The Champion of Champions might still be ongoing but the qualifying competition for the UK Championship also gets underway on Saturday when the players ranked 81 and below take to the baize looking to make it into the second round.
Players who enter in this round of the competition will need to win four matches over the next few days in order to line up in York next week but they all get to play someone of a similar standard to them so we should expect a number of competitive matches.
Morning Session
Gong Chenzhi is the highest ranked player on show in the first round and he will headline the opening session of the competition when he takes on Daniel Womersley for a place in the second round. Liam Pullen is the next player in the rankings and he’ll face the amateur Joshua Thomond while Ben Mertens will go up against another amateur in the form of Oliver Sykes. Liam Graham is also on show first up when he takes on Baiipat Siripaporn. The pick of the matches in this session could well be the one between Artemijs Zizins and the amateur Mark Joyce who is one of the most experienced that there is currently outside the paid ranks. Craig Steadman is another experienced amateur and he’ll face Haris Tahir while the other two matches see Jonas Luz taking on Florian Nuessle while the only match between two professionals sees Mostafa Dorgham taking on Huang Jiahao.
Afternoon Session
Alexander Ursenbacher will be the leading ranked player in the afternoon session. Like so many matches throughout the day he will face an amateur in the form of Joshua Cooper. Zak Surety could use a big week here because we are reaching the halfway point of a campaign which could see him drop off the tour. He meets Simon Blackwell. Two females are on show in this session. The current women’s world champion Bai Yulu swaps the Champion of Champions for a clash with Farakh Ajaib while Reanne Evans meets Haydon Pinhey. Dean Young will look to make progress when he takes on Mohammed Shehab while the three other matches see Liam Davies facing Ahmed Aly Elsayed, Wang Yuchen takes on Lewis Ullah while two young European starlets face off too when Bulcsu Revesz meets Iulian Boiko.
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Evening Session
Lei Peifan is the highest ranked player on show and he’ll get the main table for his match against Vladislav Gradinari but it is another Chinese player who will get all the attention in this session because Zhao Xintong plays a tour match for the first time since his suspension. He will go up against Sunny Akani while elsewhere Mink Nutcharut will take on Hatem Yassen in what is a great chance for the female player to come through. Igor Figueiredo began the week competing in the Champion of Champions and he’ll end it with a match against Antoni Kowalski while Amir Sarkhosh will play Anton Kazakov. Cheung Ka Wai plays Harvey Chandler and the other two matches in this session see Andrew Pagett facing Mitchell Man and Chris Totten takes on one of the better amateurs in Ryan Davies.
Betting
I’ll go with a pair of bets over the course of Saturday with the first one coming in the form of Bulcsu Revesz to beat Iulian Boiko for a third time this season already. The Hungarian got the better of the Ukrainian in the opening round of the Saudi Masters and in qualifying for the Northern Ireland Open, the latter where Revesz came from 3-0 down to win 4-3. Boiko hasn’t done anything since that loss to suggest that he is going to get the win here. You could argue that Revesz hasn’t done a whole lot either but he went on to qualify for the Northern Ireland event and only went down in a deciding frame to Jack Lisowski in International Championship qualifying. It took Yuan Sijun to beat him in Scottish Open qualifying as well so there is enough there to make me think that Revesz can make it three from three against Boiko without the need for a deciding frame this time.
I also can’t ignore Zhao Xintong on Saturday either. There were much easier opponents he could have drawn than Sunny Akani but with a point to prove the former German Masters winner is going to be tough to beat here. Xintong has already announced himself since his ban was lifted by winning two Q Tour events in succession and he made a 147 break in both of them so he has clearly returned hitting the ball very sweetly and there is every chance he could go deep in this qualifying competition if the scrutiny that will be on him doesn’t get the better of him. Sunny Akani started the season really well but he has gone a little quiet in recent times. Since the Xi’an Grand Prix in August, Akani has played six matches and the only players he has beaten were ranked 110 and 114 in the world. There is no official world ranking for Xintong anymore but we know from the past that he is a good deal better than that ranking. If Xintong leads early here he could run away with this and I think there is value in taking the Chinese superstar to win this no worse than 6-3.
Tips
Back B.Revesz (-1.5 frames) to beat I.Boiko for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back Z.Xintong (-2.5 frames) to beat S.Akani for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Coral
