The second match of the day in The Masters on Tuesday is an England vs Australia battle as Ali Carter takes on Neil Robertson at Alexandra Palace in London. Both men go into this first round clash looking for the win which will set up a quarter final against Ronnie O’Sullivan on Thursday.
Neil Robertson
When the Australian won the Riga Masters at the beginning of the season most people were thinking this would be one of those magic campaigns from him but it has gone completely the opposite way. Apart from a couple of semi-finals he has delivered little since that win in Latvia and he’ll be looking for a big second half of the season.
One thing Robertson has in his favour is a good record in this tournament. He won it 2012 and has been to two finals since then and hasn’t lost in the first round since 2010 which is quite some feat given the quality that is on show whenever this event is played.
Ali Carter
Ali Carter is another player who had some success at the beginning of the season. He won the World Open which pretty much booked his place back in this tournament but since then his form has dipped too in terms of lengthy runs in events but that just highlights the amount of quality there is around at the minute.
Carter is back at this tournament having missed it last year. This will be his 10th entry into this event but he has only made it past the first round twice in the previous nine times he has been here so he needs an improvement on that if he is to come through this week.
Head to Head
In all these two have met on 22 occasions and Robertson has powered into a 15-7 lead. That includes winning the last seven meetings. Prior to that they were fairly level but then Carter’s health issues took over and Robertson has now got a significant edge over him. This will be their second meeting at The Masters. Robertson won the first 6-1 back in 2015.
Betting
This match represents two players who have shown relatively poor form going into the week taking each other on here and so someone will get the win and the subsequent boost of confidence that comes with it.
I think that player will be Neil Robertson. He has won the last seven between these two and in truth in that time Carter hasn’t really got close to him. I’m not convinced he’ll get that close to him here either. I think the Christmas break will have come at a good time for Robertson. He has been winning some matches and scoring well in the Championship League and a repeat of that is likely to be enough here.
Tips
WON – Back N.Robertson (-1.5 frames) to beat A.Carter for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
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