The first round concludes over the course of the two sessions at Alexandra Palace on Wednesday, with the day beginning with a pearler of a contest between the world number two Judd Trump and the Northern Ireland Open champion Mark Allen.
Both these men have lifted the famous crystal trophy inside Alexandra Palace in the past and they will both be hoping to draw on those good memories to progress to a quarter final with the winner of the match in the evening.
Judd Trump
As much as he tries to deflect it, I think Judd Trump is under a bit of pressure coming into this match and tournament. He claims that he doesn’t put the big three events on the same pedestal as the others but when people look back on his career when it comes to a conclusion, it is these events he will be judged on not how he progresses in the lesser competitions. He has won the UK Championship, The Masters and the World Championship but the fact he has only won them once probably isn’t good enough for a man of his talents.
Trump beat O’Sullivan to win the title here in 2019 but amazingly that is the only time he has made the final of this event, which just goes to show how hard it is to win. Trump certainly isn’t someone who would be overawed by the intense and exciting atmosphere that the London crowd generates, neither would he have the crowd against him, so that poor record just suggests there is something else about the tournament. That combined with the noises about his lack of Triple Crown successes makes this a big match for Trump.
Mark Allen
Despite all the well publicised off table dramas that Mark Allen is having to play through at the minute, he will probably be happy with his season. There might be a sense that he is free wheeling from here on in this term because he won his home event at the Northern Ireland Open and anything else after that could be considered a bonus. He will relish the idea of playing someone who has brought out the best in his game religiously through the years.
Allen won this tournament in 2018 when he took care of Kyren Wilson to win the title but he probably isn’t going to need me to tell him that he hasn’t won a match in the event since then. He has lost to Luca Brecel and Dave Gilbert here in matches he would have been the favourite to win, and then behind closed doors to John Higgins last year. He will be doubly motivated for a win here, particularly as it will open his draw right up if he can achieve it.
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Head to head
I always think it is a surprising record when I look at the head to heads between these two as they have met 20 times and it is actually Allen who has the edge 11-9. That is reflected in the frame count where Allen leads 84-76. This will be just their second match at The Masters after they met in the wildcard round back in 2009. Allen won that match 6-4 and he has won their only meeting this season too. That came in the quarter final of the Northern Ireland Open where the home star came from 3-0 down to win 5-3. They have met seven times over the best of 11 frames and it is Allen who holds a 5-2 lead so history is very much on his side.
Betting
We should be in for an absolute cracker here between two of the best players to watch. If both of them are on top of their game this will be the tie of the first round but in truth it is quite hard to call. I think over time Trump is the better player but he doesn’t seem to bring out his best results here whereas the one thing we know about Mark Allen is he loves taking care of the big names and he loves doing it on stages such as the one he is presented with here.
I think the value lies with Allen here. Trump hasn’t had a particularly good season anyway. He has usually won multiple events arriving at this tournament but this term he is yet to win one. It might be that his intensity isn’t there or it might be that he is getting involved in giving his opinions and that is putting more pressure on him to deliver on the baize and it isn’t quite happening yet. Trump has lost to a number of players you wouldn’t expect him to this term and as long as the off table issues aren’t getting to him I fancy Allen can cause the upset here.
Tips
Back M.Allen to beat J.Trump for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with BetVictor
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