Snooker betting tips: Preview and best bets for English Open round one matches
James Cooper bagged a nice winner on day one of the English Open, and has another selection for one of Tuesday's first-round matches.
Snooker betting tips: English Open
2pts Ross Muir to beat Wu Yize at evens (William Hill)
2pts Duane Jones +2.5 frames against Shaun Murphy at 5/6 (BetVictor)
There’s been an element of feast or famine when it has come to snooker action this season, several gaps in the calendar following the resumption of the British Open, but since the Northern Ireland Open there’s been games every day in the shape of the German and European Masters qualifiers in Cannock. The fact there are matches right up until the eve of this tournament complicates matters slightly from a betting perspective, not least because several firms haven’t priced up that many ties, but there are still a couple of good-looking betting opportunities to be had.
The early market move in the ROSS MUIR v Wu Yize encounter has been with the young Chinese player, and in truth, Yize isn’t an easy player to get a handle on ratings-wise given his career is very much in its infancy having qualified via the Chinese system this year.
Having just turned 18, Yize clearly retains stacks of potential and there have been promising signs, a 4-2 win against Kurt Maflin to qualify for the Scottish Open his best result of the season, but he didn’t do a lot right when I watched him lose 5-1 to Luca Brecel earlier in the week. Understandably, Wu may lack the nous of battle-hardened opposition.
Muir has had his share of health issues and he fell off the tour in 2019, but he has quietly made a positive start to this season, a run to the last 16 in the British Open a very promising return. The Scotsman was 3-1 up against Elliot Slessor before losing 4-3 to qualify for Northern Ireland and he shared the first four frames with Mark Selby before the world champion pulled clear at Cannock.
As far as the match odds go, Muir is now the even-money slight underdog against 4/5 Yize and that looks incorrect to me as I have it as a 0.57 v 0.43 match in favour of Muir. At the time of writing, both have European Masters qualifying matches upcoming but regardless of those results, Muir rates a solid wager.
Jones fancied to cover handicap against Murphy
Having regained his tour status via Q-School, DUANE JONES has made a pretty solid start to the campaign, banking cheques in the British and Northern Irish Open events while also booking his place in the Scottish equivalent courtesy of a 4-2 win over Ian Burns. It could have been ever better too, given he was 3-1 up against Bingtao in a best-of-seven and Jones also lost by the odd frame to a bang in-form Jimmy Robertson.
The Welshman possesses the scoring power to compete in these short formats and while backing him to beat Shaun Murphy might be a bridge too far, he can certainly stay close to the Magician in this one-session match. In fact, Murphy is a player I like to be against on the handicaps if the prices allow when he is clear-favourite to win as while his A-game is sublime, he can make a meal of seeing off lesser opponents in early rounds.
Simon Blackwell took two frames off Murphy earlier in the week and he looked in serious trouble when Allan Taylor went 3-1 ahead in Belfast. Credit to Murphy that he did ultimately progress and he’s clearly in good nick this term, albeit he was a shade fortunate to beat Cao Yupeng in a tense decider for German Masters qualification.
Like most people, I expect Shaun to come through this test and he is 0.79 (so around 1-4) with me to do that, but there’s definitely some mileage in siding with Jones +2.5 on the handicap, available at a best price of 5/6. With the estimated player ratings I have, I would expect Duane to cover that spread around 60% of the time, making him a 4/6 shot with me.
Published at 1915 BST on 30/10/21
More from Sporting Life
- English Open outright preview
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- English Open full draw and daily schedule
- 2021/2022 snooker season guide
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