The opening day of the World Open is a busy one out in China with three packed sessions of action for us to enjoy and get stuck into. There have been plenty of held over matches from qualifying which ensures we have some big names to watch on Monday and of course this tournament is on TV so we can follow it all much easier.
The likes of Mark Selby, Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo and Neil Robertson headline the action on the opening day which should be fascinating. The quality should be high too with each match being the best of nine frames.
Early Morning Session
The TV tables in this session are streamed and both involve Welshmen. On one of the tables there is the all-Welsh clash between Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens while the other table will be occupied by Michael White and Ma Chunmao.
There are six other matches in this session. Jimmy Robertson takes on Luo Honghao in one of the held over games while Martin Gould plays Fan Zhengyi in another. One of the matches of this session sees Robert Milkins taking on Jamie Jones while Mark Joyce plays Michael Holt. Ben Woollaston meets Eden Sharav on an outside table while Allan Taylor will meet Michael Georgiou.
Morning Session
The world number one Mark Selby will be on one of the TV tables in this session. He faces Kritsanut Lertsattayatthorn while Liang Wenbo meets Akani Songsermsawad on the other one.
The outside tables will be full too. There is a battle of the world champions when Graeme Dott faces Peter Ebdon. Ryan Day will play Gary Wilson while Sam Craigie, responsible for taking care of Judd Trump in qualifying, meets John Astley. Barry Hawkins plays Chris Wakelin while Alan McManus faces Hu Hao in a held over match.
Afternoon Session
The final session of the day will be headlined by Neil Robertson. He is on one of the TV tables when he takes on Noppon Saengkham in the first round. On the other main table Ding Junhui will face Hammad Miah in a held over match.
There are some talented players on the outside tables too. Mike Dunn plays one of them in Luca Brecel while Ricky Walden plays his good friend Andrew Higginson. Xiao Guodong faces Dominic Dale in one of the matches of the round while Mark King will meet Chen Zhe. Hossein Vafaei goes up against Kyren Wilson with Matthew Selt taking on Elliot Slessor too.
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Betting
There isn’t a huge amount I like on Monday so I am largely going to take a watching brief as I often do on the opening day of a tournament. There is one bet I do like though which is good value and worth taking.
That comes in the afternoon session where Hossein Vafaei is overpriced to beat Kyren Wilson. I’ve mentioned time and again how much I rate the Iranian and while Wilson is a class act this one feels tighter than the 2/1 on Vafaei. In these conditions he may have an advantage and as long as India didn’t take too much out of him then I can see him taking care of the Northamptonshire man. At 2/1 he’s worth a punt.
Tips
VOID – Back H.Vafaei to beat K.Wilson for a 3/10 stake at 3.00 with Bwin
Back him here:
