Higgins v Day Masters Preview – Sunday, January 13th at 7.00 pm
This is a very interesting first-round clash at the Masters 2019. It sees a repeat of last season’s quarter-final meeting between the two of them. It was Scotland’s Higgins who came out on top easily in the duel, beating Day 6-1. However, as the season went on, Welshman Day came back hard against Higgins and this could be a tight battle between them.
John Higgins v Ryan Day Odds*
John Higgins 4/7
Ryan Day 11/8* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 11th, 2019 at 9:04 pm)
Ryan Day barely got a look in twelve months ago as he met Higgins in the quarterfinals of the Masters. After making things level at 1-1 in the second frame, that was it for Day who crumbled 6-1 against his opponent. But Day would get some revenge when they next met up at the 2018 Romanian Masters. It was Day’s day to dominate as he took a 4-1 quarterfinal over Higgins at the tournament.
Day then beat Higgins again at the Shanghai Masters in a deciding frame, before they were thrown back together at the Champion of Champions tournament. That one went down to a deciding frame as well with Higgins just getting over the finish line. So things have been tight between them and actually, Day leads 3-2 in the last five matches. So those 11/8 underdog odds on him may appeal to punters* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 11th, 2019 at 9:04 pm).
The winner of the match will go through to meet the winner of the Ronnie O’Sullivan v Stuart Bingham. That is expected to be ‘The Rocket’ of course, who is the tournament favourite. So will Day be able to get some revenge for his Master’s loss twelve months ago? The recent meetings would point to this being a tight game, but Higgins is at 5/1 to win 6-4 in the correct score market* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 11th, 2019 at 9:04 pm).
Predictions
It is one of those matches which may be too tight to call at the end of the day. Neither have been in particularly hot form recently so this one is up in the air. So the value looks to be on the underdog shot of Day who did recently run to the quarterfinals of the Scottish Open. Day to win at 11/8 odds* (betting odds taken from bet365 on January 11th, 2019 at 9:04 pm)
