The last of the first round matches at The Masters might actually be the best of the entire draw as John Higgins meets Mark Allen in what is the evening clash inside the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes on Wednesday.
These two men have both won this title in the past and will be eyeing up a deep run this year having seen so many dangers for the crown disappear from the draw already. That should make this an extremely hard fought contest.
John Higgins
It hasn’t been the sort of season we would have expected from John Higgins so far with a run to the semi-final of the English Open all he really has to show for his efforts so far, and even then his critics could argue the draw opened up for him rather than he did anything special. One thing which has caught the eye recently is that Higgins played all of last week in the Championship League, eventually winning Group 3 on Saturday and I fancy that could be significant here.
I say that because in interviews he conducted earlier in the season Higgins was claiming about having a new cue so the more competitive hits he gets the quicker he will be up to top speed with it, and his play last week suggested he isn’t far away. We know that despite his results this season Higgins has an elite tactical nous so if he adds confidence and that familiar scoring power back into his artillery he is entitled to be tough to beat.
Mark Allen
In many ways you could say the same about the season that Allen is having as you can the one Higgins has had. Allen won the Champion of Champions in fine style but either side of it there have been a lot of indifferent results. He hasn’t been past the last 16 of any other tournament he has entered which is clearly not good for someone with his talents. Like Higgins, we know he can see off all-comers in this event as he did so when he won it in 2018.
An interesting thing to note is that after Allen won the Champion of Champions, Allen too changed his cue and in the outings that followed he has clearly struggled from long range. He has had plenty of time to work on that over Christmas but how much practicing he’ll have been able to do given the current lockdown restrictions remains to be seen. Unlike Higgins, Allen did not have the chance to get a competitive hit out last week at the Championship League.
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Head to Head
There have been 17 past meetings between these two fine exponents of the green baize and surprisingly it is Allen who holds the overall advantage although it is a narrow 9-8 winning record. The quirk to that is when you look at the frame count it is Higgins who is ahead and by a relatively comfortable showing at 92-84. Interestingly they have bet four times in The Masters and very strangely Allen has won all four battles. Higgins doesn’t have the best record in this tournament as a whole but that is still a bit of a surprise. Allen also won their latest meeting which was in the semi-final of this tournament three years ago.
Betting
History is on the side of Mark Allen here but we can get a little bit too caught up in what has gone before and not really focus on the here and now. I’m concerned for Allen in this match because although he has looked good in the balls with his new cue, his long game has looked all over the shop which is not good. John Higgins is also using a relatively new bat but he has gone past the stage where his long game was affected and ultimately it might be something like that which is the difference in this match.
The other thing which could be significant in this encounter is the fact that Higgins more than shook off the rust in the Championship League last week. Although I don’t take any notice of the form from that event, someone who has had six days of competitive action should be better placed than a man playing for the first time in a month. Higgins has sounded very enthusiastic in recent times and that is quite often a tell. I’ll take that and back to the Scot to come through what should be a cracking match here.
Tips
WON – Back J.Higgins to beat M.Allen for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
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