The opening day of the Tour Championship in Manchester sees three of the four first round matches getting up and running and one of them being completed over the course of the two sessions of play in the final Players Series event of the season.
We have to wait until the middle of the week for the four best players on the year to come to the party but there is no shortage of decent names and form horses on show across the two tables throughout Monday.
Shaun Murphy vs Barry Hawkins
The pick of the matches on the opening day of the tournament is the one which features The Masters champion Shaun Murphy and the man who lost out in the final of the UK Championship and German Masters in Barry Hawkins.
This is the only match on the first day which will start and conclude on Monday so there will be plenty of attention on this one across both sessions. Murphy has been playing brilliantly in 2025 but only has The Masters trophy to show for his efforts but I wonder if he will be vulnerable here. He doesn’t have the best record in these long distance matches, unlike his opponent who has always relished them. Apart from the German Masters, Hawkins hasn’t played much snooker at all in 2025 so he might be the fresher of the two men, which with 19 frames being played in a day if this goes the distance is certainly no bad thing. I took Hawkins outright because I think the 33/1 on offer is massive but I’m happy to let that ride because he isn’t a guaranteed winner here given how Murphy is playing and I wouldn’t want to lose twice. These two met at the Players Championship when Murphy won 6-4 but that was 4-4 until ‘The Magician’ hit the afterburners. This could be just as tight. I wouldn’t put anyone off Hawkins but I’ve got him covered already.
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Xiao Guodong vs Wu Yize
Much will be made of the fact that the first round of this tournament is a repeat of the opening stage of the Players Championship and as such over on table two in the Monday and Tuesday afternoon sessions will be the all-Chinese tussle between Xiao Guodong and Wu Yize.
It was 6-5 to Guodong when these two met in Telford and you wouldn’t be surprised if this was equally as close but this could be a huge week for Wu Yize. With a run to the semi-final the Chinese ace will be a seed at the World Championship and will get to skip qualifying which has to be a huge motivation for him to come up with the goods here. On the other hand, Guodong knows that whatever happens in this match and here he will be an automatic qualifier for the World Championship for the first time, so it could be that motivation is with the younger man here. I just wonder if the season is beginning to catch up with Guodong because he has been slightly below his top level since he made the semi-finals of the German Masters and he collapsed like a deckchair from 5-2 up on John Higgins at the Players Championship. Wu Yize could easily have won that match between the two earlier in the month and with little between them there and motivation massively on the side of the youngster here I’ll take him at odds against.
Mark Williams vs Ding Junhui
The one match to get underway in the evening session sees two men who when they are at the top of their game are fantastic to win when Mark Williams goes up against Ding Junhui with the winner getting a crack at the world champion Kyren Wilson later in the week.
It has to be said that their meeting at the Players Championship was one of the worse standards of game that we could have possibly seen. Williams eluded to the fact that he was having issues with his eyes as a reason for why he was so poor in that contest but heaven only knows what was up with Ding. In the last two tournaments he hasn’t looked capable of potting a long ball and if that doesn’t change here then Williams will beat him again. Williams is giving contact lenses a go in this tournament and he is talking a lot more positively in interviews than he was towards the end of his stay at the Players Championship and that bodes well. A potential vision fix feels a much easier thing to find than a technical flaw which Ding clearly seems to have. However well or badly Williams plays he’ll give his all here whereas the last couple of events Ding has downed tools when his technique has dragged him down. You can get Williams at odds against and Ding was so poor in Telford that the value may well be with the Welshman.
Tips
Back W.Yize to beat X.Guodong for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back M.Williams to beat D.Junhui for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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