The opening round of the Paul Hunter Classic will get underway on Friday and Stuart Bingham is one of the headline names in action. The world number ten has endured a disappointing start to the 2017-18 season, as he has been beaten in the first round of both the Riga Masters and last week’s China Championship. The 2015 world champion will now be hoping to return to winning ways in Germany, where he will face China’s Yu Delu in round one.
Yu Delu will be playing in the main draw of a rankings event for the first time this season, although he did reach the semi-finals of the 2016 Scottish Open, beating top 16 player Liang Wenbo en route to the last four. Former world number six Ricky Walden is also in first round action on Friday and he is another player who has struggled for form so far this season, losing in the qualifying stages of his last three rankings events. Walden will face fellow Englishman Sean O’Sullivan in his first round match and he is priced at 4/11 to progress, while O’Sullivan is available at 21/10.
Other notable first round matches on Friday include six-time World Championship finalist Jimmy White taking on Gary Wilson and 1997 world champion Ken Doherty, who faces off against Ross Muir. Three men who have already secured their places in round two without having to pot a ball are Ian Preece, Sam Craigie and David Gilbert, who were all handed walkover victories in their respective matches against Darren Morgan, Yuan Sijun and Soheil Vahedi.
Paul Hunter Classic odds available at Dafabet.