The final day of the German Masters qualifying competition will see the field confirmed for the main draw in February when the last bunch of matches take place over three sessions of action inside the Morningside Arena in Leicester on Saturday.
We’ve seen a mixture of big name qualifiers and some lesser lights making it through but this is one of the best venues on the circuit so everyone on show on Saturday will be keen to win their match and book their flight for Berlin.
Morning Session
Luca Brecel will attempt to defend his Scottish Open title next week but before he heads north of the border he will take on Barry Pinches for a place at the German Masters. In terms of the rankings he is the leading player on show but Ding Junhui is probably the best name in this session. The UK Championship finalist will go up against Matthew Stevens. The former world champion Shaun Murphy might disagree with all that and he has a chance to remind everyone of how good he is when he meets the European Masters winner from last season in Fan Zhengyi. Andy Hicks will take in Si Jiahui in the other match.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon session is headlined by John Higgins who will be eager to make it through to the main draw after a couple of indifferent tournaments. He will be expected to come past one of the remaining amateurs left in the field in Daniel Wells. Robert Milkins had a good win in the first round when he took care of Graeme Dott and he’ll make it through to Berlin if he can overcome the challenge of what will be a hugely motivated Lukas Kleckers. Scott Donaldson meets Cao Yupeng in one of the other matches while Louis Heathcote faces Julien Leclercq.
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Evening Session
We were due to have Judd Trump on show in the evening session but nobody told Mark Davis that particular plan as he dumped out the former world champion on Friday night. Instead it is he who will face Joe O’Connor. Barry Hawkins is the highest ranked player on show on Saturday evening. He meets Li Hang for a spot in Berlin while Ricky Walden will also look to make it through to the main draw. Adam Duffy is the man in his way. The other match sees Gary Wilson looking to book his flight on the plane to Berlin. He goes up against Pang Junxu.
Betting
I’ll finish the week off with one bet and that comes in the form of Cao Yupeng to see off Scott Donaldson. Yupeng has suddenly hit a real burst of scoring form. He went out in the final round of qualifying for the UK Open but made a 144 in that event before he was beaten by Xiao Guodong and he scored pretty well in a comfortable opening win here and should be full of confidence having qualified for most of the tournaments this season.
Donaldson had a good win over Matt Selt in the previous round but in the main he has had a largely disappointing season and I fancy that he could be there for the taking in this match because he often needs more than one chance to win a frame at the minute. I regularly say that in the modern game I prefer to be on the scorer rather than the bits and pieces good tactical player and at the minute that scorer is the Chinese player. He’s my pick for the final day of qualifying.
Tips
Back C.Yupeng to beat S.Donaldson for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
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