The second round of the European Masters begins on Wednesday. Everyone who has made it this far in the tournament will be the centre of attention as every match from here on in is on the main TV table which should add to the spectacle, the quality and indeed the drama.
We’re still over the best of seven frames but across the two sessions of play on Wednesday we have some of the very biggest names in the world on show from start to finish including one particularly juicy clash.
John Higgins vs Tom Ford
We begin the second round of the tournament with a legend of the game in John Higgins as he takes on Tom Ford for a place in the quarter final. Both men came through the opening round without any difficulty to set up this match.
Higgins is expected to win with the bookmakers and that is how we see it too. We’re already on the Wizard of Wishaw outright and given that he is no bigger than 2/5 to win the match we’ll sit this one out and hope he takes the win and goes a step closer to getting us an outright pay out.
Alfie Burden vs Ricky Walden
This match looks the most evenly matched one of the day as Alfie Burden takes on Ricky Walden. Their head to head suggests this one will be tight as most of their matches have gone to a deciding frame or a penultimate one and given how well they played in the first round there is everything to suggest this one will be tight too.
Burden started the season slowly but he has come to life in the last week and has won four matches in quick succession including his first round win over Yu Delu. For a man of undoubted quality Ricky Walden hasn’t done a huge amount this season and every tournament that goes by without him making the latter stages increases the pressure on him to deliver.
I think this is much more even than the odds suggest and given that the value has to be on Burden to come through. He is a confidence player and there is no doubt his confidence will be high heading into this. At a shade over 9/4 he’s the bet for me.
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Mark Allen
This is an outstandingly good last 16 match and comfortably the pick of the round. O’Sullivan looks to have warmed into his work nicely while Mark Allen is happy to take on anyone so this should be a cracker.
O’Sullivan has played two matches this week with just one frame conceded while Allen was on easy street in the previous round. I think Ronnie will win this but Allen will give him a good challenge and all the normal lines and prices look about right.
Neil Robertson vs Rhys Clark
The day finishes with former world champion Neil Robertson taking on Rhys Clark who has reached this stage of a ranking event for the first time in his career. On paper this one looks like a bit of a mismatch and I expect that to be the way it plays out.
This will be their first meeting but I’m expecting Robertson to run out a comfortable winner. Unfortunately the -2.5 handicap is odds on which isn’t all that inspiring so I’ll sit this game out too.
Tips
WON – Back A.Burden to beat R.Walden for a 3/10 stake at 3.30 with 888sport
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