The first round of The Masters is upon us and on Sunday we will see four fantastic players gracing the Alexandra Palace to battle it out for places in the quarter final of the most lucrative and prestigious invitation event in the game.
The afternoon session sees the defending champion Shaun Murphy kicking the tournament off when he begins his title defence against Mark Allen. These two met in the semi-final of the competition last year where obviously Murphy was victorious.
Apart from a run to the final of the Paul Hunter Classic it is fair to say that Murphy’s season hasn’t really got going yet and that would have to be a concern for both him and his fans but we’re into a new year now and maybe a reappearance at this iconic venue will kick him into life again.
Allen has had a much more productive campaign so far. He has won a European Tour event in Bulgaria and followed that up with a run to the final of the Champion of Champions, a tournament in a similar set up and environment to this one. He also made the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters so he’s in good touch right now.
I think this will be a really good match to open the tournament. Even when he isn’t in the best form Murphy’s long game is impeccable but Allen gets in from distance as well and he has a good safety game so this should be high quality and close.
Apart from that semi-final here last year when Murphy was far superior to anyone else in the tournament matches between these two have generally been quite tight and I expect this one to be too but when it gets tense and nervy maybe the man more used to winning this season will prevail and that is Allen. He looks a good price to come out on top in a close match.
The other match on the opening day sees the world champion Stuart Bingham taking on the former champion Ding Junhui. If you was to go on Masters history you would back Ding in this match but on current form you’d be a brave man to go down that route.
Ding’s form this season has been wretched. Aside from a low key Asian Tour event he hasn’t won more than two matches in any tournament this season and when you think he is seeded to avoid anyone in the top 32 until the third round that clearly isn’t good.
You’d be pushing it if you said that Bingham had been great this season but he did at least find some form in Gibraltar where he beat Ding in the second round on his way to the semi-final.
I always feel Ding has a love-hate relationship with this tournament. Since he won this tournament at Wembley in 2011 he has played all four runnings of it here and he’s still looking for his first win. I don’t see it coming here. I’m with Bingham in this one.
Back M.Allen to beat S.Murphy for a 4/10 stake at 2.60 with William Hill
Back S.Murphy vs M.Allen – Over 9.5 frames for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Back S.Bingham to beat D.Junhui for a 4/10 stake at 2.02 with Sportingbet
