The last two quarter final spots will be filled at The Masters on Wednesday when the first round is concluded over the two sessions of play at Alexandra Palace. The afternoon game sees the former finalist Kyren Wilson taking on Jack Lisowski.
Both these men will have watched on and seen the draw open right up and see the opportunity for a massive run ahead of them so it will be interesting to see who grasps the nettle and takes their chance to progress.
Kyren Wilson
It has been an up and down season for Kyren Wilson but he’ll be looking for some consistent results over the second half of it to turn it from an ok one into something special. That could well start here if he can come through this match. We’ve heard all year how he has been tinkering with his technique to find that extra percent to take him to the next level, but it does look to have had an impact on his results.
He made the final of the Paul Hunter Classic but that is only a tiny event these days. His only other run of note was in the World Open where he made the semi-final but was beaten by Thepchaiya Un-Nooh from a winning position. He did make the final here two years ago though so unlike plenty in this tournament, he has positive memories of Alexandra Palace and he will hope they inspire him to deliver the goods.
Jack Lisowski
Slowly but surely we are seeing why Jack Lisowski has had so much hype around him throughout his career. His talent has never been in question, but much like his good mate Judd Trump his shot selection and safety game needed a lot of work. That penny has slowly dropped and the results are coming through that. He hasn’t yet won a major title but he has been knocking on the door enough to think that silverware is not going to be far away.
It had been a quiet campaign for Lisowski prior to the Scottish Open where he made it all the way to the final, delivering what many believe to be his best performance in the semi-final against Mark Allen, before doing little wrong in defeat to Mark Selby in the final. He also made two finals last term so that win isn’t far away. He has only played one match in The Masters in the past, which was a 6-1 defeat to Ding Junhui last year but he looks a much better player now.
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Head to Head
These two World Cup teammates have met on nine previous occasions and it is Jack Lisowski who leads 6-3 although Kyren Wilson won their only meeting this season in the World Open. In terms of frames Lisowski leads 35-30 which suggests that they have relatively close meetings. That is certainly the case when it comes to their matches over the best of 11 frames like this one. There have been two of them with Wilson winning one 6-4 and Lisowski winning the other 6-5, which suggests we should get a decent contest here.
Betting
I think Jack Lisowski will win this match but I’m already on him outright so I’m going to let him get into the tournament before tucking into him to pick up victories. The way the draw has opened up already, if he wins this match there is absolutely nothing to stop him making the final at least, so this is a pretty big match for me betting wise already. I will take on one bet from the side markets for the match though.
That comes in the highest break market where I’m a little surprised that Lisowski is the outsider in the market. He has hit the highest break in six of the nine meetings between these two and is the more natural scorer of the pair as well. Lisowski caught fire in the back end of 2019 racking up nine centuries in the Scottish Open and the qualifiers for the European Masters and German Masters. Wilson’s better scoring came earlier in the season so the 11/10 on Lisowski to hit the highest break will do for me.
Tips
WON – Back J.Lisowski Highest Break for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back him here:
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