The first round of the Shanghai Masters concludes on Tuesday and the second round gets underway as the opening big event of the new season prepares to go up a notch or two over in China as the big names enter the competition.
We saw some competitive and good snooker on the opening day but with the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and the home star Ding Junhui among those on show on Tuesday we should be in for a top day of action.
Morning Session
The first round of the tournament concludes in the morning session on Tuesday and the pick of the last two matches in the opening phase of the event sees the Scottish Open and Welsh Open champion Gary Wilson on show when he takes on the very solid Chinese player Pang Junxu. The World Championship semi-finalist Jak Jones makes his debut in the invitational side of this tournament. The newest member of the top 16 in the world faces the home amateur Cao Jin for a shot at Mark Selby in the second round.
Afternoon Session
The second round of the tournament gets going in the afternoon session and the standout feature sees Ronnie O’Sullivan getting his title defence up and running. When the draw was made the expectation would have been that he would have been taking on the International Championship winner Zhang Anda but he came a cropper to the amateur Zhou Jinhao and it is he who faces the Rocket. The other match might well be the pick of them as the 2023 world champion Luca Brecel faces the man he beat in the semi-final of that tournament in Si Jiahui.
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Evening Session
We have a very tasty looking evening session to enjoy out in Shanghai with two cracking matches in prospect. The pick of them is the one between two men who won seven titles between them on the main tour last season as Judd Trump takes on Mark Williams. The home interest will be on the other table though as their superstar Ding Junhui begins another tilt at winning a big competition in front of his adoring public when he goes up against the man who has already taken down the Championship League this season in the shape of Ali Carter.
Betting
I like a couple of bets over the course of the day on Tuesday and we begin in the afternoon session where I think the odds against on Si Jiahui to beat Luca Brecel look acceptable. Si played in the Championship League earlier in the season and had a decent outing in it making it through to the second stage and then he had a good win over Tom Ford in the opening round here so he is sharp and in decent form. Brecel made the final here last year so he has good memories of this tournament but he hasn’t played a competitive match since he bombed out of the World Championship in the first round in April and while we know he doesn’t need to do too much to be sharp, there wasn’t a huge amount of results outside of the big invitation events that Brecel delivered last term. I wouldn’t say these two are going in opposite directions but Si is improving and we know he is playing well. Brecel is at a level and we don’t know how well he is playing so it is the Chinese player for me.
The other bet that I like the look of on Tuesday comes in the match between Ding Junhui and Ali Carter where I expect there to be little separating them come the end of the contest. Carter couldn’t be in much better form at the minute having landed the Championship League title earlier in the month and then walked through his first round match here and you suspect he is here to lay down the challenge to Ding. He was recently on the Stephen Hendry YouTube channel looking in good order and it has transferred to the match table. Ding hasn’t played yet this season which is always a concern but he hadn’t played going into this event last season and took Neil Robertson to a deciding frame and probably should have beaten him so I’m not too concerned. Ding often spends some of the off season in China so he shouldn’t have to adjust to the conditions. These two are both top quality players and their last meeting in Saudi Arabia went the distance. This one easily could but if it doesn’t I think it ends 6-4 either way at the worst so I’ll play over 9.5 frames.
Tips
Back S.Jiahui to beat L.Brecel for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Bet365
Back D.Junhui vs A.Carter – Over 9.5 frames for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Sky Bet
