Lines when he takes on a Ben Woollaston who has had a mixed start to the season but who hasn’t really done much of note for a while now. There was a danger a year or two back of Lines not fulfilling his talent but he has started this season in a manner that would suggest the penny has finally dropped with him. His talent has never been in question but he looks like he is knuckling down and he is getting wins to show for it. Lines has started the campaign in really good form with a good Championship League effort and a decent enough run in the British Open. Since then he has won all three Home Nations qualifiers, beating Joe Perry in one of them, and dropping just three frames in total in those games. Woollaston won the two qualifiers he has played without dropping a frame but I think Lines is a stiffer challenge than both Lukas Kleckers and Jackson Page and I expect Lines to come out on top here.
Tips
Back E.Slessor to beat M.Williams for a 3/10 stake at 3.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back O.Lines to beat B.Woollaston for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Betfair
Back him here:
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