The Scottish Open final will take place inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes on Sunday when the defending champion Mark Selby takes on the world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan over the best of 17 frames.
The Stephen Hendry Trophy is the reward for the winner as we complete the penultimate Home Nations tournament in what should be a cracking conclusion to what has been a pretty decent week of snooker to date.
Mark Selby
Mark Selby came back to Milton Keynes this week looking to make a successful defence of the title and he is now within one win of achieving that aim. He has played some lovely snooker this week and would be a deserving champion were he to keep hold of his title. There was a school of thought that he might struggle given the way his season ended last term but he has come back stronger and goes in search of a second title of the campaign here.
Selby has largely gone unchallenged this week with the only real battle he has had coming into the quarter final against Ricky Walden but he was 3-1 and 4-2 up in that before getting over the line. We know all about his fighting qualities and the way he relishes a battle but actually this week we’ve seen him lead from the front with a barrage of scoring and that should have him in an excellent frame of mind heading into this final.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
There is always something going on with Ronnie O’Sullivan at tournaments this days and this week it has been all about his tip. To be fair to him one or two that he has used even to the amateur eye has clearly sounded awful. For a normal professional changing tips regularly throughout a tournament would give them no chance but it is further indication of how good O’Sullivan is that he has still been able to come through the draw unscathed and make it to this final.
You sensed that he was happier with his equipment in the semi-final and from 4-1 down to Li Hang he powered his way through with four decent breaks in five frames but this will be a different ball game entirely. You get the feeling that this will be as much a mental battle for the world champion as it will be a technical one but there is no greater winner in the game than O’Sullivan so we can be absolutely sure he’ll be up for this one.
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Head to Head
These two have met on 27 different occasions in the past and it is O’Sullivan who holds a pretty strong advantage having come out on top in 16 of those matches to the 10 of Selby. They have also played out a draw in the Premier League back in the day as well. It is a sign of the dominance O’Sullivan has that he holds a huge advantage in the frame count. He leads by 33 at 178 to 145 which suggests that most of his wins come by a wide margin and his defeats are narrower. This will be the ninth time they have met in a final with O’Sullivan trailing in this category as it is Selby who has won five of their eight previous title showdowns. O’Sullivan has won their last matches though including that epic World Championship semi-final last time out.
Betting
I expect Mark Selby to come out on top in this match however. I wouldn’t say he’ll win going away but the beauty of Selby is that he doesn’t need to win in that fashion. He is more than capable of battling his way to victory if needs be but the way he is scoring this week tells me he could lead from the front and pull clear if he can get O’Sullivan under pressure early on and thinking about his equipment and everything else.
Even when he played well in the semi-final Hang got chances and the way Selby is playing if those opportunities are presented to him you just don’t expect him to not capitalise on that. I would imagine Selby will want some revenge for that World Championship defeat, a match we should remember that he was in complete control of until the very end. I think he’ll be doubly determined to win this match and I don’t think he’ll fail in that quest.
Tips
WON – Back M.Selby to beat R.O’Sullivan for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back him here:
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