The qualifying competition for the Welsh Open continues on Friday when another 16 players will book their place in the main draw of the last of the Home Nations events next month on a tasty day of action in Barnsley.
The really big names have had their match held over to the main venue but there are still plenty of watchable players on show over the course of a day which has four sessions of action with four matches in each of them.
Morning Session
Lyu Haotian is the highest ranked player in the morning session and he will occupy the main table when he takes on a former winner of the tournament in the form of Jordan Brown in what should be a decent game. Robbie Williams has shown that he can go deep in events in the last few seasons and he’ll look to set another chance to do that up when he takes on Peng Yisong while two more Asian players meet when Long Zehuang faces the man from Hong Kong in Andy Lee. The women’s world champion Baipat Siripaporn is also on show. She meets Sanderson Lam.
Early Afternoon Session
There is a cracking game to headline the first of the two afternoon sessions as former top 16 stars meet when Stuart Bingham, fresh from controversy in the World Open qualifying, takes on Marco Fu in a very watchable game. Noppon Saengkham reached the final of the last Home Nations event at the Scottish Open and he’ll look to set up the chance to go deep in another when he meets Himanshu Jain while Xiao Guodong will be eager to make up for missing out on the World Open when he faces Ashley Hugill. Zhou Yuelong is the other leading light on show. He will take on Adam Duffy.
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Later Afternoon Session
Four more matches take place in the later part of the afternoon where Michael White will be eager to qualify for his home event. He has a tricky test awaiting him against the competent Oliver Lines but the pick of the matches in this session is the one between Matt Selt and Sam Craigie which should be a cracking watch. Liam Pullen will look to make it through to the main draw when he meets Rebecca Kenna with the other match in the second part of the afternoon coming between Aaron Hill and Anton Kazakov.
Evening Session
Ryan Day is the star home player on show in the evening session and he will be motivated to pick up the win he needs to make it through when he goes up against the Egyptian player Mostafa Dorgham. Reanne Evans is another star name on show and the hugely decorated female player will meet Stuart Carrington for a spot in Llandudno. Ricky Walden is another player who is recognised among snooker fans and he will also be looking to qualify for the main draw when he takes on the veteran Andy Hicks. Two up and coming players will compete in the other one as Stan Moody looks to qualify for another main draw when he faces Sean O’Sullivan.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like but I think Marco Fu could be overpriced to see off Stuart Bingham. Bingham started the year in good fashion winning the opening group of the Championship League but he didn’t look fantastic in losing to Ishpreet Singh Chadha in the World Open qualifiers in midweek, albeit there was a lot of controversy in that, and the latter performance was much more in keeping with the season that he has had.
Fu is harder to judge these days but generally when he gets a run of matches we see the best of him and he was one of the players who competed out in Macau and he beat Ronnie O’Sullivan out there. While that is just an exhibition it had a big crowd and we’ve seen recently how O’Sullivan enjoys performing in front of big crowds. Fu scores heavily and with Bingham nothing like as reliable in the balls as he was a few years ago I think that could be a key thing. There is enough juice in the 11/10 on Fu to reel me in.
Tips
Back M.Fu to beat S.Bingham for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
