The second match of the juicy looking day of action at The Masters sees two men who have graced the final of both this tournament and the World Championship doing battle as Barry Hawkins takes on Shaun Murphy inside Alexandra Palace.
Hawkins is yet to win either of those great tournaments whereas Murphy has won them both but whoever wins this will fancy their chances of going all the way this week, even allowing for the quality in the field.
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Barry Hawkins
It is almost like Groundhog Day for Barry Hawkins. Once again he comes into this tournament off the back of a quiet first half of the season. We saw the better side of him in the Shanghai Masters where he made the final, only to lose to Ronnie O’Sullivan, but apart from that there has been little to write home about for ‘The Hawk’ to date.
This isn’t the first time Hawkins has come to The Masters in the middle of a mixed campaign but each time he has done so he has finished the year strongly so we can only really assume that he puts all his attention into the bigger events after Christmas. With that in mind we should probably judge him on his tournament form rather than recent stuff, in which case he should give a good account of himself.
Shaun Murphy
Hawkins isn’t the only one who has arrived at this tournament after a poor first half to the season, Shaun Murphy has done likewise. He has an excuse though with issues away from the table with his child which saw him pull out of a tournament along the way. There were signs however that his form is returning when he made the final of the Scottish Open just prior to Christmas.
He made a big thing of announcing to the world that he is back with his old coach Chris Henry and for the switch to have such an immediate effect would suggest that there is plenty more to come from ‘The Magician’ over the remainder of the campaign. A couple of years ago he was a challenger in every tournament he played in and I wouldn’t be surprised if he threatens in a number of events in 2019.
Head to Head
Shaun Murphy has won 11 of the 17 meetings between these two. They include their Championship League matches. Hawkins has won six including the last two although they have been in the Championship League and the Shootout so we can’t take much from them. Murphy won their last ranking event match in the Gibraltar Open in 2017 but it is Hawkins who has won their only match in this tournament. That was in the first round two years ago when he won 6-1.
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Betting
I’m expecting a close match in the first match of Tuesday’s play and I’m not seeing a reason why we won’t get another one here. I’m expecting to see the best of Barry Hawkins in this match and the signs are that Shaun Murphy is getting back to his best form so there shouldn’t be much between these two throughout the contest.
I expect Murphy to use his 10 minute practice as he’s been banging on about it for years so he might have the early edge but Hawkins has enough about him to hang tough and give as good as he gets. I fancy we’ll see something of a back and forth match here so the natural bet is to get on over 9.5 frames with 6-4 or 6-5 the likely end scoreline.
Tips
Back Over 9.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with William Hill
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