The later match on the second day of The Masters sees two former winners of the tournament battling it out for a place in the quarter final when Shaun Murphy takes on Mark Williams inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.
Murphy finally landed this crown in 2015 while Williams first won the trophy back in 1998 and added the title in 2003. One of these two players will be three wins away from recapturing the most prestigious invitational event in the game.
Shaun Murphy
Given how well he played for the majority of last season, this term thus far has to be described as a bit of a non-event for the Magician to date but we’ve seen plenty of players arrive here a little short on wins and go deep and propel themselves for what is to come over the remainder of the campaign. Murphy did make a semi-final in the European Masters at the beginning of the season but has run into a combination of big performances against him and practice opportunity issues since then.
If we look back to last season we know that Murphy is still capable of competing with the company he is in here and he generally has a decent enough record in this tournament. As a connoisseur of the game we also know that he will be all out to perform at his best in this given that it is one of the biggest events on the calendar. If Murphy can score well here then you would think he is going to be extremely tough to beat.
Mark Williams
It is never easy to truly weigh up the game of Mark Williams at present. We saw when he won the world title three years ago that he still possesses the talent and the game to deal with the best players in the world. The one thing we can be less sure of is just how motivated he is to do well and still win these big tournaments. The Welshman has been pretty selective with the events he has entered this season. That might be down to the restrictions in place but he wasn’t entering every event before then.
As a result of that we’ve seen Williams suffer from indifferent defeats this season and while there was signs of life at the Scottish Open just prior to Christmas, it remains to be seen what he will offer here. Defeats to Peter Devlin, Paul Davison and Dominic Dale earlier in the campaign suggests that he either doesn’t have the same interest in winning or that he hasn’t put nearly enough work in to allow him to do it. Either way, he’ll need to play well to win here.
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Head to Head
These two stars have met on 18 previous occasions and it is Murphy who holds the edge in them with 10 wins to the eight of Williams. Fittingly they have competed over 147 frames in their careers with Murphy again holding a narrow lead at 75-72 which suggests that their meetings are generally pretty tight and lengthy. This will be their second meeting at The Masters after Williams won their only previous one which was a quarter final back in 2010. Murphy goes into this match having won their last three encounters, the latest two of which he came through in a deciding frame.
Betting
I’ve already backed Shaun Murphy for the tournament and having seen the earlier match on Monday I’m quite happy with that investment but having seen the prices on him to win this match I have to be on him to come through here too. While Murphy isn’t having the best season to date he still looks like he is cueing pretty well and doesn’t carry the inactivity issue that could be a concern with regards to Williams in this match.
There is every chance that Williams will run Murphy close if we base it on their previous meetings but defeats to Devlin, Dale and Davison earlier in the campaign highlight that Williams is vulnerable at the minute. Generally it has taken a decent performance to beat Murphy this season and over this distance I’m not convinced that the Welsh star can play enough mistake free snooker to keep Murphy under pressure. Whether it is comfortable like the matches have been so far or it is tight like their clashes have tended to be, I like Murphy to come through here.
Tips
WON – Back S.Murphy to beat M.Williams for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with Betfair
Back him here:
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