The first round of The Masters continues inside Alexandra Palace on Tuesday afternoon and it does so with a very entertaining looking contest between the former champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and the wonderful to watch Jack Lisowski.
O’Sullivan begins his quest for an eighth Masters title in this match while Lisowski will be going in search of not just a first crown at Alexandra Palace but a maiden trophy of any kind. Neil Robertson awaits the winner in the quarter final.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Just when Ronnie O’Sullivan was beginning to be written off as a title winning force he goes and wins the final event of 2021 when he landed the World Grand Prix crown. He will be looking for successive titles this week in what is his own back yard where he receives a lot of support from a passionate London crowd. There was once a time when that would put him off but I think he relishes it now and looks to perform to the crowd.
O’Sullivan has won this tournament seven times already in his career so he is looking for history this week. There was a feeling that he was struggling to beat the top players earlier in the season but wins over Stuart Bingham and Neil Robertson at the World Grand Prix but that to bed. It is open to debate just how close the Rocket is to his best form but the one thing nobody can deny is that he doesn’t try harder in matches now than he did earlier in his career.
Jack Lisowski
You get the feeling we are getting close to the time that Jack Lisowski lands a major title. In the last month or so he has seen the likes of Zhao Xintong and Luca Brecel win big tournaments and he will be eager for a piece of that pie. He is certainly good enough but whether it will come here where he has no time to work his way into the tournament remains to be seen. You suspect it won’t but he is perfectly good enough to win four matches even in this company.
Lisowski was one of the two players who was forced to miss this tournament last year after he tested positive for Covid on the eve of it. That will fire up plenty of motivation within him, as will the fact he has never won a match at this tournament. He has only played in it twice losing 6-1 to Ding Junhui in 2019 and then 6-2 to Kyren Wilson in 2020. Alexandra Palace hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for him yet but he has nothing to lose in this match.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account to get up to £25 in free bets! Perfect offer for this event! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Head to head
These two have met on three previous occasions and it is O’Sullivan who has won the lot. He hasn’t just won them, he has completely dominated them and that is reflected in their frame totals. O’Sullivan has won 17 of the 21 they have played with Lisowski winning just four so Ronnie doesn’t just win these matches, he has plenty to spare in them. The pair have played two of their three matches over this best of 11 distance and O’Sullivan has won them both 6-1, the most recent of which was at the Players Championship last year when ‘The Rocket’ was in overdrive.
Betting
I think this will be their closest match so far. I don’t think Lisowski fears O’Sullivan any more whereas when they have met in the past he might have done. The problem Lisowski has in terms of beating O’Sullivan is that Ronnie clearly rates his game and generally when you have the respect of the Rocket he performs to a high level and beating him is very tough. Lisowski is probably the best version of him he can be right now though so I expect him to rise to the challenge.
O’Sullivan scores very heavily against Lisowski with 12 of the frames he has won against him coming with a 50 break or more. Interestingly, Lisowski has only won four frames against O’Sullivan in his career and yet he has made five 50s against him. I don’t think those scoring statistics are a surprise. These two love to score and I don’t expect there to be many scrappy frames or much safety to be played. That makes me think that over 7.5 50 breaks will land here. We might well get it in just eight frames but I fancy this will be closer than that.
Tips
Back Over 7.5 50+ breaks for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Betfair
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
