The best has been saved for last as far as the quarter finals of The Masters is concerned as two of the greats of the game collide in the Marshall Arena on Friday night when John Higgins takes on Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Dave Gilbert awaits the winner in the last four but there is no doubt that with the draw opening up as much as it has that whoever wins this contest will be the favourite to lift the trophy on Sunday night. This is always a clash to savour but this one should be extra special.
John Higgins
The first round match for John Higgins in this tournament was a very strange one. He looked to be in control and have everything in hand throughout the match against Mark Allen but found himself in a deciding frame having led 5-3. It looked like the Scot was battling a few demons with regard to getting over the line, which is incredible when you think how often he has won big matches, but to his credit he played an excellent deciding frame to book his spot in this quarter final.
The thing which will have concerned Higgins supporters were the strange misses that came all too regularly against Allen. To be fair to the Scot he put together five decent runs but you can often tell just how confident Higgins is and how close he is to his best by the breaks that he made. He didn’t hit a century against Allen which is unlike him so you’ve got to think that he is still searching for his very top form. He might need to have found it to come through here.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
It was a bit of a match of two halves for Ronnie O’Sullivan in the first round against Ding Junhui. He gave his Chinese opponent a three frame head start, although to be fair Ding played excellently to get to that stage, but when the Rocket finally launched he played some of the best snooker he has delivered since he won the world title back in August. His cueing was pristine and there were no parts of his game that looked out of line.
I suggested going into that match that O’Sullivan would know that the remainder of the ‘big four’ had already departed the tournament and that was the impression he gave. He knows there is a huge chance for another Masters title this week and I expect him to go from strength to strength from here on in. O’Sullivan tends to bring his best game out against the players he respects the most and he respects nobody more than Higgins.
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Head to Head
These two men have been opposing each other for more than 25 years and have faced each other on 65 previous occasions with O’Sullivan coming out on top in 34 of them to the 28 of Higgins. There have been three draws in that time as well. O’Sullivan has a pretty comfortable edge in the frame count too where he leads 370-347. These two have met in many bigger matches than this in terms of finals and semi-finals but this will also be their 22nd quarter final. O’Sullivan holds an 11-10 lead at this stage of a tournament. These two have met at The Masters three times previously, all of which were in the final. O’Sullivan won the title in 1995 and 2005 while Higgins denied him with that famous clearance in the deciding frame in 2006.
Betting
I’m hoping this will be a cracking match to fill our Friday night snooker watching but I fear it could be a little one-sided in the favour of Ronnie O’Sullivan. The world champion has won the last three meetings between the two men and won by pretty comfortable margins in all three outings and there are question marks over whether Higgins is playing as well now as he was on those occasions. I’m not convinced that he is and that is a concern.
You have to go back to 2010 for the last time O’Sullivan lost to Higgins over this best of 11 format and I’m not sure that is changing here. The consistency and scoring power just doesn’t look there in the Higgins game right now. O’Sullivan still carries that aura about him and loves this tournament and I expect to see something close to his best snooker here. Higgins has the all-round game to hang around here but I don’t see him winning more than four frames. I’ll take O’Sullivan to cover a 1.5 frame handicap here.
Tips
Back R.O’Sullivan (-1.5 frames) to beat J.Higgins for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Coral
Back him here:
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