The eyes of China will remain on Alexandra Palace on Sunday evening as the darling of the Chinese people Ding Junhui begins his quest for a second Masters title. He takes on the only debutant in the tournament in Kyren Wilson for a place in the quarter finals.
The two men will meet over the best of 11 frames with the winner going through to face either Stuart Bingham or Joe Perry on Friday.
Ding Junhui
The World Championship finalist has two titles to his name this season. He went one further in the 6 red version of the World Championship than he did in the 15 red version and he followed that up with success in the Shanghai Masters too. Since then he has made it to the International Championship final and the semi-final in the Champion of Champions so he’s going well.
Whenever you think of Ding in The Masters the mind always drifts towards the final of 2007 when the crowd visibly ruined the Chinese star in a tame defeat to Ronnie O’Sullivan. He got revenge on that moment though when he won the title in 2011 but amazingly he hasn’t won a match in the event since.
Kyren Wilson
After a breakthrough season last year where he landed a first major title at the Shanghai Masters and made the quarter finals of the World Championship this season has been a little quieter for the Englishman. He made the final in India where Anthony McGill took him down. He also made the last four in Northern Ireland where the eventual champion Mark King was too good for him.
Wilson managed to hang on to the last spot in the rankings to get into this tournament so he will make his Alexandra Palace debut in this match and it will be interesting to see if he can settle. Wilson has the game to make a real name for himself this week but there have been more established players than he arrive in this tournament for the first time and wilt.
Head to Head
These two have met on four previous occasions with Ding holding a 3-1 head to head lead. Ding won the first three between them fairly comfortably but then lost their last meeting on the way to Wilson going on and landing the Shanghai Masters title.
Betting
I can’t ignore the fact that the recent record of Ding Junhui in this tournament is a concern. Losing in the first round five years in a row isn’t ideal but we need to take that record in a little more detail. Four of the defeats were to O’Sullivan, Robertson, Murphy and Bingham with Joe Perry the other man to beat him so you could argue he only lost one match he would have been widely expected to win.
That gives me a little more confidence in Ding because I think he will win this match. I like Kyren Wilson as regular readers will know but making your debut here is never easy and he hasn’t had the best season leading in. I expect Ding to be more comfortable in the arena and that can see him to a relatively comfortable win.
Tips
WON – Back D.Junhui (-1.5 frames) to beat K.Wilson for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Winner Sports
Back him here:
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