After a week of good snooker mixed in with bad we are down to the final of the Champion of Champions. On Sunday Ronnie O’Sullivan will bid for a third title when he takes on a Shaun Murphy who is looking to win this title for the very first time.
Both men have had good runs at the Ricoh Arena to date and they should be primed to give us a high quality conclusion to an event which is really becoming one of the best on the calendar.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
O’Sullivan had to come through the hardest of the four groups to make it into the semi-final but when he was there he was given the lowest ranked player of the four to make it to the knockout stages. Although on paper it was a match he was expected to dominate, Anthony Hamilton put him under pressure early but we just saw how comfortable O’Sullivan is in his own skin in the end.
The Rocket will go in search of a second title in the space of three weeks here having landed the English Open title last month and if he plays in this final how he did in that one then he is going to take some beating. There appears to be no weakness to his game right now and that makes him a very dangerous proposition.
Shaun Murphy
If anything the path Murphy has taken to this final has been the exact opposite to the one that O’Sullivan has trodden. Murphy had a comfortable group I think it is fair to say. No group is easy in this event but with no disrespect intended you would take Mark King and Michael White over some of the options that is for sure.
At times Murphy was workmanlike in coming through that group but he wasn’t that in the semi-final. He played to a very high quality and importantly he scored well and that is something he will need to replicate and some if he is going to make it through this final successfully. He will need assurance of mind and stick to his gameplan too.
Head to Head
There have been 14 meetings between these two in the past with 10 of them going the way to O’Sullivan and generally the longer formats have seen him win very comfortably indeed. He has wins of 13-7, 13-3 and 13-10 over him in the World Championship. Murphy has beaten O’Sullivan three times himself though and there has been one draw so the Magician is not a forlorn hope according to the head to head but he is very much up against it.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I can’t see past Ronnie O’Sullivan here. I want the final to be close because it has been a good week and I think the tournament deserves that but I’m not convinced it will be. I say that because O’Sullivan is oozing confidence right now and he seems really settled with both his form and his life which is good to see.
Murphy will get his chances in this final but he is going to have to take every one of them to keep this close let alone win the match. He’ll take some of course but over this distance I think the relentless pressure O’Sullivan will put on him will be too much. The Rocket will have bursts of form in this final and a couple of those will see him pull away from Murphy.
Tips
Back R.O’Sullivan (-3.5 frames) to beat S.Murphy for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Unibet
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
