The qualifying competition for the English Open continues on Friday when another bunch of matches are played as we head towards knowing the identity of the 32 players who will face one of the top 32 in the first round of the main draw next week.
We have five different sessions of play and 19 matches in total on the card on Friday as the first round of qualifying concludes and the second one begins which means that eight players will book their spot in the main draw.
Morning Session
We have two sets of matches in the morning session on Friday and both are in the opening round of the qualifying. Jimmy White is the standout name in the first set of games and he’ll look to make progress at the expense of the amateur Joshua Cooper while Louis Heathcote is probably involved in the best of the four matches as he meets Iulian Boiko. Julien Leclercq is in action first thing in the morning too. He meets Oliver Sykes with the other game seeing Xing Zihao going up against Paul Deaville.
The first round continues in the second set of games with Stan Moody facing Ka Wai Cheung in the pick of those matches. Hammad Miah is another player on show in the second set of games. He facecs Huang Jiahao while Mostafa Dorgham will look to make it into the last qualifying round at the expense of Allan Taylor. The other match sees the one amateur on show in the second part of the morning as Joshua Thomond will look to make the most of the chance that he when he faces Liam Graham.
Afternoon Session
The first round of the competition concludes in the first part of the afternoon session when the last three matches take place. Marco Fu is the star name on show in them and he’ll look to make progress when he faces Haris Tahir. The pick of the matches could well be the one between Robbie McGuigan and Mitchell Mann. Alexander Ursenbacher hasn’t won a match since the Championship League earlier in the season and that will give Mohammed Shehab plenty of belief that he can go through.
Four matches take place in the second part of the afternoon where the reward for the winners is a place in the main draw next week. Fan Zhengyi is probably the standout player in these games and he’ll need to overcome Liam Pullen to make it through. Liu Hongyu is another Chinese player looking to make it into the final stages. Ashley Carty will be looking to deny him that. The third Chinese player on show in this session is Wu Yize and he meets Chris Totten but the pick of the matches could well be the one between Scott Donaldson and Oliver Lines.
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Evening Session
We have just the one set of matches in the evening session on Friday night where once again four players will book their spot in the main draw. Elliot Slessor is probably the pick of the names on show and he’ll take on Zak Surety while Ben Woollaston will look to continue what has been a fairly positive start to the season when he faces the amateur Dylan Emery who saw off Alfie Burden in the previous round. Martin O’Donnell will look to make it through to the main draw when he takes on Ian Burns while two of the better youngsters in the game also meet when Aaron Hill faces off against Lei Peifan.
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet over the course of Friday and we have to wait for the final match of the day for it to come along. When it does we see Aaron Hill taking on Lei Peifan in a contest that I think the Chinese outsider is fair value to win. Hill hasn’t really pulled up many trees so far this season and he is in need of a decent run in a tournament. His problem is that the change in structure sees him coming in cold against players who have had a match on the tables and that is a real advantage, especially this early in the season.
Peifan had a really good run in Saudi Arabia last week to earn £20,000 to go on his ranking which is a great start to his two-year card and takes the pressure off for the next few tournaments. He seems to have already picked up where he left off in Saudi Arabia with a win over Ma Hailong on Thursday and he feels like his confidence will carry him through. Peifan had some nasty draws earlier in the season but when the structured events came about he has begun to make up for that and I think he can do that with another win here.
Tips
Back L.Peifan to beat A.Hill for a 3/10 stake at 2.15 with Coral
