The opening day of the Scottish Open sees all of the held over qualifying matches taking place and the first round of the main draw getting underway on what looks to be an excellent day of snooker inside the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh.
We were due to see the new UK Championship winner Ronnie O’Sullivan on show on the first day but he has pulled out of the event but we still have the likes of Judd Trump, Mark Allen, Mark Williams and the home hero John Higgins on show.
Morning Session
All four tables will be used in the morning session as held over qualifying matches get played out. The defending champion Gary Wilson begins his title defence on the TV table when he takes on his good friend Elliot Slessor for a spot in the main draw. This session is loaded with talent though, so much so that Mark Selby will only be on show on table two. He meets Sean O’Sullivan. Ding Junhui and Jimmy Robertson will occupy the other tables. Ding takes on David Grace while Robertson will go up against the Scottish amateur Amaaz Iqbal.
Afternoon Session
As ever with a Home Nations event we have two sets of matches in the afternoon session. We were due to see Ronnie O’Sullivan getting the action underway on the main table but his withdrawal means that Mark Williams has been bumped onto centre stage. He goes up against Sam Craigie in a juicy looking match. The two other seeded players on show in the first part of the afternoon are Barry Hawkins and Ali Carter and both face awkward Chinese tests. Hawkins meets Pang Junxu in a cracking clash while Long Zehuang is the opponent for Carter.
The second part of the afternoon will be headlined by the world champion Luca Brecel, the winner of this tournament a couple of years ago. He will take on the Ukrainian amateur Iulian Boiko for a place in the main draw. Shaun Murphy will also get his campaign underway in this session when he takes on Liu Hongyu in a repeat of their match at this stage of the English Open which the Chinese player won. Elsewhere, Hossein Vafaei will go up against Daniel Wells and Jack Borwick, the other Scottish amateur in the field, goes up against Ishpreet Singh Chadha.
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Evening Session
The player of the season so far will get the evening session up and running on the main table when Judd Trump faces the amateur Sydney Wilson on what should be a great occasion for the latter. There is talent everywhere you look in this session and Kyren Wilson will be on table two. He meets the Egyptian player Mostafa Dorgham while one of the home hopefuls will also look to make progress in the opening game of the main draw when Anthony McGill takes on Oliver Lines. The other match sees Robert Milkins playing his held over qualifying match against Mark Davis.
The Champion of Champions and Shootout winner Mark Allen will look to continue his good campaign in the latter part of the evening session when he faces Jamie Jones in what should be a cracking contest. Jack Lisowski and John Higgins will also be looking to make it into the main draw when they go up against Mohamed Ibrahim and Oliver Brown respectively. There is also a match in the main draw as Matthew Selt faces Alfie Burden for a spot in the second round.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like over the course of the opening day but one that I do think is value is for Robert Milkins to come through with a bit to spare against Mark Davis. Davis might be perked up from a run to the quarter final of the Shootout but by and large he hasn’t done much in the proper ranking events this season and I always think that Milkins is worthy of support in the early stages of these Home Nations events at least where the format really suits him.
When he has made it to the venue of the Scottish Open in the past he has always made it into the second round and I expect him to book his place in the main draw here. Milkins gets to play a lot of snooker at the minute with him seeded into the latter stages of the majors and invitational events and having qualified for things like the Champion of Champions and while he hasn’t really gone deep in one yet, he saw off Shaun Murphy in Shanghai, Mark Williams at the Champion of Champions and almost beat Ronnie O’Sullivan in the UK Championship. I think that form has enough of a margin for him to come through here no worse than 4-2.
Tips
Back R.Milkins (-1.5 frames) to beat M.Davis for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
