The third quarter final in The Masters sees the world champion in action as Mark Selby looks to move another step towards the ‘Selby Slam’ on Friday afternoon. He takes on the former World Championship finalist Barry Hawkins inside the Alexandra Palace for a place in Saturday’s semi-final.
Mark Selby
In many ways Selby will be thanking his lucky stars that he is still in this tournament because Mark Williams looked like he was going to build up a significant advantage on him in the deciding frame of their first round match until a monster kick denied him the opportunity. Credit to Selby though. He gobbled up the chance he was given to win.
I suspect there was more than an ounce of the ‘Selby Slam’ pressure on the shoulders of Mark Selby in that first round and it will be interesting to see if he still has that here and if he does whether he can deal with it better. If he can’t this could turn into another full on battle which might suit the Jester anyway.
Barry Hawkins
Last year’s beaten finalist got his 2017 campaign underway in emphatic style with a 6-1 win over Shaun Murphy in the first round. His long game was in excellent order in that match and as a result of that he scored well. What was most impressive was how ruthless he was. Sometimes he hasn’t been the best of front runners so it was to his credit he was able to close that match out in style.
Hawkins has been showing some good form over the last 2-3 months and given how well he played in the first round he will certainly fancy the job here it must be said. He will need his safety to be in good order to come through here and he will have to score well when he gets the chances.
Head to Head
In all these two have met 16 times. You would expect Selby to be well ahead but he isn’t. He only leads 9-7 so Hawkins will certainly know he can beat the world number one. This will be their first meeting at The Masters.
Betting
I find this a tricky match to call. Can Hawkins play as well as he did in the first round? Is the ‘Selby Slam’ creating pressure that the world number one could do without? We may well only know the answers to those questions during the match so getting involved in the result isn’t for me.
Given that both never know when they are beaten and often produce their best form from behind in matches rather than in front I fancy there could be over 9.5 frames in this one. Selby loves a right good battle while Hawkins isn’t too far behind him in that regard so over 9.5 frames looks to have every chance here.
Tips
Back Over 9.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Paddy Power
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