Snooker Betting Predictions and Tips
MASTERS
January 12-19
Alexandra Palace, London
The first snooker tournament of 2020 is the prestigious Masters which makes up the third part in snooker’s Triple Crown with the UK Championship and World Championship. This is an elite invitation tournament for the top 16 in the world rankings at the completion of the UK Championship in early December 2019. With £250,000 first prize and £15,000 for an invitation, it is an event that player’s clamber to make. This year, however, seven times champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has decided to refuse the invite opening up an extra spot for Ali Carter who was ranked 17th and giving a different and more open dimension to the event.
Draw:
Judd Trump v Shaun Murphy
Ding Junhui v Joe Perry
Mark Selby v Ali Carter
John Higgins v Barry Hawkins
Neil Robertson v Stephen Maguire
Mark Allen v David Gilbert
Kyren Wilson v Jack Lisowski
Mark Williams v Stuart Bingham
Betting Predictions and Tips
Judd Trump is the defending champion and number one seed having beating Ronnie O’Sullivan in last year’s final. Last year’s win was the launching pad for a superb 2019 that saw Trump become World Champion for the first time. With five other tournament wins Trump has an impressive lead at the top of the world rankings and the ‘man to beat’ this week. He does have an extremely difficult opening match against 2015 champion, Shaun Murphy who was back his brilliant best, winning the China Championship after two other runner-up finishes in the Asian swing in the early months of the world snooker 2019/2020 season. The winner of that match will probably face another tough task against China’s Ding Junhui who emerged from a two-year slump by winning the UK Championship in December. He too is a previous Masters champion back in 2011 and was a semi-finalist last year. The Chinese superstar is a player who needs confidence and one of the few players with a good head to head record against Judd Trump. Happily, my subscribers are on Ding Junhui at 34.00 from December and have great value but don’t be mistaken this section is the most difficult by far. Joe Perry made the final at Alexandra Palace the last time he played and has beaten Ding twice in the Masters. Perry may be the outsider of the section, but those facts combined with an ability to play well versus Trump and Ding he could play a factor.
Without doubt, the top half of the draw is the hardest with another former champion, Mark Selby looking back to his best in recent months by winning two home nations events, the English Open and the Scottish Open just three weeks ago. In 2008 Selby, remarkably won the first of his three Masters titles on debut and with his other wins in 2010 and 2013 he also had two runner-up finishes to mean he competed in five finals in a seven-year period by 2014. Surprisingly he has not made a semi-final in the last five years and looks overdue.
The bottom half has Neil Robertson leading the way after a superb 2018/2019 season saw him catapult back into the top 4 having dropped out of the elite top 16 a year earlier. The 2019/2020 season has been poor for the Australian in ranking tournaments but did win the invitation Champion of Champions tournament in a final of the highest quality against Judd Trump. He has an awkward first-round match against a rejuvenated Stephen Maguire to negotiate. The winner of Robertson/Maguire will play Mark Allen or this year’s debutant David Gilbert. It is a tall order for a debutant to win the Masters and Gilbert is not a proven winner despite being superb all year. Mark Allen though was the 2018 Masters champion and has six semi-final appearances in nine tournaments this 2019/2020 campaign. He will be hard to beat and the winner of this quarter will be favourite in the semi-final against a weak looking quarter 4.
The weak-looking quarter 4 sees 2018 runner-up Kyren Wilson play Scottish Open runner up Jack Lisowski while double Masters champion, Mark Williams plays Stuart Bingham. Jack Lisowski looks the only in-form player in this segment and should improve on last year’s nervous Masters’ debut. One noticeable fact about Lisowski is his ability to lose in the early stages of ranking tournaments to older journeyman pros while his multiple positive head to head records against many of the top players. Possibly the logic is that playing the best players frees him up to go for his shots and no doubt if they go in at the Alexandra Palace the crowd will get behind the talented left-hander.
In summary, Mark Selby and Mark Allen are three solid bets to win their respective quarters while Lisowski looks the value from the weakest quarter.
