We have two more first round matches in The Masters on Tuesday but it is the first one which will get the crowds flocking into the Alexandra Palace as Ronnie O’Sullivan begins his title defence against Marco Fu.
These two played out an excellent semi-final here last year and generally deliver good matches when they meet and everyone heading to the London venue or watching on TV will be hoping for the same here.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
This is Ronnie’s manor. He has won this tournament more times than anyone else in history and that is no surprise because he can play a match, win, go home and then do his other things before his next game rather than being consigned to hotel rooms and the boredom that can bring. His record in this event is certainly no fluke.
Not only does O’Sullivan have an excellent record in this tournament but he is in the middle of a fantastic season too. He has won the English Open, the Shanghai Masters and the UK Championship and he was beaten in the final of the Champion of Champions too so in terms of titles at this stage this is a career best campaign for the Rocket.
Marco Fu
This season has not gone to plan for Marco Fu. A fourth round of the Scottish Open is the furthest he has been in any event which is a concern in one way but maybe not in another as he has often been a slow starter to a campaign. He is the kind of player who only needs a couple of wins and all of a sudden he catches fire.
I have always maintained that you know how well Fu is playing by how he scores and with some seriously big events coming up it will be interesting to see how he scores here. He is becoming much more accustomed to the big stage and as a former finalist in this tournament we know the big crowds and tournament size does not faze him.
Head to Head
These two have met on a number of occasions. This will actually be their 29th meeting and Fu has a fair enough record. He has eight wins and three draw with 17 defeats but not many can better that record against the Rocket. Their last three meetings have all been over this distance, two of them in this tournament. O’Sullivan has won all three but Fu has pushed him to 6-5 and 6-4 in the last two meetings.
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Betting
All eyes will be on Ronnie O’Sullivan here to see what form he is in and whether he can start his title defence off in style and set up a quarter final with Mark Allen. I will be interested to see how Marco Fu plays here. He doesn’t have a huge amount to lose so he should approach it with the mindset of having a go.
With that in mind we should get an entertaining match here and I believe we will see more than 1.5 centuries. We saw this line covered in both matches yesterday despite each game not having two scorers like these two in them. O’Sullivan is racing towards 1000 centuries but Fu can score with the best of them so I’ll take the over on the 1.5 tons line in this one.
Tips
WON – Back Over 1.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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