Mark King can reign supreme over Sam Craigie

First round
Eurosport 2 from 7.30am Monday

There are always plenty of mismatches in the early rounds of snooker tournaments and that is the case in the China Championship with former world champions John Higgins and Neil Robertson among the big names expected to cruise through to the last 32 in Guangzhou.

Higgins opens up against Allan Taylor while Robertson begins with a trickier test in Gerard Greene, but from a betting point of view it is best to focus on the closer battles on the green baize.

Bookmakers are struggling to separate Sam Craigie and Mark King with the veteran outsider potential value to make his experience count.

King, 44, is always going to be vulnerable to any improvers and Craigie won their only previous contest but the Essex potter is a gritty grafter who is likely to give this match his full respect.

Craigie carved out a decent reputation as a junior and scored well to beat Ashley Carter and Dominic Dale in recent qualifying events but whether he should be favourite to beat King on a bigger stage is at least open to debate.

Recommendation
M King
1pt Evs Coral, Ladbrokes

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