The first day of snooker action away from Milton Keynes this season takes place on Monday when the opening day of the Welsh Open is played out at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, as the last Home Nations event of the campaign gets up and running.
There is no waiting around for later in the week for the big names to start rolling in this tournament as we have the likes of Ding Junhui, Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump, John Higgins and Mark Selby all on show to kick off the competition.
Morning Session
Eight matches kick off the tournament with the TV table being occupied by Ding Junhui who faces the tricky test of his countryman Lu Haotian who looked in pretty decent order in the Shootout last week. Over on the streamed table Joe Perry is on show against another of the young talents from China in Chang Bingyu. There are two other matches being streamed in this session with you having to go to the bookmaker websites to watch them. They see Lee Walker taking on Mark Davis while Li Hang meets Martin O’Donnell.
Four other matches take place to start off this session with the veteran Andy Hicks meeting David Lilley in one of them while Riley Parsons goes up against Simon Lichtenberg in another of them. Allan Taylor faces Pang Junxu and the other match sees Elliot Slessor going up against the local amateur player Ben Fortey. Two other matches take place in this session with Matt Selt meeting Lukas Kleckers and Liang Wenbo going up against Joe O’Connor.
Afternoon Session
Shaun Murphy will get his title defence underway on the TV table first up in the evening session when he meets Zak Surety in a clash he will be expected to win. Over on the streamed table the home favourite Matthew Stevens goes up against the man who made a name for himself as a giant killer in James Cahill. Away from the cameras we have Sean Maddocks meeting Jamie O’Neill and Eden Sharav takes on Andrew Higginson.
The world number one Judd Trump will follow Murphy on the TV table when he faces Zhao Jianbo while on the streamed table Anthony McGill will take on the young star Louis Heathcote who is fighting hard to remain on the tour. There are three other matches in this little slot of games with Gary Wilson the pick of those on show. He meets Ashley Hugill with Brian Ocholski facing Paul Davison and Xiao Guodong meeting Iulian Boiko.
There are four other matches to round off the afternoon session with the main table seeing John Higgins starting out on his quest for another Welsh Open title. He faces Steven Hallworth while on the streamed table Barry Hawkins will continue his bid to make it through to the World Championship when he meets Chris Wakelin. The other two matches sees Jordan Brown facing Luo Honghao and Alexander Ursenbacher meeting Noppon Saengkham.
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Evening Session
Mark Selby is the headline act first up on the TV table in this evening session. He goes up against Barry Pinches while there is a cracker of a match on the streamed table. That sees Zhao Xintong taking on Luca Brecel with the three other matches seeing Jak Jones going up against Fan Zhengyi, Michael Holt meeting David Grace and another good looking game as the home man Jamie Jones meets Yuan Sijun.
Four matches round off the day and it is Mark Allen who will conclude the show on the TV table when he takes on the lowly ranked Scottish player Fraser Patrick. There is another decent looking match on the streamed table as Stephen Maguire faces the veteran Dominic Dale. Si Jiahui takes on Brandon Sargeant in one of the other matches while Peter Lines meets Hossein Vafaei in another good looking game elsewhere.
Betting
I’ll start the tournament off with just the one bet although there are a couple of tempters elsewhere on the day in the form of Louis Heathcote and Luca Brecel. Their opponents are playing well though or capable of doing it which puts me off so I’ll take one from the evening session which sees Jamie Jones going up against Yuan Sijun in a match I expect the home man to win as he looks to battle his way into next week.
Jones is currently in the field next week but if he loses here he will be a sitting duck in terms of making it through so this match is pretty big. To be fair it would be anyway as he’ll be motivated to do well in his home open and as a result of that I’m expecting a big performance from him. Sijun burst onto the scene and was touted as another of the big things from China but he hasn’t really delivered on that promise this term. He has lost his last four matches away from the best of three WST Pro Series and pulled out of the Shootout late on. His withdrawal was never explained but the rumour mill suggests he tested positive for Covid which will have created an issue with practicing and things. He could well be coming in here undercooked whereas Jones is having a great first season back on the tour. I think he wins this.
Tips
WON – Back J.Jones to beat Y.Sijun for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
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