The second match of the quarter finals in The Masters sees two men who were unfancied heading into the week doing battle for a spot in the semi-final on Saturday when Luca Brecel faces Ding Junhui at the Alexandra Palace.
Both men pulled off something of an upset in the opening round with Brecel seeing off the defending champion Mark Allen and Ding easing past one of the form men in the field in Jack Lisowski. There is a chance for one of them to go deep this week now.
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Luca Brecel
To be fair I don’t think too many could have seen Luca Brecel’s opening round performance coming. There is a strong argument to claim that it was the best he has ever played in a Triple Crown event and if he can back it up here then he is going to be very difficult to knock off. Consistency has always been an issue for the Belgian youngster though so that is anything but guaranteed.
Brecel was striking the ball about as well as I’ve ever seen him in that first round and it wasn’t as though Allen was playing badly. He actually did little wrong, Brecel was just awesome. If his long game works as well here then there is every chance that in just his second appearance in his tournament he will be a semi-finalist.
Ding Junhui
I had plenty of doubts over Ding Junhui heading into his first round match against Jack Lisowski and if I am honest I still have many of them. I don’t think there was a frame in Ding’s 6-1 win where Lisowski didn’t have a golden chance to fill his boots but his scoring shoes were completely missing, sadly for him. I don’t think Brecel will pass up the same sort of chances here.
If there is a positive for Ding it came in the form of the fact that when he was left in the balls by Lisowski, he was pretty ruthless and that could easily put the pressure on his opponent in this match too if he can start strongly. I can’t get away from Ding’s horrendous record in this tournament since he won it. His win on Monday night was just his second match win since 2011.
Head to Head
These two men have met on four past occasions and the results have been pretty consistent as Ding as won all of them. Their last meeting was in the 6-Reds tournament when Ding won a deciding frame semi-final in 2018. They also met in a World Open semi-final which Ding won 6-4. He also won 4-1 in a European Tour event in 2013 and 4-2 in the 2016 Welsh Open, so Brecel hasn’t really troubled him in his career to date.
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Betting
Luca Brecel might not have the best of records against Ding Junhui but in this venue I think he can get his first chalk on the board. For whatever reason this is not Ding’s favourite tournament and nobody will convince me otherwise. Even against Lisowski he was coughing up chances for fun but they weren’t being taken.
If, and it is a big if, Brecel plays like he did against Mark Allen on Sunday afternoon then I am confident he will win this match. He was scoring really well and he was hitting the ball sweetly. This is a big match for Brecel to set up the second half of the season and I fancy he’ll knuckle down and give it everything. He’s undoubtedly the value in this one at 19/10.
Tips
Back L.Brecel to beat D.Junhui for a 3/10 stake at 2.90 with Boylesports
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