The opening day of the China Open sees the held over matches taking place alongside the early set of first round games as the most lucrative event in Asia, the penultimate tournament of the season, gets underway out in Beijing on Monday.
It is a busy first day with three sessions of action and with stars such as Mark Selby, Mark Williams, Neil Robertson and the one the crowds all want to see, Ding Junhui, all taking to the green baize we should be set for quite some day.
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Early Morning Session
Six matches make up the first session of the tournament with two first round matches being mixed in with a load of held over fixtures. The main first round match sees Neil Robertson in action. He takes on Kishan Hirani on one of the main tables while on the other Xiao Guodong looks to make it into the main draw when he goes up against Soheil Vahedi.
The outside tables will see a fair bit of action in this session as Mark King goes up against Bai Langning and Joe Perry takes on Wu Yize. They are held over matches, as is the one between Mark Davis and Chang Bingyu while in the other first round match in the session Jamie Clarke will look to make the last 32 of an event for the first time when he takes on Stuart Carrington.
Morning Session
Mark Selby headlines the second session of the day and his held over match against Craig Steadman will form much of the coverage as it is on one of the two TV tables. The other televised offering comes from the main draw where Stuart Bingham looks to follow up his English Open and Gibraltar Open titles by making it to the second round here. Elliot Slessort stands in his way of that happening.
Ali Carter is in first round action in this session. The Captain goes up against the Norwegian number one Kurt Maflin while Anthony McGill goes up against the former world finalist Nigel Bond in another first round game. There is also an all-Chinese battle on the outside tables as Zhou Yuelong meets Li Hang.
Afternoon Session
All eyes will be on Ding Junhui in this session as he looks to make it into the main draw at the expense of Zhang Jiankang. It goes without saying that his match is on the main table with Mark Williams occupying the other one when he too looks to qualify for the tournament proper. The world champion faces Harvey Chandler in a match he will be expected to win.
Two Asian players meet on one of the outside tables in the main draw as Mei Xi Wen goes up against Marco Fu while Luca Brecel will begin his campaign with a tricky test against Sam Baird. Hossein Vafaei takes to the outside tables in this late session when he faces up to Robert Milkins with Gerard Greene and Chris Wakelin competing in another first round game. Matthew Selt meets Dave Gilbert in a cracking match that is worthy of a bigger stage than the one it has been given.
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Betting
I always think the first day of these tournaments are a bit tricky to go at. There are expected to be a lot of one-sided matches and we’re not completely sure off conditions so there is a trappy feel to it. This is a tournament I intend to get heavily stuck into with the longer formats offering many more betting opportunities than usual but there is just the one I like on the opening day as I assess the runners and riders and the conditions they are playing in.
Hossein Vafaei had a good run to the semi-final of the Welsh Open recently and had it not been for Mark Allen he might be enjoying a much better season than what he has done. Allen beat the Iranian in the International Championship and then the UK Championship so Vafaei has actually gone better than his results have suggested. To be fair his opponent here, Robert Milkins, made the quarters in Gibraltar recently but I wonder how seriously one or two of his victims took that tournament. There was all sorts of suggestions of plenty of booze being consumed by many. Outside of that he has struggled and if conditions play a little heavy that will favour Vafaei. At odds against he is where my dough is going.
Tips
WON – Back H.Vafaei to beat R.Milkins for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
Back him here:
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