11-2 Higgins for encore

SPORTS BETTING:

JOHN HIGGINS and Ronnie O’Sullivan are much the likeliest winners of the World Professional Snooker Championship which gets under way on Saturday.

These two big, but friendly rivals have been the outstanding players for the last four or five seasons and go into snooker’s biggest tournament with high expectations.

However, one has a poor draw and the other a section he could hardly have framed better himself.

Let’s start with the Rocket.

Mercurial, frustrating but never dull, O’Sullivan faces a dangerous first-round opponent in Liang Wenbo and even if he comes through that unscathed, back-to-form recent China Open winner Mark Williams is likely to be his next opponent.

Add a section which includes Masters champion Mark Selby and you have to give O’Sullivan a swerve at 4-1.

Higgins, on the other hand, has a huge chance and is overpriced at 11-2.

I cannot see him failing to get past Barry Hawkins, then Mark King or Steve Davis, while a last-eight encounter with Neil Robertson is dangerous but by no means the worst he could have had at that stage.

The further Higgins goes in this championship the stronger he gets.

He has won it twice in the last three years and has an iron temperament, superb safety game and all the experience needed in the Crucible spotlight.

For a back-up bet, I quite like the look of 2008 finalist Ali Carter, who I expect to come through a first-round test against the exciting Jamie Cope and a second-round showdown with either Joe Perry or Michael Holt.

Ding Junhui or Shaun Murphy could be next up but if, as I anticipate, Carter is through to the quarter-finals, his current odds of 33-1 will be long gone and we can lay off on the exchanges if we choose.

The aforementioned Selby has decent claims at 9-1 as I like the look of his first group of four, but the more I examine the draw, the more I am convinced that Higgins is the man to beat.


TIGER Woods may not have been at his best in the Masters, but he was thrilling to watch and is clearly the man to beat in the US Open at Pebble Beach in June.



With a few more outings under his belt, he will be a major force at a course where he won by 15 shots in 2000, and 3-1 is fair enough.

As for our Open, Woods visits another of his favourite courses, St Andrew’s, and is as a best-priced 5-2.

Meanwhile, Masters hero Phil Mickelson is 9-1 for the US Open and 20-1 for the British equivalent.


RECOMMENDATIONS: John Higgins to win World Snooker Championship, 11-2 (Betfred), Ali Carter, 33-1 (Betfred).