The first day of the World Open sees the held over qualifying matches and some of the opening round of the main draw being played out as the Chinese event returns to the schedule for the first time in five years.
That means that we get to see the likes of Judd Trump, Luca Brecel and Ding Junhui looking to make it through to the main draw while players such as Ali Carter, Shaun Murphy and Mark Allen will be hoping to make the second round.
Morning Session
There are two streamed tables on show over the course of the week and on the main one we will see the world champion Luca Brecel looking to make it through to the main draw. He goes up against the Thai player Manasawin Phetmalaikul while on the other streamed offering we get Ali Carter in action in the main draw. His opponent will be Louis Heathcote. We have three other qualifying matches with Chinese wildcards on show when Wang Xinbo meets Wang Xinzhong, Sanderson Lam faces Gong Chenzhi and Jordan Brown takes on Lan Yuhao. There are two other main draw matches where Tom Ford goes up against Robbie Williams and Hossein Vafaei meets Graeme Dott.
Afternoon Session
The defending champion Judd Trump will be on the main table in the second of the three sessions on Monday. He will go up against Rory Thor for a place in the main draw while over on the other streamed table we will see the held over qualifying match between Zhang Anda and Allan Taylor being played out. The rest of the matches in this session are all main draw ones with Shaun Murphy the leading name among them. He meets Xu Si while Sean O’Sullivan takes on Joe Perry and Si Jiahui faces his compatriot Long Zehuang. The other two matches sees Lukas Kleckers facing a Dominic Dale who has had a good season so far. Stuart Carrington plays David Lilley in the other one.
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Evening Session
The home star Ding Junhui will be the headline attraction in the final session of the day with him playing his held over qualifying match against Zak Surety. That is sure to be on the main table while Mark Allen will be on the other streamed table when he competes in the main draw against Daniel Wells. There is one other qualifying match which sees Matthew Selt taking on the winner of the earlier clash between Wang Xinbo and Wang Xinzhong. The other action is all main draw stuff with Barry Hawkins facing Jenson Kendrick, Yuan Sijun meeting Ishpreet Singh Chadha, Ricky Walden taking on Jamie Jones, Kyren Wilson playing David Grace and Jak Jones goes up against Ashley Hugill.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like on the opening day of the tournament with a fair number of mismatches on the card but one favourite that I do like to win and do it well is Ricky Walden. He is my outright pick but one of the reasons for that is because he has a nice part of the draw and I expect him to come out firing against a Jamie Jones who hasn’t had much of a season and who has already lost twice to Walden over the course of the campaign.
Walden beat Jones 5-3 at the European Masters towards the beginning of the season while he won 6-3 when they faced each other at the International Championship in China. That was back in November and since then Jones has been beaten in four of his last five matches, with a 5-0 win over Rod Lawler to qualify for this the difference. Walden looked really good at the Welsh Open and tends to run well over in China. I think he can repeat those wins from earlier in the season and do so every bit as comfortably.
Tips
Back R.Walden (-1.5 frames) to beat J.Jones for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
