THE MASTERS: WHAT THE PLAYERS ARE SAYING

Such is the prestige of the Saga Insurance Masters (and the fact that it's held in London where all the national newspapers are based) that there has been a fair amount of coverage building up to the tournament.

Here are some of the more interesting stories.

My Snooker Scene colleague Phil Yates has written about the expansion of snooker across Europe, in particular in Germany, in The Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article3174525.ece

Steve Davis has criticised World Snooker's restrictive logo policy in an interview in The Sun:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/article678973.ece

Ken Doherty has called on Ronnie O'Sullivan not to retire (not that he will in any case) in the Daily Express:
http://www.express.co.uk/othersport/view/31197/We-can-t-afford-to-lose-the-Rocket

John Higgins has been asked a few not so serious questions by The Guardian:
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/smalltalk/story/0,,2239198,00.html

Ryan Day is looking forward to only his second appearance in the event in the South Wales Echo:
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/sports/sports-news-round-up/2008/01/12/ryan-hoping-it-s-his-day-in-saga-91466-20340938/

Shaun Murphy says he's on his way to becoming the best player in the game on the BBC website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/7175492.stm

Marco Fu is relishing his match against Steve Davis on worldsnooker.com:
http://www.worldsnooker.com/tournament_news(id19104)-83.htm

My Eurosport commentary colleague Mike Hallett, twice a Wembley finalist, looks ahead to this year's event on the Eurosport website:
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/12012008/58/ronnie-s-bid-immortality.html