The Alex Higgins Trophy will be won on Sunday when Mark Allen takes on John Higgins in the final of the Northern Ireland Open inside the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on what promises to be a tasty day of snooker over in Belfast.
Allen is playing in front of a home crowd here which are sure to be pretty passionate as he goes in search of his home tournament for the first time, but he comes up against one of the best to ever pick up a cue in Higgins so we are set for a mouth-watering final over the best of 17 frames.
Mark Allen
When you consider it is his home tournament, Mark Allen didn’t have the best record coming into the week, however he has a huge chance to right that wrong here. He deserves his place in this final without a doubt. He took care of the defending champion in the quarter final but didn’t exactly have it easy in the last 16 when he encountered Stephen Maguire who was in decent form at the time. When you consider he kicked off the event with a maximum break, it has already been a good week for the home man.
It can be a better one if he comes out on top here though and there have been signs that since the interval of the quarter final against Trump that he has just started to find his best form. He was very good in the final four frames of that match and then showed much of his class against Ricky Walden in the semi-final. He will have the support of the crowd in this final, which he hopes will make all the difference to him over the course of the day.
John Higgins
This is the first time John Higgins has made it through to the final of this tournament so he’ll be hoping to be a bit of a party pooper and land the trophy of his namesake here. He too hasn’t had it easy this week with Luca Brecel one of his early victims before he overcame the challenges of Dave Gilbert in the quarter final and then Yan Bingtao in the semi-final. That should have hardened him up for what is likely to be a very tough final.
Higgins’ week has kind of followed the same path as that of his opponent for this match. He began the week in and out but from 2-0 down to Gilbert in the quarter final onwards he has been very good and in his semi-final win over Bingtao, we started to see glimpses of the Higgins which steamrolled the field at the Players Championship last season. If he can handle the occasion and the atmosphere, the Scot looks to have a great chance here.
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Head to Head
These two men couldn’t be any closer in their head to head as they have played 18 times and each of them have come out on top on nine occasions. When you look at the frame count though Higgins is leading 98-89 which suggests he either wins their longer battles or when he wins he does it more comfortably than Allen. This will be their first meeting since The Masters when Higgins got the better of Allen in a deciding frame. Surprisingly, this is the first time the two men will have met in a final but it is the fifth time they will have played in a multi-session match. Allen won’t like to be reminded that it is Higgins who has won the previous four of those so that might sway history on the side of the Scot.
Betting
I have this as a 50:50 match, maybe with the slight advantage of Mark Allen because you could tell during his post-match interview after his semi-final win that John Higgins is already concerned that the atmosphere might deny him the chance of playing his best snooker. There is that concern for those who want to get involved in the match betting. I’m not one of those as having backed Allen for the title at 18/1 before a ball was struck I’m hoping he can finish the job off here and am more than happy to let that ride throughout the day.
When Mark Allen is in the balls though he looks supreme at the minute. He was rattling in centuries for fun in the Championship League earlier in the season and he already has five of them to his name this week including that magical maximum break to kick the week off with. He is 10/11 to have more than 1.5 tons to his name in this final and if he can get into a rhythm I expect that to land. He generally scores well against Higgins. I guess he knows he has to score well to win and is prepared to take a few risks regarding opening the balls up and going for the big breaks and in a match I expect him to be well up for, Allen to nail two centuries looks a fair bet to me.
Tips
Back M.Allen – Over 1.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
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