The quarter finals of The Masters begin inside the Alexandra Palace in London on Thursday with the people’s champion Ronnie O’Sullivan gracing the People’s Palace first up as he takes on Ryan Day in the opening last eight clash of the tournament.
O’Sullivan cruised into the quarter finals and will be on a mission to follow up his UK Championship success with one in The Masters but Ryan Day laid a marker down in the first round in beating John Higgins and will have a good go here I’m sure.
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Ronnie O’Sullivan
The seven time champion of this tournament breezed past Stuart Bingham in the opening round of this year’s renewal. To be fair, Bingham never showed up and was clearly overawed by the occasion or the venue, and that is actually something a lot of O’Sullivan’s opponents have felt when taking him on this term. It will be interesting to see if anything is different here.
I wouldn’t say O’Sullivan was flawless in the first round but when his chances came he didn’t need too many invitations to take them, and if he was nervous and rusty as he suggested in his post-match interview then there could be even more to come from him. O’Sullivan has a lovely path to the final and it would be a huge surprise if he passed it up.
Ryan Day
You have to give full credit to Ryan Day for coming out on top of John Higgins in a deciding frame in the opening round on Sunday evening. Usually when Higgins has got himself in a tussle he comes out in front so Day should be given plenty of plaudits for coming through. He was the better player on the night but that doesn’t always mean that he would come out with the win.
It took Day a couple of frames to get going against Higgins though. That will be a concern because he doesn’t exactly want the Rocket getting a head start on him but when you turn that around, he struck the ball very sweetly even when behind to Higgins, so Day isn’t going to back for heart or fight in this match. If he loses it will be because he is not good enough.
Head to Head
These two have met on seven previous occasions down the years with O’Sullivan coming out on top in five of them. That includes their last meeting which was in the 2016 Championship League. Day has actually won their last two major event meetings although the last of those was in 2011. That might not be a bad thing for the Welshman though because he is inferior to the player he was back then. Things are fairly tight in the frame totals too with O’Sullivan only leading 34-26. This will be their first meeting in The Masters.
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Betting
I think Ronnie O’Sullivan will come through here but I hope for the sake of the tournament that Day makes this a decent spectacle. He has nothing at all to lose so he should come out and have a go and that will make it interesting if indeed he does do that. I’ll head to one of the side markets for a bet on the match though.
I’m going to head to the centuries market here. Both men made two centuries in the first round of the tournament and both had other decent breaks too. I don’t see Day shutting up the shop here. I really think he’ll go after the balls and try and outscore O’Sullivan. He is an aggressive player anyway and I believe that would be the best way for him to go anyway in truth. O’Sullivan rarely goes a match without scoring a century these days. I think the 5/6 on over 1.5 of them is too big here.
Tips
Back Over 1.5 centuries for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with TLCBet
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