The qualifying competition for the International Championship continues on Tuesday when another 22 spots in the main draw will be earned over the course of three sessions of action in the big money Chinese event.
Everyone is in the qualifiers for this tournament and although one or two matches have been held over to the main draw we still have a number of big names on show on Tuesday looking to secure their passage to China.
Morning Session
Mark Selby is the big name on show in the morning session. The recently crowned British Open winner will come back down to earth for a qualifying clash with the Latvian player Artemijs Zizins. There are two other top 16 players on show in the morning session. Gary Wilson hasn’t really got going in the big events this season and he’ll meet Hammad Miah for a place in the main draw while Jak Jones will look to back up his run to the quarter final in Cheltenham last week when he meets the amateur Simon Blackwell. The pick of the matches could well be the one between Lyu Haotian and Marco Fu which should be a tasty battle. Zhou Yuelong is another Chinese player looking to qualify for his home event. Michael Holt stands in his way. There is one other Chinese cueist on show which is Gong Chenzhi. He takes on the former Welsh Open winner Jordan Brown. The other two matches have Jimmy Robertson facing Sunny Akani and Mark Davis going up against Baipat Siripaporn.
Afternoon Session
The former world champion Luca Brecel heads up the afternoon session when he looks to make it through at the expense of the home player Jiang Jun. Two other top 16 players are in action in the afternoon with Shaun Murphy another big name aiming to qualify when he meets Louis Heathcote while Tom Ford looks to find some form against Stan Moody. There are four other matches in the session with one of those seeing Ben Woollaston meeting Duane Jones while Robbie Williams takes on Allan Taylor. Elliot Slessor is also in action in the afternoon. His opponent is Manasawin Phetmalaikul with the other match seeing Sanderson Lam facing Alexander Ursenbacher.
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Evening Session
Two more members of the top 16 in the world rankings are on show in the evening session with the recent English Open winner Neil Robertson going up against Alfie Burden for a place in the main draw. Barry Hawkins is the other elite player competing and he has a meeting with the amateur Joshua Thomond. This is a big tournament for Robert Milkins as he looks to reclaim his top 16 spot when he faces Stuart Carrington while Dominic Dale meets Zak Surety. Aaron Hill is looking to make it through when he takes on Liam Pullen while the other two matches see Joe O’Connor facing Robbie McGuigan and David Lilley taking on Amir Sarkhosh.
Betting
I don’t really get how the odds makers have Dominic Dale and Zak Surety 10/11 each of two. While Surety had a better second half of last season, he nearly fell off the tour and he hasn’t started this term in brilliant fashion. He did qualify for the two Chinese events earlier in the year but over the weekend he lost to Haris Tahir which isn’t a great result and I think he is vulnerable to a Dale who can still deliver the goods at this level and will be eager to book another trip to China.
Dale claims he is going to retire at the end of the season in which case he will want to make it through to another main draw before that happens if he is true to his word. He has wins over Noppon Saengkham and Shaun Murphy on his ledger this season and in a direct form guide it was Dale who beat Tahir in the Northern Ireland Open qualifying on Sunday. Dale is just outside the top 40 in the world rankings so his form for a consistent period of time has been good. That isn’t the case for Surety though so I’ll go with the Welshman to win this one.
Tips
Back D.Dale to beat Z.Surety for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
