The opening match of The Masters sees the defending champion Mark Allen gracing the Alexandra Palace stage as he begins his title defence against the extremely talented, but mercurial at the same time, Luca Brecel.
The two men will battle it out to be the first to six frames and book a spot in the quarter final of the tournament at the earliest opportunity. Both men are used to the big stage now so we should be in for an entertaining opening to the event.
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Mark Allen
What a 2018 it was for Mark Allen. He won the title at Alexandra Palace to begin it, raced to the International Championship trophy, reached the UK Championship final where only Ronnie O’Sullivan was too good for him and then the following week he won the Scottish Open. Years like that don’t come along too often so he shouldn’t expect to emulate it in 2019 but he’s in great form and it would be a surprise if he doesn’t win more titles this time around.
Allen’s scoring game has been a joy to behold so far this season. He is scoring as well as anyone and might hold claims for being the heaviest scorer in the game at the present time. His tactical game has always been good so as long as he has got the cue out after Christmas early enough to prepare for this there is a lot to like about the Northern Irishman.
Luca Brecel
The Belgian Bullet made his debut in the tournament 12 months ago and was given a good going over in the first round by the man he takes on in the opening match of this year’s renewal. Brecel hasn’t had a particularly encouraging record this season and when his China Championship success comes off his ranking later in the year he is set to plummet down the pile.
When he is at his best though, Brecel is a competent and natural scorer who makes the game look easy. He can be guilty of being a little too open and attacking but it is hard to criticise any sportsman for wanting to entertain. If he can just rein it in a touch it might help him moving forward to push on for yet more titles.
Head to Head
These two men have met on four occasions and Mark Allen has won the lot of them, including that match here last year. That was their most recent meeting but Allen has also won in Shanghai, the UK and a PTC event so he will be very confident going into this match. One area that highlights the dominance that Allen has is the cumulative frame score between the two. It is 21-8 in Allen’s favour which is pretty emphatic.
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Betting
We have two of the best scorers in the game on show in this match so it stands to reason that we are going to see plenty of big breaks. With that in mind I’m slightly surprised that the 1.5 centuries line pays as much as 10/11 in this one. Luca Brecel has banged in four tons in the Championship League in the lead up to this tournament while Mark Allen has 38 tons on the season already this term.
Allen made two tons when he beat Brecel here last year and he could easily repeat that feat here with the way that he is scoring but I fancy we might see some fireworks from the Belgian in this match so whoever gets them I quite like the idea that we are going to see at least a brace of tons in this one.
Tips
WON – Back Over 1.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
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