The opening day of the English Open tournament sees the four held over qualifying matches and a number of first round games being played out across three sessions of action as the first Home Nations event of the season starts out in Brentwood.
The great thing about the Home Nations tournaments is that the action comes thick and fast and we don’t have to wait until later in the week for the bigger names to take to the baize so we should get some great snooker on Monday.
Morning Session
There is just the one set of matches in the morning session on Monday and it sees two main draw games being played out alongside a couple of the held over qualifying clashes. The highest ranked player on show is the local lad Ali Carter. He is involved in first round action against Ian Burns while Dave Chisnall also gets his main draw campaign up and running when he takes on Michael Holt. The held over matches see Ricky Walden meeting Mink Nutcharut and Yuan Sijun going up against Bulcsu Revesz.
Afternoon Session
We have two sets of matches in the afternoon session with the first of them seeing the conclusion of the held over qualifying round as well as a couple of main draw games being played. The held over matches see Xiao Guodong and Dominic Dale successfully qualify for the event proper when they face Mitchell Mann and Liam Davies respectively. The first round games see Mark Selby looking to make it into the second round when he faces Aaron Hill while the 2023 finalist Zhang Anda gets his campaign up and running against Mark Davis.
The second half of the afternoon schedule is first round matches all the way with Judd Trump getting his title defence underway when he takes on the dangerous Liu Hongyu while on the other tables Ryan Day starts his challenge when he takes on the maximum man Fan Zhengyi in a good looking game. Stuart Bingham will look to win his home open for the first time when he meets Wu Yize while the other match sees Noppon Saengkham going up against Zak Surety.
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Evening Session
We have two full slates of matches sin the evening session and they all come from the first round where the world champion is the headline draw in the opening set of games. Kyren Wilson starts his quest to add to his Xi’an Grand Prix crown this season when he faces David Grace while elsewhere the man Wilson beat to win the world title is on show as Jak Jones plays Ishpreet Singh Chadha. Joe O’Connor plays Artemijs Zizins while the Chinese star Si Jiahui will look to progress at the expense of Andrew Pagett.
Shaun Murphy is the top player on show in the second set of evening games. He goes up against Jamie Clarke in what should be a good battle. Robert Milkins begins what he hopes will be a big week for himself when he takes on Oliver Lines. The other two matches look very intriguing as two former winners of the Shootout are on show. Chris Wakelin plays Joe Perry on one of the games while Thepchaiya Un-Nooh meets Pang Junxu in the other.
Betting
I think the better bets in the opening round come along on Tuesday so I’m largely going to keep my powder dry on Monday but I wasn’t that impressed with Pang Junxu in the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters and I think he is vulnerable to a heavy scoring Thepchaiya Un-Nooh on Monday evening. Pang made it through to the last 16 but Luca Brecel didn’t care in the last 32 and Si Jiahui was better value for a win over him than the 6-5 score suggested.
Thepchaiya isn’t having the most consistent season in the world but he is winning matches and when he does he is showing the level of scoring that we would expect from someone of his class. I think the shorter sprints serve him better because he doesn’t have to maintain his form for quite as long. To be fair to the Thai, since the Championship League he has only lost three matches and they have all been 5-4 so with an ounce more luck his season could be looking a lot better. I don’t think Pang is playing great so I’ll take Thepchaiya in this one.
Tips
Back T.Un-Nooh to beat P.Junxu for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
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