After a dramatic opening day of the China Open snooker where both the star home players were knocked out of the tournament, the event continues at a brisk pace with two more sessions of first round action on Tuesday.
Both Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo suffered shocks on the day as the big names were sent packing. As well as the Chinese giants getting beat there were also surprising exits for Neil Robertson, Michael White and Joe Perry. Already this has the feel of a crazy week about it.
The two sessions of play on Tuesday kick off in the afternoon Beijing time and sees Judd Trump on the green baize. He faces a dangerous opponent in Stuart Carrington but having seen the names who went out on Monday you’ve got to think the former champion will recognise the opportunity he has and avoid a slip up.
Ryan Day is on the other TV table in this session. He takes on Dechawat Poomjaeng. Day is playing well enough to win this match but Poomjaeng can be dangerous so I wouldn’t want to bet on the outcome of that one.
Kyren Wilson, Ali Carter and Anthony McGill are three others looking to make it through to the second round of the China Open Snooker. All have banana skins to overcome, but with the incentive of trying to get automatic entry to the Crucible I wouldn’t want to be taking them on.
With that in mind I’ll look to the later session for a betting opportunity. Stuart Bingham is the main name in action in this session. He plays for the second day in a row having thrashed Cao Yupeng in a qualifying round. He takes on Sam Baird in a match he should win on Tuesday but he still doesn’t convince me.
On the other main table Marco Fu goes up against Yu Delu and although Delu can play he doesn’t tend to do it against Fu. The two have already met twice this season with Fu winning 6-0 in the UK Championship and 5-1 in qualifying for the German Masters.
Since then Fu has won a European Tour event and made the quarter final of another so he’s in pretty decent form. Delu went fairly well in the Welsh Open but his season is a complete write off apart from that so you have to think he is vulnerable here.
Initially, I wouldn’t be interested in 2.5 handicaps at this stage of a tournament but we’re getting odds against on Fu on that line and history between the two suggests that is a perfectly acceptable place for a bet.
In the other matches Peter Ebdon and Martin Gould look to make it into the next round and then there are a couple of low key matches. Nothing stands out in them so I’ll keep things quiet and just take Fu and wait for the rest of the week.
Tips
WON – Back M.Fu (-2.5 frames) to beat Y.Delu for a 4/10 stake at 2.30 with William Hill
Back it here:
