The second day of action in The Masters at Alexandra Palace on Monday sees some really big names in action including two former world finalists as places in the quarter finals are at stake.
Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins will both be looking to make it into the last eight although both will be aware their records in this tournament are indifferent in the extreme. Stephen Maguire and Joe Perry are the two men who will be aiming to stop them.
Trump and Maguire meet in the afternoon session. This is the second year in a row that they meet in the opening round of this tournament. Maguire won 12 months ago and he’s good value to win again.
Maguire seems to have an excellent record against Trump and I’ve noticed in the past that he seems to raise his game against him. The Scot knows how to play Trump so his record is no fluke and certainly he’ll fancy his chances here.
Trump doesn’t have the best record in The Masters. He has only won one match in this tournament in the last three years and has lost in the first round in each of the last two runnings of this event which isn’t ideal.
Maguire’s excellent record against Trump and his much better record in this tournament leads me to think he is great value here. He has the edge on Trump in the safety game and matches him in the break building department so I’ll go with the Scot here.
Given how well Maguire scores I’m surprised we can get 7/4 on him scoring a century in this match. We saw four centuries on the opening day of action so we know the table is playing nicely and that price is just too big and is worth a small stake.
In the evening Barry Hawkins will have a sixth attempt at winning a match at The Masters. He has been to this tournament five times and has lost his opening match on each occasion with Ken Doherty, Ryan Day, Judd Trump, Ricky Walden and Ali Carter the men to have beaten him so far.
Joe Perry is the latest man looking to take advantage of Hawkins’ misery in this tournament. Perry’s record wasn’t fantastic in this tournament but he got the winless monkey off his back last year when he defeated Ding Junhui in the first round last year before Mark Allen saw him off in the quarter final.
I always feel Perry is the more composed and you’ve got to think Hawkins’ record in this event could play on his mind going into this match and if the game is a tight one he might struggle to get over the line. I don’t see Perry having any such problems. Having won a tournament last year he now knows he belongs at this level and that belief can lead to a second Masters first round win here.
Back S.Maguire to beat J.Trump for a 4/10 stake at 2.63 with Betway
Back S.Maguire Over 0.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Bet365
Back J.Perry to beat B.Hawkins for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Sportingbet
Blog snooker YTD: +14.9pts
