The opening day of the English Open sees the majority of the held over qualifying matches taking place inside the Brentwood Centre in Essex as well as a couple of first round games as the final ranking event of 2022 starts in style.
With most of the held over qualifying games forming the majority of the menu on Monday we have a number of stars hotting up the action on what is set to be an extremely cold day outside in Essex with the defending champion Neil Robertson and the world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan among those on show.
Morning Session
The morning session is absolutely packed with quality performers with the former champion Mark Selby being the highest placed player in the world rankings on show. He will look to qualify for the main draw when he takes on Noppon Saengkham in a good looking match. Zhao Xintong will also be aiming for a place in the main draw when he goes up against Allan Taylor. Two other class acts will also be looking to win their held over qualifying matches in the morning session. They are Barry Hawkins and Yan Bingtao who face Rod Lawler and Ashley Hugill respectively.
Afternoon Session
As ever in a Home Nations event we have a busy afternoon session with two sets of matches on show. The main table in the first set of games will see Neil Robertson getting his title defence underway. He meets Andrew Pagett for a place in the main draw while on the other main table John Higgins will look to get into the first round proper when he goes up against Gerard Greene. There are a couple of preliminary round matches to make it into the qualifying round in this session too. Marco Fu is in action in one as he faces the English amateur Lewis Ullah while another local amateur, Callum Beresford, faces Ryan Thomerson.
Judd Trump will headline the second part of the afternoon. He’ll be on the main table when he takes on the Welsh youngster Jackson Page for a place in the main draw. The Championship League winner from earlier in the season is also on show in the second part of the afternoon as Luca Brecel faces Mark Joyce. Jack Lisowski and Shaun Murphy are the other big names looking to seal their passages into the first round. Lisowski meets Sean O’Sullivan while Murphy faces Anthony Hamilton.
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Evening Session
It is a busy evening session on Monday as well with another two sets of games taking place. The first of them will see the world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan on the main table when he takes on the talented young Belgian player Ben Mertens while Mark Allen is due on the other table should he get to the venue after his flight issues. He will face Mitchell Mann if he does. Stuart Bingham will look to make it into the main draw when he takes on the Scottish Open semi-finalist Thepchaiya Un-Nooh while there is also a first round match which sees Ricky Walden taking on Liam Highfield.
Kyren Wilson will be the man on the main table in the second part of the evening. He faces the leading female player in Reanne Evans for a place in the main draw. The two best Welsh players of their generation meet on the other main table when Mark Williams goes up against Matthew Stevens while another Welsh player, Ryan Day, will also look at make the main draw at the expense of Asjad Iqbal. There is also a first round match in this part of the evening as well. That sees Ken Doherty facing Jamie Jones.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like over the course of the opening day of the tournament but Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is one that I do. He should be full of confidence after reaching the semi-final of the Scottish Open just nine days ago and he is generally a player who keeps his confidence and form for a while. That makes me think that he could be a tough nut to beat for Stuart Bingham, who really isn’t in much in the way of positive form.
Since the Championship League at the outset of the season, Bingham hasn’t won more than one match in the same tournament. Recently he lost 4-0 to David Lilley in Northern Ireland, lost to Joe Perry at the UK Championship, Ben Woollaston in the German Masters and then Zak Surety in Scotland last week. You can probably let him have the loss to Perry in the UK but the rest have to go down as disappointing results and if the Thai rocks up with his long game in the shape it was in during his week in Edinburgh then he could add his list to the names to have beaten Bingham this season.
Tips
Back T.Un-Nooh to beat S.Bingham for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
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