There was no shortage of drama on the opening day of the Shanghai Masters with the four first round matches to be played seeing no fewer than three deciding frames with shocks all over the place and no lack of quality mixed in either.
Tuesday looks like being exactly the same with the cast list from the top draw on the TV tables and plenty of quality as support acts on the card. It is a day where the world champion Mark Selby and the biggest name in the game Ronnie O’Sullivan are in action which should create a real buzz.
Early Session
As with Monday there are two first round matches in this session and a couple of matches from the wildcard round which concludes on Tuesday. The first round matches see defending champion Kyren Wilson begin his title defence when he faces Michael Holt while Mark Allen takes on Anthony McGill in a serious match on the other table.
Away from the cameras and the spotlight Kurt Maflin and Ryan Day look to avoid the dreaded wildcard shock when they take on the Chinese youngsters Guan Zhen and Ma Bing respectively.
Later Session
This one promises to be a fantastic session of snooker. Ronnie O’Sullivan takes centre stage with a first round match against Liang Wenbo who came through the wildcard round on Monday while Mark Selby will be on the other TV table taking on the Chinese wildcard Yuan Sijun who thrashed Martin Gould 5-0 on Monday.
The wildcard round concludes away from the TV tables when Stephen Maguire looks to set up a juicy clash with Shaun Murphy when he faces Yi Chen Xu while Stuart Carrington plays Niu Zhuang in a potential banana skin.
Betting
This is another tricky day to bet on but the beauty of the snooker season is that we don’t need to go looking for bets that aren’t there because the action comes thick and fast between now and Christmas. I’m not a bettor of these wildcard matches although I do fear for Stuart Carrington. Instead I’ll focus on one in the first round.
That is the match between Mark Allen and the Indian Open champion Anthony McGill. This is only Mark Allen’s second tournament of the season after he enjoyed a well-deserved extended break at the end of last season. That might be to his detriment though especially if he is slightly rusty going into this match, which it would be only natural if he is.
I would probably have taken McGill for that reason anyway but the fact he has already had a match on the tables this week and played well in that only further inspires confidence. We saw when he won the Indian Open that he has kicked on from his World Championship heroics and his 133 break in the wildcard round shows he is playing well. He’s the bet here at 6/5.
Tips
Back A.McGill to beat M.Allen for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Paddy Power
Back him here:
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