The snooker season continues on Monday when the qualifying competition for the International Championship begins with everyone who is in action at this event looking for the one win they need to book their spot in the main draw in China.
This tournament is in the format of how the tour used to be so there is no tiered system it is everyone in from the only qualifying round which means we have some big names on show looking to make it through.
Morning Session
We have six matches in the morning session with Chris Wakelin being the highest ranked player on show. He goes up against Ka Wai Cheung for a place in the main draw. Three Chinese players will be looking to secure their spot in a home event. Pang Junxu is one of them. He faces Iulian Boiko while Xiao Guodong meets Kreishh Gurbaxani and Wu Yize takes on Wang Yuchen. The other two matches sees the veterans Anthony Hamilton and Jimmy White battling it out for a spot in the final stages while Anthony McGill meets Ashley Carty in the other.
Afternoon Session
There are a couple of huge names on show in the afternoon session on Monday. Judd Trump has already won a tournament out in China this season and he will go up against Chris Totten in the bid to qualify for another. Mark Williams is the other elite player taking to the baize in this session. He meets Haris Tahir. A bunch of Chinese players will look to qualify for their home event in this session too. Lei Peifan will look to overcome Thepchaiya Un-Nooh while Xu Si meets Ahmed Aly Elsayed. Tian Pengfei goes up against Dean Young while Fan Zhengyi will look to continue his good form against Long Zehuang. The other match in the afternoon sees Graeme Dott taking on Ben Mertens.
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Evening Session
There is just the one top 16 player looking to make it through to the main draw in the evening session on Monday. That is John Higgins who has to rebound from losing the British Open final on Sunday night when he takes on Ken Doherty. Stephen Maguire and Stuart Bingham are household names and they face off against Haydon Pinhey and Liam Graham respectively while two Welshmen collide in another match when Jamie Jones takes on Liam Davies. Three other matches will be played out in the evening and they see Jamie Clarke taking on Mostafa Dorgham, Martin O’Donnell facing Julien Leclercq and Scott Donaldson taking on the amateur Dylan Emery.
Betting
Julien Leclercq was on the main table at the British Open last week when he took on Kyren Wilson and he looked like a fish out of water. Some of the pots he was taking on were reckless and he missed them by a country mile so I was intrigued to see how he would go in the Northern Ireland Open qualifying over the weekend down in grade against someone of his own level in the rankings. He played Farakh Ajaib and lost 4-3 and that is a couple of weeks after he lost to the amateur Oliver Sykes in English Open qualifying.
I don’t think the Leclercq game is in good order and the last thing he probably needs is a teeth pulling exercise against Martin O’Donnell who will just grind him into the dirt. O’Donnell will rarely get the limelight because of his slow and steady approach with little to no flashiness about him but he has picked up results over the last couple of years. He won his Northern Ireland Open qualifier 4-0 on Sunday and looks if not in decent form then certainly competitive form. I’m not sure we can say the same about Leclercq. He didn’t look up for the battle in that match with Wilson and if he doesn’t fancy this O’Donnell will just grind him into submission. I’ll take the Englishman to win this no worse than 6-4.
Tips
Back M.O’Donnell (-1.5 frames) to beat J.Leclercq for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
