Masters Snooker Bet Day One: Maguire should offer easy early pickings for favourite backers

Masters / Paul Krishnamurty / 10 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

Struggling Dott unlikely to offer much resistance to world no.2, say Paul Krishnamurty.

The Masters begins from Wembley on Sunday morning with an all Scottish affair, and big-hitting favourite backers will no doubt be licking their lips at the prospect of getting with Stephen Maguire at [1.45] to beat Graeme Dott.

If this match had been played six weeks ago, Maguire would have been a much shorter price than this because former world-champion Dott had virtually disappeared as a frontline player. Having been through all sorts of physical and emotional turmoil, Dott completely lost his form in 2007.

He failed to win a single match after the opening event of last season until the first round of the recent UK Championship, where he did at least show some improvement to beat another struggling ex-world champ, Ken Doherty. While it was nice to see Dott fighting to revive his career, that sole win doesn't amount to very much. In the following round, he made only two 50 breaks in losing a scrappy affair to Mark Williams.

So, as long as Maguire brings 75% of his game to Wembley, he should be much too good. Admittedly, the World No.2 hasn't been at his best this season either, but he's still managed to win 10 of his 15 matches and make two semi-finals. He eliminated two world-class players in John Higgins and Neil Robertson at Telford, and the games he has lost were to either top quality or in-form opponents.

[1.45] looks a perfectly reasonable banker price, but if you're looking for slightly better value odds then [2.3] to win by more than two frames on the handicap also looks pretty reasonable.