The Ray Reardon Trophy will be won on Sunday when the final of the Welsh Open takes place inside Venue Cymru in Llandudno when Gary Wilson takes on Martin O’Donnell for the last Home Nations title of the campaign and the benefits which come with it.
Wilson is looking for a second Home Nations win in succession while O’Donnell will be going in search of a first major title of his career and the place in the Champion of Champions and everything else that the winner enjoys.
Gary Wilson
Gary Wilson goes into this final as an emphatic favourite to add this title to the one which he won at the Scottish Open a couple of months ago. He has actually won two titles in the past and this is his fifth ranking event final so he knows what it is all about and actually having won two of his previous four he has a decent conversion rate when you consider he isn’t classed as one of the elite players in the game. His defeats in finals were to Mark Selby and Mark Williams so we can’t hold those against him.
I think there are genuine claims that Wilson has played the best snooker this week. I thought that before he made a maximum break in the semi-final against John Higgins, a match where he made another century and could have had two more. At one stage in this tournament Wilson had won 14 consecutive frames and that takes some doing at this level so he looks to be playing the sort of snooker needed to come out on top here. He was favourite to win both Scottish Open finals and got the job done so you wouldn’t think pressure would get to him here.
Martin O’Donnell
This has been the biggest week in the career of Martin O’Donnell regardless of what happens in this final. When you consider that this time last year he didn’t have a tour card and now in his first campaign back at the top level he has made a major final and will make it into both the Players Championship next week and the Champion of Champions later in the year should he come out on top in this match. Even if he doesn’t win this final he is well on his way to keeping his tour card at the end of next season.
O’Donnell has done very well to make it through to this final. He took care of the world champion Luca Brecel in the quarter final and then finally got over the line against Elliot Slessor in the semi-final. O’Donnell has made a century in all bar one match this week and that included in the deciding frame of his semi-final which suggests that O’Donnell will handle the pressure and the occasion. That leaves the question of whether he is good enough to come out on top.
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Head-to-head
These two men have met eight times in their senior career and somewhat surprisingly they are level at 4-4 for those meetings. Another surprise is that it is actually O’Donnell who has the edge on the frame count. He has 25 frames to the 24 of Wilson but other than a meeting in the best-of-three Pro Series in 2021, they haven’t met in competition for more than eight years. This will be the first time they have faced each other in a final of any kind and it will also be the first time they have played over the best-of-17 or a match of more than one session. History doesn’t really tell us much about this final.
Betting
If you have followed me in throughout the week then you are in a good position because you have a betting slip with Gary Wilson to win this match at 33/1 in your possession and you have already got 16.5/1 guaranteed after he landed the place money with his win in the semi-final. I’m more than happy to let that stand because I do think that he wins this final but those who want to hedge off with him such an emphatic favourite have the opportunity to do so.
I mentioned above that Martin O’Donnell has made a century in every match he has played this week bar one so the 5/6 on him hitting over 0.5 centuries is a fair price here. I don’t think he will win this final but he is clearly playing well and Wilson does like to open the balls up and play a scoring game and I expect him to adopt that tactic here. He won’t always clear up though and O’Donnell has done enough to show he can put a decent break in. I think that price is well worth taking.
Tips
Back M.O’Donnell – Over 0.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
Back him here:
