The evening session at The Masters on Tuesday sees another former champion taking to the stage when Mark Williams takes on the recently invited Dave Gilbert for a place in the quarter final later in the week.
These two will battle it out for a place in the last eight where they know that Ronnie O’Sullivan will be waiting for whoever it is who comes out on top. We should be in for quite a competitive evening at Alexandra Palace.
Mark Williams
There were those who thought that Mark Williams was past his best and while this season he hasn’t gone extremely deep in a tournament, he finished 2022 off with a 147 in a losing effort in a pulsating English Open quarter final with Neil Robertson. Williams has had illness and injury issues to deal with but he looks to be building up a head of steam and it would not be a surprise if this classy left-hander goes deep in some events over the remainder of the season.
Williams should have made it through to the final here last year when he had Neil Robertson beat in the semi-final but allowed his man to wriggle off the hook. That was his first appearance in the last four in 12 years but he is at the stage of his career where every time he steps out here he wants to take it all in and make the most of it and he will be inspired by a huge crowd. It would be a surprise if Williams doesn’t play well here.
Dave Gilbert
When Dave Gilbert sat down for his Christmas dinner he probably thought he would be watching The Masters at home having missed out by one spot but then the fallout from the match fixing investigation started coming to light and eventually he was given an invitation into the event. We have already seen one man get a late entry and win his first round match this week and Gilbert will be hoping to follow the lead of Hossein Vafaei.
Gilbert won the first ranking event title of his career at the beginning of last season and most expected the floodgates to open for a man with the cue action that he has. That hasn’t been the case though and since then he has reached just six quarter finals and not gone past that stage in a tournament. One thing which will give confidence to Gilbert is he has appeared in The Masters twice and he has made the semi-final on both occasions so he knows he can perform here.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for this tournament! 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 nine previous occasions but they haven’t faced each other competitively since 2019. Williams has six wins to the three of Gilbert and he leads 46-41 in the frame count as well. This will be the first time they have done battle at The Masters and they have never previously played each other over the best of 11 frames either so just what we can take from their past meetings remains to be seen. This has a whole different feel to it.
Betting
Mark Williams is my outright selection in this tournament so I am hoping that he comes through this match unscathed. I won’t back him again because if he does win this he might well be a win over O’Sullivan away from getting us an each way pay out. I do actually think Williams will win this match. I think he is more composed of the two and these lightning fast conditions will suit him as he can just float balls in which he has gone throughout his career.
I think we’ll see a pretty open match here. Neither of these players like to get bogged down in safety play and this table is playing like a dream so I expect the breaks to flow quite naturally in this one. There haven’t been too many matches where a 1.5 centuries line has been offered up to us but that is the case here. I guess that is down to that historical thing about Williams not being interested in centuries but he made two in his last match of 2022 and has made 19 of them this season already. Gilbert has done nothing of note this season but has made 13 tons. Between the two I think we can get a couple of centuries here.
Tips
Back Over 1.5 centuries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
