The first round of the Northern Ireland Open continues inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on Tuesday as the opening Home Nations event of the season carries on towards the meat and potatoes part of the competition.
We’re still waiting for our first truly big name to exit the tournament and after a couple of them survived real scares on Monday, it will be interesting to see if the stars on show on Tuesday can all make it through unscathed.
Morning Session
We were due to get three matches in the morning session as we’ve had throughout the week so far but Jamie O’Neill withdrew from the event for personal reasons and that has left us with the two matches. On the main table we have the former world champion Stuart Bingham on show. He takes on the dangerous Sam Craigie, who if he shows up in good spirits could easily lay down a challenge to Bingham. The other match sees the Championship League winner Dave Gilbert taking on David Grace for a place in the second round.
Afternoon Session
We have a full complement of two sets of matches in the afternoon session with the home star Mark Allen the attraction on the main table to begin with. He will go up against Peter Devlin in a match Allen will be expected to win while Jimmy Robertson will be looking to continue his promising start to the season when he meets Sunny Akani. The other match first up sees Jackson Page taking on Noppon Saengkham for a place in the second round.
The defending champion Judd Trump is the leading light on show on the second round of matches in the afternoon session. He takes on the Chinese youngster Gao Yang while on one of the other tables there is a competitive looking contest which sees Ricky Walden taking on a Martin O’Donnell who hasn’t performed as well for a while as he did a couple of seasons ago. The other match to round off the afternoon sees Louis Heathcote taking on Lee Walker.
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Evening Session
There are plenty more big names on show in a stacked evening session on Tuesday too. Neil Robertson will grace the TV table in the first set of matches. The Australian faces the Chinese player Xu Si in a match the former world champion will be expected to win. Stephen Maguire is another big name in action in this session. He faces Hammad Miah while on the other table the former world finalist Matthew Stevens takes on the German player Simon Lichtenberg.
Shaun Murphy is the box office name on show in the second of the matches on the TV table on Tuesday evening. He takes on Allan Taylor who is in good form at the minute. Jack Lisowski hasn’t really been under the spotlight so far in this tournament and he is only on table two on Tuesday when he takes on Fan Zhengyi. The other match in the session sees Martin Gould getting his campaign up and running when he meets Jak Jones.
Betting
It is that last match which I like from a betting point of view. Jak Jones has improved in the last season or so but I’m not yet convinced that is anything other than being able to play behind closed doors as was the case throughout last season. Even this season only one tournament has been played in front of a crowd prior to this one so I need to see a few performances at these tournament venues before I have faith in his improvement.
Martin Gould is probably the opposite of that. He doesn’t enjoy playing behind closed doors or anything like that so now that crowds are back and we are back in the proper venues I expect his form to come good again. He is a class act who seems to thrive when he has the chance to entertain a crowd and he’s been in pretty good form in qualifying for these Home Nations events. I think we see something close to the best of Gould and I expect him to cover a 1.5 frame handicap.
Tips
Back M.Gould (-1.5 frames) to beat J.Jones for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with William Hill
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