Masters Snooker 2019 Preview – 16th January 2019 at 7.00 pm
Three-time Masters winner Mark Selby beings his latest campaign on Wednesday. He takes on Stephen Maguire in the evening session and this is the last fixture of the first round. The winner of the match will move ahead to face the winner of the Judd Trump v Kyren Wilson match earlier in the day.
Mark Selby v Stephen Maguire Winner Odds*
Mark Selby 4/9
Stephen Maguire 7/4
* (betting odds taken from Bet365 on January 14th, 2019 at 6:17 pm)
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Selby then is a three-time winner of the Masters but he hasn’t been in the winner’s circle at the event since 2013. Selby has already claimed a title for the 2018/19 snooker season having picked up the China Championship back at the end of September. He always seems to turn up at the Masters in a confident mood but the fell at the first hurdle twelve months ago against Mark Williams.
As for Maguire, this is his first appearance at the Masters since the 2016 edition of the tournament. He has never managed to get his hands on the title but throughout his career, he has been a losing Masters semi-finalist on four different occasions. He is naturally going off as the underdog in this one and he will be looking for the first final appearance in any tournament for the 2018/19 season.
The head to head between Selby and Maguire is tight. Selby edges things 13-2 with the one drawn match having been played out. They met in the Snooker Championship league last year with Selby taking a 3-1 win. This is their first proper tournament meeting since the 2017 China Open where Selby strolled his way to a 5-1 quarterfinal win over the Scotsman.
They have met twice before in the Masters. Their first meeting was in 2008 with Selby edging a quarter-final tie 6-5. Two years later they were at it again, this time in the semifinals of the tournament. But the outcome was the same with Selby collecting a 6-3 victory in the match.
Prediction
Selby slipped in the first round last season of the Masters, but we don’t see any such upset happening this time around for him. He should go out and collect the victory in the match and we are predicting that 15* (betting odds taken from Bet365 on January 14th, 2019 at 6:17 pm).
