Adam Williams presents his prediction for the Masters.
Shaun Murphy will play against Gary Wilson in the first round of the Masters. For Shaun Murphy, this Masters will be the 21st in his career, while for Gary Wilson it will be only the second. Shaun feels great at Alexandra Palace and enjoys the atmosphere, I think that in this match the fans will support Shaun. Bookmakers consider Shaun Murphy the favorite, although Murphy has only won one tournament in the last two seasons - the short-format Championship League. And Gary Wilson at the same time became the winner of the Scottish Open and Welsh Open and entered the top 16.
But it is this season that Shaun plays much better than Gary. Murphy played in the final of the Shanghai Masters and the semi-final of the Saudi Arabian Masters, losing both times to Judd Trump. In head-to-head matches Shaun has an advantage of 4-2, and both of Wilson's victories were in best of 7 matches with a score of 4-3. There's no doubt it was a different Wilson and Gary is a better player now, but Shaun is the better player this season and Murphy really needs to do well at the Masters having failed to reach the final in other tournaments. And Gary Wilson lost six of his seven matches in the Championship League Group One at the start of January so he won't be able to prepare properly for the match with Shaun.
Murphy has only had three disappointing defeats this season - 6-3 to Chris Wakelin at the International Championship, 4-3 to Lei Peifan at the Scottish Open and 5-2 to Dominic Dale at the Grand Prix. While Wilson has lost to Mark Davis, Michael Holt, Ross Muir, Ben Woollaston, Xu Si and Long Zehuang - that's quite a lot for a top 16 player. I think Wilson will soon fall out of the top 16, Gary doesn't look like a player who will be in the top 16 for a long time. I think Shaun will win 6-3 or 6-4.
