The last of the quarter finals in The Masters takes place on Friday evening when former winner John Higgins takes on Ryan Day in what should be another match of high quality inside the Alexandra Palace in London.
Both men came past solid opponents in the first round with some decent snooker and having seen Ronnie O’Sullivan go out on Thursday they will know their reward for winning is a crack at Mark Allen in the semi-final instead.
John Higgins
It was a match of two halves for John Higgins in the opening round. He looked to be really struggling as he fell 4-2 down to Anthony McGill but to his credit he found something in his game to turn things right around and eventually he came through 6-4 with plenty of relief and now I dare say a lot of belief that this could be his week.
At no real stage was it vintage Higgins against McGill but it is never easy playing a friend in sport so we can afford to cut him some slack. I would be surprised if he is not a lot better here if for nothing else than it would be in keeping with his form so far this season which has generally been pretty good.
Ryan Day
Apart from the first three frames I thought Ryan Day was very impressive in the first round. I was in the arena for that match and to be fair he looked ready to throw the towel in with Ding having had a bit of luck in those early stages but when he got his cue arm going he looked every bit the tournament winner that he now is.
He slammed in three centuries in the six frames that he won in what was a very well deserved victory in the end. The way he ended the match will have given him bundles of confidence going into this one and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him kick on again. He seemed to relish the occasion against Ding which is half the battle here.
Head to Head
Including their matches in the Championship League these two have met 21 times in their career with Higgins winning 14 to just the seven of Day. These two are no stranger to a deciding frame having played four of them in those matches while their only previous match over this distance was close too. That came in the semi-final of the China Open back in 2009. Higgins won 6-4 on that occasion.
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Betting
I’ve been weighing in on the centuries so far this week but something has happened to this tournament since Ronnie O’Sullivan was knocked out of it and everyone seems to have tightened right up. Whether that is because the tournament has opened up and they are all feeling a bit tighter or whether the table has started playing tough I’m not sure but at odds on for the 1.5 tons in this one I think I’ll look elsewhere.
Given how everything has tightened up and how these two are playing I think the natural bet is to take over 9.5 frames. It should be a cracking atmosphere for the pair to play in and I would imagine they will both rise to the occasion because of that. These two are delivering a decent standard so over 9.5 frames appeals.
Tips
Back Over 9.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Bwin
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