Masters / Paul Krishnamurty / 13 January 2009 / Leave a comment

Paul Krishnamurty believes Wednesday's key clash is a case of a man on the up against a man on the way down.

Ali 'The Captain' Carter ran out a comprehensive victor against Peter Ebdon in the last ranking tournament and, while the price is rightly shortening, he should be taken to do so once again tomorrow. Basically, we're talking about a man on the way up versus a once great player now in decline.

Whereas the ever improving Carter has lost three close semi-finals already this season, to add to his runner-up spot in the last World Championship, it's now a year since Ebdon last reached a quarter-final. That came in this event, but he didn't exactly cover himself in glory then either, losing 6-1 to another player on the wane, Stephen Lee. With his extensive horse-breeding interests in Dubai, one has to wonder how much commitment Ebdon is prepared to offer the game these days.

[1.6] about the younger, hungrier man looks solid enough, but as I'm expecting him to win this pretty comfortably, a series of correct score bets could be in order. Three bets on 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4 combines to around [2.5] and looks the best means of getting with the favourite.