The UK Championship has been split up to mirror the World Championship this year which means that there is a qualifying competition to find out which 16 players will join the top 16 in the world at the main venue.
That competition begins on Saturday with three sessions of action as the invited players join in with the lower ranked players looking to make it through to the second round where some of the better players come in.
Morning Session
We were due to have eight matches in the opening session of the day but Stephen Hendry pulled out due to TV commitments so we are left with seven. There are a couple of appealing matches on show in this session. One of them sees the highest ranked player in this round in Duane Jones taking on the multiple time women’s world champion Reanne Evans while Jimmy White is a big name on show in this session. He meets Viktor Sarkis from Brazil. The other five matches sees Himanshu Jain taking on Peng Yisong, Alfie Burden going up against Liam Davies, Andy Lee facing Rebecca Kenna, James Cahill taking on Liam Graham and Sanderson Lam going up against Amaan Iqbal.
Afternoon Session
Michael White is the leading player on show in the afternoon session. He will be expected to cruise into the next round when he takes on Jake Crofts. Former women’s world champion Ng On Yee is also on show in this afternoon play when she meets Jenson Kendrick while elsewhere Julien Leclercq faces Mohamed Ibrahim, Chen Zifan meets Farakh Ajaib, Lukas Kleckers goes up against Lewis Ullah, Dean Young facing Lee Stephens and Barry Pinches meets Asjad Iqbal. The other match sees Mink Nutcharut swapping the Champion of Champions for the UK qualifiers when she meets Fergal O’Brien.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for this tournament! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Evening Session
There is a very good evening session on offer on Saturday and it is headlined by the match between Fraser Patrick and the former world champion Ken Doherty. The other appealing game sees Si Jiahui taking on Allan Taylor. Elsewhere, Ben Mertens goes up against Martin O’Donnell who will be buoyed by winning the latest group of the 900 last week. The man he beat in the final, Ross Muir, meets Oliver Brown while John Astley faces Robbie McGuigan. David Lilley has a date against Joel Connolly and the other two matches sees Dylan Emery taking on Adam Duffy and Zak Surety going up against Brad Ferguson.
Betting
This isn’t the easiest day to bet on because there a lot of players who are either out of form or just beginning their journey on the big stage on show so it is important to stick to players who we know are of a good level even if their form isn’t what it would like. That makes me think the best bet of the day is for Si Jiahui to see off Allan Taylor and to do it with a fair bit in hand. You can get 10/11 on the Chinese ace winning no worse than 6-4 which looks good to me.
Taylor has only won one match all season and while it was the last match he played against Jenson Kendrick, that was a month ago. Si has been out of form for a while. In his last three matches he has won all of one frame but we know he is a class act and he showed that at the European Masters earlier in the campaign when he made the quarter final with Anthony McGill and Xiao Guodong among his victims. When Si plays well he’s a very good player and with Taylor in no better form and having not been active for a month I think this is the chance for the Chinese player to get back on track.
Tips
Back S.Jiahui (-1.5 frames) to beat A.Taylor for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
