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Ronnie O'Sullivan - Ding Junhui 10-3

WEMBLEY FINAL PREVIEW

Experience is on Ronnie O'Sullivan's side in today's SAGA Insurance Masters final, but Ding Junhui looks the man in form.

Bookmakers slightly favour the Rocket in the best-of-19 clash at Wembley Arena, making him 8/11 odds on with Ding rated evens.

O’Sullivan is playing in his fourth consecutive final in the event and his seventh in all. He is gunning for his third title, having beat John Higgins in 1995 and 2005.

But he lost 10-9 to Paul Hunter in 2004 and in another final-frame decider against Higgins last year, so will be aiming to bury those ghosts and collect the gleaming trophy and £130,000 first prize.

The 31-year-old from Chigwell, ranked No 3 in the world, has not won a World Snooker title since the 2005 Irish Masters and is hoping to end that drought of almost two years.

Ding doesn’t reach his 20th birthday until April but already has three ranking titles in the bag, the youngest ever player to achieve that feat.

He is playing in his first Masters final - in fact he had not previously reached the semis.

But the super-cool Chinese ace has been unaffected by his comparitive inexperience so far this week, cruising past Anthony Hamilton, Peter Ebdon, Stephen Lee and Stephen Hendry for the loss of just ten frames.

He would be the second youngest ever Masters champion (after O’Sullivan) and the first overseas winner since Cliff Thorburn took the last of his three titles in 1986.

O’Sullivan has also conceded ten frames in reaching the final but has played one game less - he’s beaten Ali Carter, Ken Doherty and Stephen Maguire. He described the standard of his 6-4 defeat of the latter last night as "embarrasing".

Previous form offers little clue as to the result as they have played just twice with one win each. O’Sullivan won their meeting at Wembley two years ago while Ding triumphed in the Northern Ireland Trophy final at the beginning of this season.

They play eight frames from 3pm with the balance to begin at 8pm.