There is one more assignment left for the players on the world snooker tour in 2018 and it comes in the form of the German Masters qualifiers which begins inside the Barnsley Metrodome on Tuesday.
The formula is pretty simple for everyone entering the event. It is two best-of-nine frames wins to make it onto the flight to Berlin in the New Year. Anything else and the Christmas turkey won’t taste quite as nice as it might have done.
Morning Session
Ali Carter and Stephen Maguire are the first two seasoned names to take to the main tables, both of which will be streamed this week. Both have quite tough tests too. Carter goes up against the competent Sam Craigie while Maguire looks to rebound from his early Scottish Open exit when he faces the semi-finalist in that tournament in Daniel Wells.
The outside tables will be full for much of the week and Andy Lee will face Chris Totten on one of them. Joe Perry is another decent name in action but he’s reduced to an outside table to play Ashley Carty while Sam Baird meets David Lilley. Michael Holt clashes with Dominic Dale in a juicy looking encounter and there is an all-Chinese battle between Zhou Yuelong and Zhang Anda. The other match in the session has Hossein Vafaei going up against Jak Jones.
Afternoon Session
Kyren Wilson and Ryan Day will be looking to make the first steps towards the main event in Germany when they take on the main tables in the afternoon sessions. Wilson plays Ian Burns in a match he should win while Day faces his countryman Lee Walker in what could become a nasty game if he lets it.
Once again we have a full house on the outside tables with Peter Ebdon playing Farakh Ajaib, Mark Davis meets Rory McLeod and Martin Gould plays Adam Duffy. Robert Milkins meets Elliot Slessor with Eden Sharav taking on Allan Taylor. The other match sees Sunny Akani going up against Kishan Hirani.
Evening Session
Luca Brecel and Judd Trump are the big draws in the evening session and as such they are on the main tables accordingly. Brecel has a tasty looking encounter against the back in form Matthew Stevens while Trump faces the competent but ultimately probably a little bit too limited Robbie Williams.
Two seasoned professionals meet on one of the outside tables when Alan McManus and Ken Doherty collide while Yan Bingtao plays Robin Hull. Lu Ning goes up against Peter Lines while Shootout champion Michael Georgiou also faces Chinese opposition when he faces Mei Xi Wen. The other two matches see Graeme Dott playing Sean O’Sullivan and Xu Si meeting Gerard Greene.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the day. David Lilley might not be on the tour but he has some good wins to his name in the events he has made it into and pushed some big names close too. In and around all of that he has been winning plenty on the Challenge Tour so he’s in decent nick and I think he’s value to see off a hit or miss Sam Baird. To be fair to Baird he went well in Scotland last week and he can play but he’s too Jekyll or Hyde for my liking. I’ve noticed Lilley’s results a lot this season and have been waiting for a good time to back him. I think that has arrived.
Graeme Dott likes it over in Germany. He made it to the final here last year and will be eager to get back to the Tempodrom and I see him having no problems against Sean O’Sullivan in the first round. O’Sullivan has only won one match from 12 this season and has only compiled four 50+ breaks all campaign. Players at his level don’t beat Dott if they don’t score and they don’t get close to him either because Dott has the tactical game to shut him down and scores well enough to mop up what is left. I expect the Scot to win this and win it very well.
Tips
Back D.Lilley to beat S.Baird for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfred
Back him here:
WON – Back G.Dott (-3.5 frames) to beat S.O’Sullivan for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfair
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018
