The opening day of the British Open tournament sees the entire set of the qualifying matches which were held over to the main venue played out on a day when the big names look to take their place in the main draw.
We have two sessions of play to get the tournament underway on Monday with the big names on show throughout the day. There is a TV table in operation on ITV4 and the other matches will be streamed with the bookmakers.
Afternoon Session
Two sets of matches take place in the afternoon session and first up on the TV table will be Mark Williams. He begins his title defence against the Estonian player Andres Petrov in a match the Welsh ace will be expected to win. Three other matches open up the show with the pick of them being the one between Mark Selby and Ricky Walden. Yan Bingtao opens up his tournament against Oliver Brown while Anthony McGill will look to make it into the main draw at the expense of the Chinese player Wu Yize.
The UK champion Zhao Xintong gets to grace the TV table in the second set of matches in the afternoon. He takes on his fellow Chinese player Bai Langning for a place in the main draw. The eye catching match in this group of games is the one between Shaun Murphy and the beaten finalist of a year ago in Gary Wilson. Stuart Bingham and Luca Brecel are the other top 16 players in action. The former meets Lei Peifan while the latter faces the former world champion Graeme Dott.
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Evening Session
The two biggest names in the sport will grace the main table over the course of the evening session. The first of them is up in the first of the two sets of matches and that sees Ronnie O’Sullivan going up against Alexander Ursenbacher. John Higgins is also in action in this set of games. He meets Andy Hicks for a place in the main draw. This early evening slot is loaded because Kyren Wilson and Jack Lisowski are also on show. They meet Mark Davis and Dominic Dale respectively.
Judd Trump headlines the latter part of the evening. He has a date with the talented Chinese player Si Jiahui in what looks like the best match of the day on the TV table. There is a good one on the outside tables too as the Shootout champion Hossein Vafaei meets the Welsh Open winner in Joe Perry. Barry Hawkins and Mark Allen are the other stars on show. Allen meets Stuart Carrington while Hawkins takes on Duane Jones.
Betting
Anthony McGill has only played three matches all season so he is entitled to be a little rusty when he takes on Wu Yize who certainly won’t be cold because he is another of the Chinese players who will have been pounding the practice table in the weeks without any competitive action. McGill has been a victim of having his qualifying matches held over to the venues in these tournaments but he isn’t always the best starter to a season anyway so he feels vulnerable to me.
Wu Yize had a good run in the European Masters where he made it to the quarter finals and had Luca Brecel among his victims. That should have given him the motivation to push on and achieve good things this season. That run means he only needs to win a few matches to qualify for the World Grand Prix so he’ll be right up for this one. Wu scored incredibly well at the European Masters and if he has that scoring game with him here then he is value to get rid of match shy McGill.
Tips
Back W.Yize to beat A.McGill for a 3/10 stake at 2.45 with Coral
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