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Masters Betting: Supreme strategist Higgins can see off Ding

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Paul Krishnamurty previews the most exciting first round match at the Masters....

With Ronnie O'Sullivan's Masters bid biting the dust at the first hurdle, the focus now shifts on to tomorrow's pivotal first-round match between world champion John Higgins and Chinese prodigy Ding Junhui. Positioned in the easier bottom half of the draw, whoever wins should automatically become tournament favourite.

For Ding, this match marks a return to the scene of the lowest point of his career to date. Having looked mightily impressive in reaching last year's final, Ding went into the match vying for favouritism with O'Sullivan amidst widespread predictions that this was the dawning of a new era in snooker that he would dominate. That seems a long, long time ago now. Ronnie duly obliterated his hopes, with the match ending in ignominy as Ding walked off in tears early before being coaxed back into the arena to go through the motions.

That defeat seemed to have a crushing impact. In the seven ranking tournaments since, he's not made a single semi-final. Which leads me to wonder why on earth he is a considerably shorter price than Higgins to win this event. I suspect its a reaction to the fact that Higgins too has been below his best this year, admitting that he's struggled to remain focused. He does have a point to prove having been thrashed by Jamie Cope in last month's UK Championship, though in fairness Cope was outstanding that day. I'm sure that defeat will have wounded his pride, and expect Higgins to be better prepared this time as he aims to win a third Masters title.

In a head-to-head sport like snooker I always feel that, provided the player in question is good enough to take their chances, the superior strategist will tend to win through. The two players are worlds apart in this department. Ding can pot any ball on the table but still plays some very naive shots, whereas Higgins remains the smartest player in the game. This consumate professional will be determined to make his mark in one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year, and is strongly fancied at [2.04] to win this match and by extension looks well worth a trade on the outright market at [8.8].