The Championship League Snooker tournament takes a few days off for the first set of qualifying matches for the European Masters to take place. They begin inside the Morningside Arena on Friday as the season feels like it springs into life.
Unlike the Championship League, we have a decent format for this tournament with each qualifying match the best of nine frames so there is time for a story to be told within each match. Those matches are over three sessions of play.
Morning Session
Yan Bingtao is the headline attraction in the morning session on Friday. All the matches are live on the Eurosport App and with the bookmakers but it will be the former Masters champion who will be on the main table. He takes on his countryman Pang Junxu in what should be a great contest. Another Chinese player is the second highest ranked player on show in this session in Wu Yize. He takes on Jenson Kendrick who will begin his professional career here as he doesn’t compete in the Championship League until next week. The other two matches in this session sees Lukas Kleckers meeting Ryan Thomerson and Peng Yisong facing Dylan Emery.
Afternoon Session
There are just the three matches in the afternoon session on Friday and it is Mark Williams who will be the main attraction. The Welsh player will go up against a Liam Highfield who is yet to begin his season as he is involved in the Championship League next week. Joe Perry and Dominic Dale have already got their campaign underway having played their Championship League groups and they meet in another match in this session while David Lilley takes on Stuart Carrington in the other game in the afternoon.
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Evening Session
We see Kyren Wilson for the first time this season in the evening session. He has a really tricky encounter with Sam Craigie to negotiate to make it through to the next round. Stephen Maguire will be the big player on the other main table. He faces Oliver Brown to make it through to the next stage. Two other matches take place in the evening session. Louis Heathcote is involved in one of them. He faces Sanderson Lam while Andres Petrov competes in his first proper tournament when he takes on Ian Burns.
Betting
I’ll go with the one bet over the course of Friday and it comes in the morning session where Pang Junxu just simply has to have an advantage over Yan Bingtao heading into their contest. Pang hasn’t just played already this season but he played on Thursday so he basically had a whole day of competitive practice for this game. Bingtao will have been on the practice table but playing on there and in the heat of battle like Pang are two completely different things.
Pang didn’t just play on Thursday, he won his Championship League group making three centuries in the seven frames he won and a couple of 50s in the others. He played incredibly well and he has to have a good chance of seeing off Bingtao. I wouldn’t put anyone off taking him at 3/1 but this is the opening day of the event and I’d like to build a bit of profit so I will take him to win three frames to cover the handicap at a perfectly acceptable 3/4 price.
Tips
Back P.Junxu (+2.5 frames) to beat Y.Bingtao for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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