The opening day of the Welsh Open sees half of the first round matches being played out at Venue Cymru as the last Home Nations event of the season gets underway with three sessions of snooker taking place.
The beauty about the new format of the Home Nations events this season is that the top 32 players are all taking on a player who has recently come through qualifying which in theory levels out the field a little and should deliver some competitive snooker.
Morning Session
We have three sessions of play to get the tournament started and there are two matches in the morning one. The recently crowned Championship League winner Mark Selby will be the first to grace the TV table this week. He takes on one of the lower ranked professionals who has done well to make it through in the form of Haydon Pinhey. The other match will see the Wuhan Open finalist Si Jiahui looking to make it through when he takes on the home player Jamie Jones.
Afternoon Session
As always at a Home Nations event we have two sets of matches in the afternoon to enjoy and it will be the home superstar Mark Williams who opens up the action on the TV table. He meets an amateur in the form of Florian Nuessle while elsewhere first up in this session we have the English Open winner Neil Robertson on table two when he faces Mark Davis. Dominic Dale begins his final Welsh Open on one of the outside tables when he goes up against Pang Junxu while two Chinese players meet when Zhou Yuelong faces the German Masters semi-finalist Yuan Sijun.
The second part of the afternoon will see the defending champion Gary Wilson getting his title defence underway. He hasn’t been in particularly good form this season but he’ll be looking to rectify that when he goes up against Ishpreet Singh Chadha. Jackson Page will look to make it through to the second round of his home tournament when he faces Jimmy Robertson. Stuart Bingham is another top 32 player who will be looking to progress. He meets Robbie Williams while the other game sees Stephen Maguire facing Xu Si.
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Evening Session
We have a full set of matches to open up the evening session and it is Mark Allen who will be on the main table. He faces the young star Stan Moody in what should be an entertaining match. John Higgins also begins his quest for another Welsh Open title in this session. He meets his compatriot and good friend Graeme Dott while Elliot Slessor faces one of the many home players in the competition in Liam Davies. Robert Milkins starts a huge week for him given the amount of money he is defending when he plays Wang Yuchen.
There is a second match on each of the two main tables in the evening session and it is the former International Championship winner Zhang Anda who will be the centre of attention on the TV table. He takes on Ross Muir for a place in the second round. Tom Ford will be over on table two as the Shootout champion looks to begin a push to regain his place in the top 16. Andrew Higginson will be the man opposing him to round off the day on table two.
Betting
I’ll ease my way into the tournament on Monday and I’ll take the one bet which comes in the form of Xu Si to beat Stephen Maguire. Xu Si is enjoying a very encouraging season. He made it through to the semi-final of the International Championship where he had some big names among his victims including Ryan Day, Judd Trump and Gary Wilson before he lost out to the eventual winner Ding Junhui. He also made the last eight of the Xi’an Grand Prix where Stuart Bingham and Mark Williams were taken down.
The Chinese player is on the fringes of the top 32 in the rankings and comes into this tournament off the back of making a 147 in qualifying last week so his confidence should be sky high. You would be hard pushed to say the same thing about Stephen Maguire who hasn’t pulled up any trees this season and who was well beaten in the first round in Berlin recently. Maguire hasn’t played since then whereas Xu Si came through qualifying a few days ago and at even money the Chinese ace looks the pick to me.
Tips
Back X.Si to beat S.Maguire for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
