The opening day of the Xi’an Grand Prix is a full one as the tournament gets underway with the held over qualifying matches mixed in with some main draw games on a day where we should see plenty of decent snooker out in China.
Given that the held over qualifying matches head up the day we get to see the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, the world number one Mark Allen, the world champion Kyren Wilson and the home star Ding Junhui straight out of the gate this week.
Morning Session
Four of the held over qualifying matches head up the first session of the day with the world champion Kyren Wilson scheduled to be on the main table when he looks to make it into the main draw when he faces Haris Tahir. Mark Selby is another leading light on offer in this session. He takes on Wang Xinbo while the International Championship title holder Zhang Anda also looks to make it into the main draw when he takes on Oliver Lines. The other game sees Jamie Clarke taking on Cao Jin. The main draw matches in the opening session sees Tom Ford going up against Gong Chenzhi while Matt Selt takes on Joe O’Connor. Si Jiahui looks to make it through at the expense of Amir Sarkhosh and Zak Surety meets Hammad Miah.
Afternoon Session
There are four more held over qualifying matches in the afternoon session on Monday with the world number one Mark Allen one of the players on show in them. Liu Hongyu will be his opponent but the majority of the attention could well be on another table as Ronnie O’Sullivan enters the tournament. He takes on Wang Yuchen for a place in the main draw. Graeme Dott goes up against the Chinese amateur Ma Shaojun and Stuart Bingham plays another Chinese youngster in Zhou Jinhao. The four main draw matches sees Gary Wilson looking to make it through when he takes on Ben Mertens while Jak Jones goes up against Tian Pengfei. Jack Lisowski faces Joe Perry and our outright punt Dave Gilbert takes on Jordan Brown.
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Evening Session
There is just the one held over qualifying match left for the evening session and it sees Ding Junhui going up against Alfie Burden. Judd Trump is the highest ranked player on show in the last session of the day. He has a first round match against Ma Hailong while Mark Williams will look to make the second round at the expense of Mark Davis. John Higgins is another top 16 player on show and he faces Sunny Akani while Dean Young plays Jimmy Robertson and Elliot Slessor meets Chris Wakelin. The other two matches sees Lyu Haotian going up against Artemijs Zizins and there is also a Welsh clash between Matthew Stevens and Ryan Day.
Betting
There isn’t a huge amount that I like on the opening day of the tournament and having not had a competition for a few weeks it might be best to largely watch the action on the opening day but I am a little surprised at the prices available on Ryan Day to see off his Welsh compatriot Matthew Stevens. You can get odds against on Day to cover a 1.5 frame handicap and I think that looks a fair bet because these you never truly know what you are going to get from Stevens, as evidenced by the fact that he beat Andrew Higginson 5-0 to get here but since then lost 5-2 to Stan Moody in Wuhan Open qualifying and 4-1 to Graeme Dott in British Open qualifying.
Day has played eight matches this season and has only lost one of them and while he hasn’t always been convincing in that time, you can’t really criticise a player for getting the job done. Day is on the fringes of the top 16 in the world rankings and if he can have a big month from here with a good week here and at the huge money Saudi events he could soon propel himself back in with the elite so he’ll be hugely motivated here. At 11/10 I’ll play him to win this no worse than 5-3.
Tips
Back R.Day (-1.5 frames) to beat M.Stevens for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
