The last match of the first round of The Masters is an all-Scottish clash as John Higgins takes on Anthony McGill at the Alexandra Palace for the right to face Ryan Day in the quarter final later in the week.
This is an interesting clash between experience and inexperience and it will be interesting to see who comes through. These two are good friends which adds another dynamic to the contest.
John Higgins
Given his deserved status in the game it is fair to say that John Higgins’ record in this tournament should be better than it is. It is not bad by any means. He has won the title on two occasions but since he last won it in 2006 he has only reached two semi-finals and when you consider in that time he’ll have faced lower ranked opposition in the first round it suggests a dislike or discomfort for the event.
Higgins does at least carry some positive form into the competition with him. He has already won the Indian Open this season, beating McGill in the final, and made it to the semis in the Shanghai Masters and the Scottish Open so he is playing well and another title or two before the campaign is done would be no surprise.
Anthony McGill
The second debutant to make his first Masters appearance is Anthony McGill. He will be hoping for a much better time of things than Luca Brecel, the other debutant in the event, had. McGill is a really improved performer in recent years and is fully deserving of his place in the tournament. He has nothing to lose here but he might feel a little pressure to justify his position in the event.
McGill has been fairly consistent this season too. He was a semi-finalist in the English Open where he laid it down to Ronnie O’Sullivan before being beaten and he also lost to Higgins in the final of the Indian Open where he was one win away from defending his title. This is a whole new scale though and how he copes will be interesting to see.
Head to Head
These two have met eight times in official competition but they will have played each other in practice much more than that. In competition Higgins holds a 5-3 lead which includes a 5-1 win in the Indian Open final and 4-0 in the Champion of Champions this season. McGill won their last best of 11 frame match in the 2014 UK Championship, a match he won in a deciding frame.
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Betting
The head to head between these two is relatively tight but the one match I can’t ignore when assessing this match is their last meeting at the Champion of Champions. John Higgins won that 4-0 and that was a similar set up to this. One table environment, big stage, decent crowd and McGill really struggled. This is that only magnified a few times so I’ve got to think Higgins has a massive advantage on experience alone.
Higgins has been here plenty of times and while he may not necessarily like the place or the tournament be his favourite he is always competitive even when he is beaten. If he can get ahead early on I think he can power clear as we saw him do in Coventry.
The other bet I like is over 1.5 centuries. The centuries just keep on coming in this tournament and we don’t necessarily need a close match to get this line covered. We saw O’Sullivan win 6-0 on Tuesday and there were three centuries in that and the other more one-sided match when Allen beat Brecel 6-3 had two tons in it. Higgins scores as well as anyone but McGill can dish up too. The price is enough to lure me in given the number of centuries we are seeing on this table.
Tips
Back J.Higgins (-2.5 frames) to beat A.McGill for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back Over 1.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Bet365
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