The big names come out to play in the European Masters qualifying event on Tuesday. After a week in China those who made it to that tournament were given the extra day to get back and readjust before their first matches in this competition but now they will be back on the green baize.
As with the opening day of the competition on Monday, we have four sessions of play on Tuesday as the first round draws to a close with some great names and some good matches.
Morning Session
The World Open champion leads the way in the first session of play on Tuesday as Ali Carter faces Ken Doherty in a match which is more difficult than he would have wanted at this stage of the competition. In what is a loaded session the Shanghai Masters semi-finalist Stuart Bingham is in action too when he faces Craig Steadman.
Elsewhere Barry Hawkins meets Zhang Anda in what could be a banana skin tie for the Hawk, Michael White faces Rory McLeod, Marco Fu will take on Steven Hallworth and Robert Milkins plays Elliott Slessor. Mark Allen meets Darryl Hill and Joe Perry meets the UK semi-finalist David Grace.
Early Afternoon Session
There are some good matches in this session with Martin Gould against Jamie Jones among them while Mark Williams against Robin Hull should be good too and I would imagine that one will be on one of the streamed tables.
Ryan Day meets James Cahill in a match the Welshman should win while Michael Holt takes on Fraser Patrick in one he will expect to win. Shaun Murphy didn’t enjoy a good time of it in Shanghai and he’ll be looking to get back to winning ways against Fang Xiongman while Kyren Wilson plays Zak Surety, Dave Gilbert meets Lee Walker and Zhang Yong plays Matthew Stevens in the other games.
Late Afternoon Session
The really big names start to come out in this session beginning with John Higgins who meets Nigel Bond in one for the ages. Ricky Walden is on the baize in this session too when he faces Christopher Keogan while Kurt Maflin will hope to continue his rise up the rankings when he plays Jason Weston.
Neil Robertson is another big star on show in this session. He will be expected to stroll past the challenge of Boonyarit Kaettikun. Ben Woollaston meets Ross Muir, Mei Xiwen will look to continue making a name for himself when he plays Kurt Dunham while the Indian Open champion Anthony McGill should come past Akani Songsermsawad. Stuart Carrington plays Sam Craigie in the other match.
Evening Session
The final first round session is absolutely loaded and it will be interesting to see which two matches are on the streamed tables. We can be pretty sure Ronnie O’Sullivan will be when he faces Lu Chenwei but one of Judd Trump and Mark Selby won’t be. They face Aditya Mehta and John Astley respectively.
Stephen Maguire narrowly missed out on another final in Shanghai but he faces Andrew Higginson here while Liang Wenbo against Mark King looks like a match which could go either way. Matthew Selt takes on Peter Lines and Chris Wakelin against Scott Donaldson conclude the action for the day.
Betting
Just the two bets interest me in this day with the first coming in the morning session and it involves Michael White. I’ve been critical of Michael White at times this season but I like his match up with Rory McLeod. Generally White is more comfortable against players who aren’t going to outscore him. It means he can go for his shots with more confidence and McLeod won’t be outscoring him here.
With less pressure on his long game and enough chances to win frames likely to be guaranteed then White should be able to relax and produce his best snooker and as Judd Trump found out last week White’s best is still very good and certainly good enough to win this match.
The other bet I like is for Scott Donaldson to see off Chris Wakelin. I opposed Donaldson against Ding last week not on talent grounds but because he won’t have experienced those conditions before but he handled himself really well and was unlucky not to dump out the eventual champion in the first round.
Wakelin is either hit or miss with not much in between and with Donaldson looking in good form out in Shanghai last week and indeed in qualifying for the event I think he should be a touch shorter than the 10/11 he is to win this match.
Tips
Back M.White (-1.5 frames) to beat R.McLeod for a 4/10 stake at 2.15 with Coral
Back him here:
WON – Back S.Donaldson to beat C.Wakelin for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Back him here:
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