The opening day of the Northern Ireland Open is a pretty busy one with half of the first round being played in what is set up to be a pretty frenetic day of action. There are three sessions of play with matches starting over six different start times so things could get a little crazy.
Some really big names are on show on the first day with Ronnie O’Sullivan the pick of them. Shaun Murphy, John Higgins and Barry Hawkins provide a solid support cast to him so it should be an enjoyable day.
Morning Session
The day begins with seven matches. Barry Hawkins gets the attention on the main table when he takes on Martin O’Donnell and on the other TV table Kurt Maflin faces Zhang Yong in a match he is expected to win.
The other five matches sees lowly ranked Michael Wild and Adam Duffy going at it, two more low ranked players will be looking to boost their ranking when Kurt Dunham faces Christopher Keogan while Robert Milkins takes on Scott Donaldson. Mike Dunn will look to get a win under his belt when he plays Josh Boileau and Allan Taylor meets Li Hang.
Afternoon Session
There are three different sets of matches in this session. The first sees Matthew Stevens on a TV table. He takes on Zhou Yuelong in a real banana skin clash. Joe Perry faces the Brazilian player Itaro Santos on the other TV table.
Away from the cameras we have Alex Borg against Dechawat Poomjaeng, Fergal O’Brien against Tian Pengfei, Sam Craigie facing Jamie Jones, Jamie Cope goes up against the amateur Adam Stefanow while Chen Zhe meets Ross Muir and Elliot Slessor takes on Jimmy Robertson.
In the second set of matches Michael Holt is on a main table when he plays Stuart Carrington while the other TV table has a tasty looking clash between Shaun Murphy and Luca Brecel on it. The other two matches are between Wang Yuchen and Sanderson Lam and Zak Surety vs Darryl Hill.
The last four matches in the afternoon sees the form horse John Higgins going up against Paul Davison. That is on a TV table as is the match between Ben Woollaston and Jordan Brown. Hossein Vafaei Ayouri plays Rod Lawler and Thor Chuan Leong meets Mitchell Mann away from the bright lights.
Evening Session
Two sets of matches conclude the opening day. Ronnie O’Sullivan kicks things off on the main table when he faces David John. Graeme Dott and Michael White tussle on the other one. The other two matches sees Chris Wakelin, Ronnie’s conqueror in the English Open, playing James Wattana and Zhang Anda plays Ian Preece.
After that Jimmy White goes up against Gareth Allen on one of the main tables with Mark Davis playing Jason Weston on the other and away from the cameras there is an all-Asian clash between Cao Yupeng and Akani Songsermsawad.
Betting
I mentioned in the first one of these tournaments how it is important to pick and choose and be very selective when taking bets in the earlier rounds in these events and that is how I’m going to play the opening day. I’m taking two bets on the day.
The first is more of a fade of Robert Milkins in truth. The Milkman has lost his last five matches in all formats and has only won three 15 red matches all season so confidence isn’t going to be too high inside him at the minute. Admittedly his last two matches have seen deciding frame defeats but that might just suggest he has forgotten how to win.
Scott Donaldson has been going much better this season and has been unlucky to run into good opponents in good form in his last three or four events. He doesn’t have that here so I think he can get back to winning ways. Donaldson has taken care of Stuart Bingham, Peter Ebdon and Luca Brecel this season and pushed Ding to a deciding frame in China. That’s enough for me to back the Scot.
Later in the day Zhou Yuelong merits being a favourite against Matthew Stevens. I regularly mention in these events how I want to be with the improving youngster over the fading veteran in this format and it is Yuelong that comes into the wanted category here. We know how good he is and if he can have his scoring boots with him he should have enough in this one.
Tips
WON – Back S.Donaldson to beat R.Milkins for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Bet365
Back him here:
WON – Back Z.Yuelong to beat M.Stevens for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back him here:
Coral have a couple of treble offers on the first round of this tournament. Click on the links to access them
S Murphy, M Holt & J Higgins all to win their 1st round matches – 11/10
and
R O’Sullivan, Mark Davies & G Dott all to win their 1st round matches 11/10
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