5th February 2012

O'Sullivan vs Maguire Betting: Stephen Maguire is playing to a level high enough to win German title

Ronnie O’Sullivan travelled to Berlin for the German Masters earlier in the week in danger of losing his top 16 place after the Welsh Open later this month but he is now one match away from the title. He will take on Stephen Maguire over the best of 17 frames on Sunday for the right to be crowned German Masters champion. If successful it will be O’Sullivan’s first title since he won the Shanghai Masters in 2009.

Ronnie hasn’t had it at all easy this week. He was 4-0 down to Andrew Higginson in the opening round, 3-1 down to Matthew Stevens and had to fight off a bit of a fightback from Stephen Lee in the semi final before finally winning 6-4. In his press conference after that match he admitted he has been suffering from glandular fever which goes some way to explaining why he hasn’t been his usual fluent self in matches.

If a tournament trophy was handed out purely for the best player of the week then Stephen Maguire will win it hands down but they’re not and he’ll have to earn the title the hard way in this final. Maguire has dished out two whitewashes in the tournament so far. He beat John Higgins 5-0 in the second round and after coming from 4-2 down to beat Judd Trump in the quarter final he then thrashed Shaun Murphy 6-0 in the semi finals and has played easily the best snooker this week.

I see no reason at all why he’s going to stop playing well now. It hasn’t just been this week where Maguire has played well, he’s played well for a few months now and a title has been threatened a couple of times. O’Sullivan is struggling a bit physically and although his competitive instinct has kept him in the tournament he’s going to need his best to live with Maguire here. I can’t see it coming and I’ll take Maguire to win this tournament.

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