Today should be another fantastic match with Mark Selby again taking on Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Masters final.
Selby has a wonderful record here, and having cruised to the 2008 title before losing to Ronnie in last year’s final, he has only ever lost one match at Wembley. He looked in decent form last night, but did have plenty of help from Stephen Maguire as he sealed a 6-3 win, with the Scotsman having never really looked on song at any stage this week.
His quarter-final was a thriller against Mark Allen, and having looked down and out at one stage, his 6-5 win said a lot about his character, as well his current form. His first match was a 6-1 rout of Ding Junhui, so it’s safe to say that Selby is playing well enough to cause O’Sullivan some massive problems today. It’s interesting to see Selby slight odds-against, then, at 11/10 with a +1.5 frames advantage in Blue Square’s handicap market. Plenty of people, myself included, will feel that the 13/8 available on Selby to win the match is a very tidy price, but this is bound to be tight and I think the extra insurance of the handicap is the way to go.
Let’s not forget that O’Sullivan is still bemoaning his form despite equalling Stephen Hendry’s record by reaching his 9th Masters final, and while you feel you can’t listen too much to his tales of woe, he is clearly vulnerable this week. However, his epic 6-5 semi-final win over Mark Williams showed once again how dangerous he is even when he’s not feeling great out there, and he can of course win a few frames in the blink of an eye. His previous rounds were a 6-4 win over Neil Robertson and a 6-3 against Peter Ebdon, and there will of course be plenty of interest on the game’s most gifted player at odds of 4/9.
Away from the match odds, there are plenty of other interesting pre-match markets on the final. The ‘Race to 3 Frames’ certainly catches the eye, and with Selby having won that particular race against Maguire yesterday while O’ Sullivan lost it after going 2-0 down to Williams, the 6/5 available on Selby again looks very tasty. Don’t forget that Ronnie was 3-0 down against Robertson in his first match as well.
I certainly don’t want this to sound like I’m dismissing O’Sullivan here, but in a match where there looks to be nothing to separate the players, you can’t help but feel that most of the value seems to lie with Selby. There are other markets where he looks to have plenty of appeal though, probably none more so than the Highest Break Scorer market. Ronnie is 8/13 with Mark 6/5, and considering O’Sullivan is the most fluent, naturally brilliant player the game has ever seen when he gets a good break-scoring chance, you’d have to go with him in that one. You could do a lot worse than back him to win the first session at evens as well.
Blue Square have a massive range of pre-match markets available now and will of course be offering extensive live betting throughout all the action. Good luck with your bets, I fancy Selby to edge it by a score of 10-8, or maybe 10-7, and we should be in for a cracker here.
