German Masters Final

[LittleMissAlexa]

ROS to beat SM

[jrc750]

SM to beat ROS

[CRiZZ76]

I live in Berlin and visited the first round games on thursday. What an athmosphere that was already!! The Tempodrom was not filled up to the last seat but it was still packed, I saw 5 matches simultaneously which was a task but a very pleasant one

Concerning the final:

ROS: In the peak of his form, vintage ROS coming through often, and he knows how much the germans love him. So he is the one who will most likely get the higher support from the audience.
The way he came back from 4-0 down against Andrew Higginson was simply magnificant!
He didn't struggle too much in the other games, so he's probably favoured to win.

SM: Also in very good form. "On fire" indeed! He is able to beat ROS, even though it's not gonna be easy.
He whitewashed Shaun Murphy last night, but that was also because of Shauns mistakes and risky shots.

It's definetely not gonna be a clear win for either of them. It could even go all the way

[Looki]

Tough to predict. If O'Sullivan "behaves himself" he's tough to beat and I think he'll be up for, it's the final after all. Maguire has been very convincing too and he's able to beat O'Sullivan but he can't afford O'Sullivan to have a big lead early on as he's so good front-runner. Maguire knows this and I think he'll be aggressive trying to get frames on board from the go.

My lucky guess is Maguire to win it 9-7.

[gazza147]

I think Ronnie will Win as he will just wanna prove a point that he can Win anytime even thou hes Not 100% as he said.

I did predict Ronnie will take the beating after he came back from 4-0 to higginson as that what may have kick started him off which i think it did.

C'mon Ronnie Show them who's really Boss and get your Right Head on for the Final Today!!

[cueman]

I have to favour Maguire today. Ronnie hasn't really looked convincing enough for me, Maguire seems to have that killer game right now, whitewashing Murphy and Higgins in the same tournament takes some doing so he must be full of confidence, his best form seems to come in the overseas events too, never lost in a final of an overseas ranking event. Maguire to win comfortably 9-4.

[Odrl]

When two top players meet in a final like this, I usually predict a close match, even when I think one player is playing better than the other.

Here we have Maguire playing extremely well, the kind of form than won him two titles in his purple patch around 03/04, and another two in the 07/08 season. He has that scoring power that can produce very one-sided results, taking almost every chance with one-visit snooker. I've always thought he was the strongest scorer of his generation when on form, but he has produced it so rarely in the last few seasons, so it came as a bit of a surprise when he had that game against Murphy yesterday. There is no doubt his temperament has been his main weakness in the past, not exactly cracking under pressure, but kind of losing his mind when he hasn't been happy with his own game, even when toughing it out could still have given him a decent chance. So far this week, his attitude has been excellent. He has been extremely determined, especially against Trump. He doesn't often win matches from a couple of frames behind, so that's already a great sign. It's not surprising that he was very determined to beat Murphy as well, it's just a question if he wants it as much against O'Sullivan...

O'Sullivan himself has played well, not brilliant, but he still has the game to go far in tournaments even with just a bit of form. Going far and winning are two different things though, and you are always likely to come up against a top player playing really well. Maguire has the form, he has the attitude and the hunger, he is the higher seed, so why is O'Sullivan not a complete underdog? Mainly his class and his reputation, and the fact that his top game is so impressive. How many times has he reached a final against a player playing really well, and still beat them convincingly? When he was the world number 1 or 2 you could certainly rely on that, what about now? Williams was in a similar position a couple of seasons back, reaching the later stages of tournaments after a long drought, and he needed some time to get used to it again. O'Sullivan has produced his best scoring game in patches, particularly against Perry, but not as consistently as he would have liked. His attitude has been alright, but again, a bit suspect at times against Higginson and Lee. As for his main weakness, the long potting, in my opinion it's actually been a strength in the last two events. He has gone back to his old game of taking open long reds and trying to score heavily, not playing as cautiously as when was struggling with his potting. He knows what he can do, the 2007 UK final where he thrashed Maguire 10-2 should be a good example to follow, so if he can put some early pressure on Maguire, he could stamp his authority on the match.


As for me predicting a close match... I rarely mind a long and tense match, a decider would be nice, but my gut feeling is Maguire will win fairly comfortably, 9-3ish.

[montoya10]

With Maguire living up to his nickname, "On fire", he is capable of outplaying anyone out there. I have to agree with Odrl. I have never doubted his scoring ability, which he hasn't brought to the table that often.
He is actually one of few players that I would name to go neck-to-neck with Ronnie's best, others being Higgins, Williams and formerly Paul (how great it would be if we still had the chance to see him).
While this could point out to a convincing Maguire win, I'm hoping for a closer battle, especially with a healthier Ronnie, pushing it to the limit.

I predict Maguire to win 9-6, but a final frame tension would be awesome.

PS. By going neck-to-neck with Ronnie at his best, I only mentioned about a scoring duel rather than a tactical affair.

[FOXMULDER]

2 and half hours coverage from Eurosport is pathetic for a full ranking event.

It really undermines the status of the event if the only way to watch it fully is through an online subscription.

[daffie]

****es me off as well! Yesterday was as sad...didn't get to see much of the semis. Hopefully eurosport will have better coverage of the Welsh Open...

[Odrl]

This is the stuff, incredible crowd.

It's nice to see Maguire introduced as "the merlin of Milton" again, I've always liked that nickname.

[PatBlock]

Going by the form of the tournament, it's a no brainer. Maguire beat Ryan Day, John Higgins, and Shaun Murphy, all very comfortably and he played great snooker against a buzzing Trump in the best match of the tournament so far for me.
Ronnie on the other hand has struggled against Andrew Higginson, Joe Perry, Matthew Stevens and Stephen Lee, hardly a nightmare draw in anyone's book.

Yes he produced some great stuff, but sporadically, and he was allowed to when he should never have been. In every match, he gave his opponents chance after chance, missing fairly easy pots, messing up position and producing some very poor safety, and the Lee match yesterday was utterly farcical towards the end.

But of course it's the final, and you just never know, Mags may have peaked too soon, and Ron may suddenly decide that he really does want this, (which didn't look the case yesterday against Lee) in which case we could be in for some snookerie fireworks. But as I said, if the tournament form sticks, then Odrl's scoreline looks a likely one.

-

[LittleMissAlexa]

For those predicting Maguire sure he hasnt peaked to early? Also rate of going to look what times do the sessions start is it two and eight?

[BradyBoy82]

Got to be Maguire, he looks back to the player he was in 2004

[LittleMissAlexa]

Correcting predictive text should be save me looking