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The Masters Snooker 2025 – Shaun Murphy vs Mark Allen Tips and Betting Preview

It is semi-final Saturday at The Masters with four players battling it out for the two spots in the final on Sunday and the afternoon match inside the Alexandra Palace sees two former champions going at it when Shaun Murphy takes on Mark Allen.

These two have played well all week. They were once seemingly good friends but it looks like their relationship has turned sour which might only add to the competitiveness of the contest and could ensure plenty of drama.

Shaun Murphy

I think if we were giving the award of the player of the week so far it would go to Shaun Murphy. He has only dropped three frames on his way to this semi-final and you can just tell that he really fancies the job just by the way he is walking around the table. He has been aggressive on the table but there is a purpose about his demeanour and we haven’t really seen that for a couple of years. He’ll look to impose himself on this semi-final and get in front early.

Murphy has scored well this week. He might not have the centuries piling up but there have been a couple of clearances which have really hurt his opponent at just the right time and that has added gloss to the scoreboard. The one concern is always the safety play of Murphy and he hasn’t really been tested in that department. The last thing he will want is to get involved in a scrappy match with Allen so we can expect Murphy to go for his shots despite the risk that comes with.

Mark Allen

Clearly winning the tournament in Saudi Arabia just prior to Christmas has done wonders for the confidence of Mark Allen. He has come here looking in buoyant mood and in the opening round against Si Jiahui he looked really good. You couldn’t say he looked as good in the quarter final but he held himself together in the really big moments while also recognising himself that he had a more than favourable run of the ball at the same time.

I think Allen will need to play better than he did in beating Mark Selby in the last eight but the one thing you can say about the former champion is that he doesn’t have to play well to win matches as he has the capability to ground things out even thought it doesn’t necessarily suit his game. If he scores well then he is going to be tough to beat and because he has more than one way to win you would have to say he is a worthy favourite here.


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Head-to-head

These two players have met on 20 previous occasions with Shaun Murphy having a large lead which might be surprising. He has won 13 of those matches to the seven of Allen and he leads 111-87 in terms of frames won too. This will be the ninth time they have met in a semi-final and Murphy is dominant in that regard with a 6-2 lead. They are 1-1 from their two meetings here with Murphy seeing his win coming in the semi-final en route to the title in 2015. Murphy also leads 4-2 in their best of 11 matches although they haven’t played each other for a nudge under three years which might be significant.

Betting

There is clearly something about playing Mark Allen that gets the juices of Shaun Murphy flowing and if he can avoid getting embroiled in a tactical clash then there is no reason to think that the 2015 winner can’t come through this match. There is no doubt in my mind that he has played the best snooker so far this week and it is unlikely that Allen will be able to rely on the level of the run of the ball that he enjoyed in his quarter final win against Mark Selby.

Murphy is talking very confidently this week and generally sports people only do that when they know they are in decent touch so I expect him to come out to look to impose himself on this match and if he can get in front early he might be able to get Allen caught in two minds. Murphy was the outsider against Neil Robertson in the previous round in a match which had a feel of potentially going either way about it and 5/4 on him in another even looking game with the form he has shown just feels a little on the big side to me.

Tips

Back S.Murphy to beat M.Allen for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfred