The snooker season is in its busiest period now and with that in mind the tour players are back at it on Tuesday morning, less than 48hrs after the German Masters concluded.
The latest set of matches is the qualifying round of the China Open which will be the penultimate event of the season when the final stages are played out next month.
Apart from four matches which have been held over to the China venue the entire round of 128 will be played out in Barnsley between Tuesday and Thursday and by the end of it we will know the 68 men travelling to Beijing for the tournament.
There are 24 matches on Tuesday to be played over three sessions with eight matches in each session and some big names are in show right from the start. Each match in this qualifying event is the best of nine frames. Matthew Stevens, Peter Ebdon, Michael White and Ricky Walden are all on the baize on the first day.
I’m guessing given that the German Masters didn’t finish until Sunday night the really big names were given Tuesday off in case they were deep in that so the morning session is light of household names but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any betting interest.
The betting comes in the form of the Alfie Burden vs Robbie Williams match. These two have already met this season with Burden winning 4-1 in a European Tour event just before Christmas and I fancy a repeat here.
This will be the first match Williams has played in 2016 which isn’t ideal so he might have a bit of rust to get rid of which isn’t the case with Alfie Burden. Although he was well beaten Burden did at least play in Germany last week and has had the cue out of the case.
Prior to that defeat in Germany, Burden had been in good nick and one defeat isn’t necessarily going to mean he is out of form. Williams is solid but nothing spectacular so at solid odds against I’ll take Burden to kick start his form again with a win here.
The afternoon and evening sessions are full of matches with one sided favourites and overwhelming ones at that but with the draw for this event having only taken place on Monday we’ve not got many markets up yet so there isn’t anything I want to get involved in.
I’m tempted to take Daniel Wells against the out of form Robert Milkins but the Christmas break might have come at the right time for Milkins to take stock of things and I wouldn’t be surprised if his form picks up from here.
Nothing else really grabs my attention on the opening day so I’ll just stick with the punt on Alfie Burden and keep our powder dry for the rest of the matches to come.
WON – Back A.Burden to beat R.Williams for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Coral
