The Championship League Snooker concluded in fine fashion on Friday and on Tuesday the qualifying for the European Masters, the second event of the season, gets underway at the same Morningside Arena venue.
We are back to a more familiar format for these qualifiers with the matches over the best of nine and each player looking to win one game to book their place in the main draw later in the season. Discovery Plus has all the action.
Morning Session
Four matches take place in each session this week and all of them will be available to be streamed. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is the highest ranked player on show in the morning session. He has a date with Asjad Iqbal. All eyes are likely to be on Jimmy White in this session to see if he can build on a brilliant end to last season. Aaron Hill will be the man who hopes that he doesn’t. Xiao Guodong is straight back on the horse after narrowly failing to get over the line in the Championship League. He meets one of the invited amateurs in Sydney Wilson while the other match sees Jamie Jones taking on Yuan Sijun in what might turn out to be the pick of the session.
Afternoon Session
Jak Jones had a very good week at the World Championship and that should inspire him to deliver a promising campaign this term. He is in action in the afternoon session when he meets his fellow Welsh player Michael White. Ryan Day is actually the highest ranked player on show in this session. The British Open champion faces Zak Surety for a place in the main draw while Noppon Saengkham is another recognised name playing in this session. Ian Burns will be the opponent for him. The other match throws up a good opportunity for the Scottish youngster Liam Graham and Duane Jones to make the main draw when they come up against each other.
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Evening Session
Sometimes we have to wait towards the end of the week for the very big names to come out to play in these qualifying competitions but that isn’t the case this week as John Higgins headlines the evening session on Tuesday. He faces Martin Gould in one of the standout ties in the qualifying round. Joe Perry is another leading light taking to the baize. He will go up against Muhammad Asif. Two young stars will look to steal the show on the other tables when Liam Pullen faces up against Oliver Brown while Stan Moody will play a first full format match as a professional against Elliot Slessor.
Betting
We have a little bit of recent form to go on across the three sessions because Jak Jones and Michael White met in the second phase of the Championship League last week and it is White who came out on top. It didn’t do him any good as he failed to reach the final stage of that event but it might well serve a purpose here with it giving him the confidence and the knowledge that he can beat the man who is in the opposite chair.
Jones carries a little extra pressure into this season after that run in the World Championship at the end of the previous campaign and that isn’t always a good thing. White probably feels he has a new lease of life in the sport and isn’t defending ranking money like he was when he was first on tour. I still think that White is the better scorer of these two and I thought his Championship League displays, where he beat Ryan Day as well as Jones, stacked up better than Jones’ and at odds against I’ll take the former Shootout champion to double down on his win over Jones from last week.
Tips
Back M.White to beat J.Jones for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with 888sport
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