The Masters will start in mouth-watering fashion in January with defending champion Ding Junhui facing four times champion Ronnie O’Sullivan at the tournament’s new home, Alexandra Palace.
The pair famously met in the final at Wembley Arena in 2007, where O’Sullivan’s superb performance delivered a severe mental blow to Ding’s confidence.
But that was all forgotten last season as he became the first non-British player for 25 years to win the game’s most prestigious invitation title.
His 10-4 victory over Marco Fu in the all Asian final brought the curtain down on the Wembley era of the Masters. The Ally Pally is a bigger venue and, crucially, the event remains in London.
Other interesting first round matches include Neil Robertson v Mark Allen, John Higgins v Matthew Stevens and Shaun Murphy v Martin Gould, the only debutant this year.
I hope the Masters is never made into a ranking event. Its prestige comes from the fact that it is purely for the elite top 16, a reward for being the best players in the world, and long may that continue.
MASTERS DRAW
Ding Junhui v Ronnie O’Sullivan
Judd Trump v Stuart Bingham
Neil Robertson v Mark Allen
Mark Williams v Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby v Stephen Lee
Shaun Murphy v Martin Gould
Ali Carter v Graeme Dott
John Higgins v Matthew Stevens
wow what an opener thats going to be
ReplyDeleteNo wildcards? Why not?
ReplyDeleteThe winner of the UK Championship will receive one if they're not a top 16 player
ReplyDeleteand be placed where in the draw dave?
ReplyDeletealso, does the winner of ding and the spotlight kid play the winner of the trump match?
I presume any wildcard would have to play the 16th seed, which is Martin Gould
ReplyDeleteThe Masters has always produced more high class finals than any other event, even the world championship. From 1989-1996 Hendry defined this tournament. 1997 gave us the immensely satisfying pretender against the old master, and 1998 was one of the most exciting finals I have ever seen. A couple of close finals in 1999/2000, and then came the thrilling Paul Hunter years. 2006 gave us possibly the highest quality final ever played, while 2005 and 2007 produced virtuoso performances. The last few finals haven't been particularly memorable (and 2009 was painfully slow), but the Masters has been the circuit's showpiece event for the best part of twenty years. Hopefully it will produce another classic final in the not too distant future...
ReplyDeletety dave, just doesnt make sense, cos then theres an extra match and the schedule would change?
ReplyDeleteanyone got a list of finalists and winners over the years?
ReplyDeleteNo wildcards needed because at one dark point in snookers history the rankings moved so slowly it was like Usain Bolt attempting to run through industrial treacle to make an impression on the lazy and/or obese fat cats at the top of the tree.
ReplyDeleteThis was endorsed by their managers who took proxy votes from top 32 or top 64 players latterly who wanted nothing to change ranking wise to endorse their own sponsorship deals and line their own pockets to the detriment of the game.
These days the rankings move fluidly both up and down to reflect rankings which means that wildcards are passe and unrequired unless someone wants to take the game back tio the dim and distant past.
Hope this helps to understand the histroy of the game to both 5.46pm and 7.32pm.
Hi David. A repeat of the infamous 2007 Masters Final. Should be great. I'll be watching. We have got the U.K. Championship before that. I can not wait.
ReplyDeleteIt's about time some snooker was on the bastard telly!
ReplyDeleteMat Wilson
@737
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snookerscene.co.uk/page.php?id=60
winner in bold
ReplyDeleteDing Junhui v Ronnie O’Sullivan
Judd Trump v Stuart Bingham
Neil Robertson v Mark Allen
Mark Williams v Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby v Stephen Lee
Shaun Murphy v Martin Gould
Ali Carter v Graeme Dott
John Higgins v Matthew Stevens
It's about time some snooker was on the bastard telly!
ReplyDelete____________________________________
so far this season theres been 8 tournaments on the bastard telly.
all snooker fans should invest in eurosport.
ta betsy
ReplyDeleteso, by that, hendry during a 10 year period played in 8/10 of the master finals, winning 6/8 of them and losing the other 2 in deciders?
Not all of us can invest in Eurosport.
ReplyDeleteIt's my understanding (please correct me if I am wrong) that in order to invest in Eurosport one has to sign up to packages of rubbish programmes that would never be watched!
ReplyDeleteAs an OAP I could not afford or justify that.
well its there snooker on the TV.
ReplyDeleteid like the BBC to show more and ITV to get involved more apart from that Power plonker thing.
but the reality is snooker is on TV More than ever before.
Theres never been as much televised snooker as there is now. You will still get people who expect everything handed to them for free.
ReplyDeleteEurosportplayer only costs 39.90€: http://www.eurosportplayer.com/subscription.shtml...
ReplyDeleteVery good quality and you can watch other sports as well :-)
Are you sure these draws aren't fixed? In any case, when are we going to see proper tennis draws and seedings, as opposed to jumbled mess with 1 half of the draw loaded?
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Ronnies issues rape apology:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.worldsnooker.com/page/NewsArticles/0,,13165~2497187,00.html
I don't know about other snooker fans, but I'd rather he apologised for not putting in the effort when people have paid good money to watch him play, but World Snooker doesn't seem that bothered about the casual fraud he perpetrates in this regard. As for the rape comment, obviously playing in a PTC for 10k is not like being raped so it was a pointless an analogy, but I don't really like seeing someone strong-armed into apologising for voicing an opinion. No point having freedom of speech if we are going to make people apologise for every silly/offensive comment they make, it's just another type of censorship.
Good job he didn't use the phrase 'pink army'
ReplyDeleteI am getting offended by political correctness... can I have an apology?
ReplyDeleteThe Snooker Scene website's record of the 1997 Masters isn't correct (Steve Davis won it!).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snookerscene.co.uk/page.php?id=60
Wikipedia link for the tournament:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Masters_(snooker)
I fancy Ding to avenge the 2007 drubbing this year....
ReplyDeleteDott is the man to beat he hit 20 147's in a row down my club in Glasgow, he's a bald genius !!!!
ReplyDeleteheres a question if the BBC Asked the question of snooker fans or sport fans we will increase our sporting portfolio for a extra £50 a year license how many would agree ?
ReplyDeletei would you get nothing in this world for free.
If people don't enjoy sitting at their computer monitor for hours watching online snooker there is possible another alternative now. You could sign up for the internet Eurosport player or the World Snooker equivalent and use a set-top box to stream it to your TV:
ReplyDeleteThe "Boxee Box" claims to stream anything you can watch in your browser to your TV:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Boxee-Digital-Media-Player/dp/B0043EV3MS
So in theory, if you watch live snooker on your PC you should be able to watch it on your TV with that box. At £180 it's no walk in the park, but I don't know how good the picture quality will be blown up to full TV size, but I think this could be the way forward for people who want to watch snooker on TV but don't want a Sky/Virgin package. Since there seems to be limitless snooker online these days, in theory that box would make it limitless on your TV too. Obviously it's expensive, but at least it's not an ongoing financial commitment.
All you need to do is run a cable from your PC to your TV and and you can watch anything online on your TV.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I don't know why they don't just put proper internet in TV now. There's more to watch on the web than there is on broadcast stations so why not just make it easy for people? People shouldn't have to run cables from their computers or buy a box.
ReplyDelete