The Masters Jan 11 - 18, 2015

[cebs]

Sadly it's not looking like I can make this next week now.

Just wondered if anyone on here was after a ticket or ten?

Single ticket for every session Monday to friday, row a mainly seat a72 which is bang in line with the yellow pocket. A few other seats for thursday and Friday inc row B but right behind the player's seat where there is no row a seat.

If anyone is interested please pm for details. Many thanks and hope it is ok to post this btw.

[daffie]

Very much looking forward to The Masters next week. Unfortunately won't be able to attend the tournament in person, but next best thing I have a week off from work so I can at least watch all matches.

A small negative is that Selby and Murphy play eachother in round 1 so one of my favorite players will be going home immediately.

I say...Bring it on :snooker:

[Miss Ellie]

Same here Daffie, I wish I had been able to go to the tournament. Never mind though, at least it's on TV!
I'm the same with Selby and Murphy. I like them both, although Selby's slower play can bore me at times, I do still like him and I'll be disappointed to see either of them leave so early on.
But it's all part of the game and bring it on indeed! I'm so excited for it to start, Sunday is not getting here quick enough!

[daffie]

Same here Daffie...
...I'm so excited for it to start, Sunday is not getting here quick enough!

Same here! See you there...

[SnookerFan]

In the last three years the UK Champions have done a little better at the Masters, Selby even managed to win both events in 2012/2013. I think the changes to the calendar have contributed a lot to that, because there is now a larger bloc of big events, with the the International Championship, the Champion of Champions and these two all in a space of three months.

But the first few years since the Masters was moved to January were terrible for the UK Champions. I think they went out in the 1st round of the Masters for six years in a row (Ding actually didn't even play in 2006). O'Sullivan was among them, as well as Ebdon, Murphy, Higgins and Ding, and the losing UK finalists didn't do much better either. :wink:

I remember watching Steve Davis vs Stuart Bingham at The Masters a few years back. The month earlier, Steve had got to the final of the UK Championship. Steve played an absolute shocker, and Bingham wasn't much better. As a Wildcard Round match it started at 11am. It was gone 4pm by the time it ended. Bingham won, something like 6-4, and each frame ran incredibly scrappy as they were both continually messing up.

People in the arena couldn't believe Steve would play like that a month after such heroics.

[Odrl]

I remember watching Steve Davis vs Stuart Bingham at The Masters a few years back. The month earlier, Steve had got to the final of the UK Championship. Steve played an absolute shocker, and Bingham wasn't much better. As a Wildcard Round match it started at 11am. It was gone 4pm by the time it ended. Bingham won, something like 6-4, and each frame ran incredibly scrappy as they were both continually messing up.

People in the arena couldn't believe Steve would play like that a month after such heroics.

Yeah, I remember Davis was provisionally number 3 in the world after that UK final, which is an amazing thing if you think about it. But unfortunately it was all downhill from there. He only played in the Masters two more times since then, but never won a match. :smile:

[SnookerFan]

Yeah, I remember Davis was provisionally number 3 in the world after that UK final, which is an amazing thing if you think about it. But unfortunately it was all downhill from there. He only played in the Masters two more times since then, but never won a match. :smile:

It was a really grim match.

It was followed by Mark Williams vs Paul Hunter. Wish I'd got Hunter in my autograph collection that day. Still, never mind.

[RoryM147]

Carter v Hawkins who will win that one ? Carter is still Carter great snooker player and Hawkins is decent atm knockin in a 147 at the championship league. Tough one for me.

[Neil Taperell]

Hawkins i reckon . Been putting in the hours on the baize apparently .

[SnookerFan]

Hawkins i reckon . Been putting in the hours on the baize apparently .

I'll go Hawkins too. He's really come into form over the past couple of years. Ali Carter, though obviously capable, will more likely be rustier and out of practice. Carter has been in the Championship League recently, so may have sharpened it up a bit. But coming off of illness will make it difficult for him.

Ali will get a big reaction coming into the arena, but Hawkins will win.

[luke-h]

You can't write Ali Carter off as none of us know who he has been playing with off screen, he has a massive point to prove and i wouldn't put it past him knocking Hawkins out.

[SnookerFan]

You can't write Ali Carter off as none of us know who he has been playing with off screen, he has a massive point to prove and i wouldn't put it past him knocking Hawkins out.

No, agreed. I'm certainly not making it an impossibility that he'd win.

You could argue that in The Masters, you can't write anybody off as they're all top-16 players.

[Miss Ellie]

No, agreed. I'm certainly not making it an impossibility that he'd win.

You could argue that in The Masters, you can't write anybody off as they're all top-16 players.

Indeed. In this game anything can happen, even what you might consider to be impossible. Look at the amazing comebacks we have seen in the past when a player is a load of frames down....we've got the best all playing here and they're going to hopefully all be playing at the top of their game. I'm sure they won't disappoint us fans with their play at all.
It's going to be a good 'un!

[Odrl]

I'm starting to get excited now, only a little more than a day to go... :smile:

The Masters has always been one of my favourite events, largely because the best-of-11 matches starting at 8pm are just bound to end in midnight finishes a lot, and late night is my favourite time to watch snooker. :wink: We have 16 very strong players here, almost an identical field to last year, with Carter here instead of Davis. That means the likes of Dott, Williams and Stevens are missing out on the Masters for the second year in a row now, having previously been present at this event for most of the last 15 years.

It will be interesting to see how the new year break has affected the balance of power. Players have traditionally struggled to follow a good UK Championship with a good Masters, but as I said earlier in the thread, the last few years have reversed this trend somewhat. It's interesting that the qualifiers for the German Masters were played after the UK, and four of these players failed to qualify, which is a quarter of the field. There was also a PTC in Portugal just before the new year, the Lisbon Open, won by Stephen Maguire. A lot of the players decided to skip it, but some did play in it, with mixed success. As for the Championship League, that's never really been a good indicator of what is likely to happen in the next major event.

Let's have a little look at the draw...

Quarter 1:

Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Ricky Walden
Stuart Bingham v. Marco Fu

Ronnie O'Sullivan probably starts as the favourite to win the title this week. He has had more success in the Masters than in any other major event throughout his career, apart from shot-clock stuff. He has played in ten finals and won five titles, in three different venues. He has also won the last two major events this season, the Champion of Champions and the UK Championship, so he not only has all the history on his side, but also current form as well. I did say his performance to win the UK was probably the worst I have seen from anyone to win a really big title in the time I've been closely following snooker, which has to be a worrying sign for his opposition here. He could play somewhere close to his best and win the title comfortably, like he did last year, or he could just play alright and win anyway, relying on the huge psychological edge he has built over his opponents over the years. And on that note, Ricky Walden has a tough job here... He lost 6-0 when they met in this tournament last year, and was famously on the wrong end of a new points without reply record. He also lost to O'Sullivan 4-1 in the Welsh Open the following month. He did beat him in a ranking final though, in the 2008 Shanghai Masters, when O'Sullivan was the reigning World champion. There was also a close game in the UK Championship in 2006, unfortunately not televised, but after the match both players talked about a kick Walden got towards the end, when he was in for frame and match. That's basically all the history there is between these two, surprisingly little for two players who have been near the top of the game for so long now. Walden has never really had any success in the Masters, but his win in the International Championship this season proves he is now strong enough to challenge for the biggest titles. He is 32 now, so these could be the best few years of his career. Unfortunately the last couple of tournaments have not been that great for him. He did reach the last16 in York, but ended on a really bad note with a 6-0 loss, and he lost in the qualifiers for the German Masters as well. Considering O'Sullivan's recent success, they are not exactly evenly matched. :wink:

Stuart Bingham and Marco Fu are much closer in that respect, which should make for interesting viewing. Bingham has had a pretty strong season so far, the highlight being his win in the Shanghai Masters. He also reached the semi-finals of the UK Championship, somewhat fortunately, as Graeme Dott was on the verge of beating him in the quarter-finals. He has played in the Masters five times before, but never got past the 1st round. Fu has had more success, and is of course a former finalist in this event. Looking at his career as a whole, 2014 was a pretty good and consistent year for him, but quite underwhelming compared to the year before, when he won a ranking title and reached another two finals. This season he reached four quarter-finals in the first five major events he played in, but never went beyond that stage, although he did lose to other top16 players each time. He also lost in the German Masters qualifiers, so he will be looking for better in 2015. He beat Bingham 5-4 when they met in the Wuxi Classic at the start of the season, and also beat him the last time they met in a best-of-11, 6-4 in the 2011 UK Championship.

The quarter-final match here could be a repeat of that UK semi-final between O'Sullivan and Bingham, a match Bingham dominated in the early stages and perhaps should have won, but failed to push on when it really mattered and O'Sullivan took full advantage. He has beaten O'Sullivan in a couple of big matches in the past, but of course he has lost a lot more than he has won, and this is not the best tournament to meet O'Sullivan in. Walden could be a better opponent for him in another repeat from the UK Championship, where Bingham won their match 6-0, although that probably had more to do with Walden playing extremely badly than with Bingham playing particularly well. O'Sullivan against Fu could also be an interesting one. They haven't met much lately, but O'Sullivan did whitewash Fu in the Champion of Champions this season, with a great display of scoring. Other than that, Fu's record against O'Sullivan is very respectable, and he is one of the few players who have proven they can hold their nerve against him and not get intimidated. Another possibility is Fu against Walden, not a very common pairing at all, but still quite intriguing. Recent history tells us that a couple of strong tournaments in a row are usually quite quickly followed by an early exit or two, and while O'Sullivan can be vulnerable early on in tournaments, I still think he is the man to beat here.

Quarter 2:

Barry Hawkins v. Allister Carter
Neil Robertson v. Robert Milkins

Barry Hawkins has had a similar rise to the top of the game as Bingham over the last couple of years, and it's interesting that he too has never got past the 1st round of the Masters. He was in a strong position to do so last year, when he led Walden 4-1 and 5-2, having played some cracking snooker, but for some reason he really struggled for the rest of the match and lost 6-5. That inevitably leads me to mention his defeat to Nigel Bond in the UK Championship, from 5-0 up, which was the kind of match that could have damaged his confidence for months. To be honest, he wasn't all that great before the UK either. His only strong tournament of the season so far has been the Wuxi Classic, where he reached the semi-finals, but even then I got the feeling he could have gone further. Recent signs are a little better for him, having reached the semi-finals of the Lisbon Open just before the new year, where he lost to Matthew Selt. Ali Carter has also struggled in the Masters over the years. The only time he has been past the 1st round was 2009, when he had that 6-0 demolition of Peter Ebdon, one of the most impressive scoring displays I can remember. His return to the game has perhaps not been as successful as he had hoped for, having lost his first match in both the Champion of Champions and the UK Championship. He also pulled out of the Lisbon Open before it started, and he failed to qualify for the German Masters. He is bound to return to form at some point though, and he could be a tough opponent for Hawkins here. These two can both struggle a little to get over the line in matches, so it could be a close one. I remember Hawkins coming back from 8-3 down to beat Carter 9-8 in the 2007 UK Championship, and he almost did something similar in the World Championship that season, but they ran out of time to play the decider in that session, and Carter was able to compose himself and win it when they came back. Carter has won all their matches since then, but none of any significant length.

Neil Robertson also hasn't had a great couple of months. He started the season very strongly, with a ranking title and another final, but then failed to get to the business end of any of the next three ranking events, which is pretty rare for him these days. I thought he looked quite good in the UK, but he was a little unlucky to come up against an inspired Dott in the last16, and he did very well to get back into the match from 5-0 down, but just came up short in the end. He won this tournament in 2012 and reached the final again the following year, so it clearly suits him quite well. Robert Milkins on the other hand is among the less experienced players here, only making his second appearance in the Masters. This season he has already reached the semi-finals of the International Championship, also in the best-of-11 format, so he could be a danger to anyone here. Like Robertson, he was a victim of Graeme Dott in the UK Championship as well, losing 6-0 in the last32, after he had previously whitewashed two opponents himself. That's the way it goes with him sometimes, he is very tough to contain once he finds his scoring rhythm, but he could also offer very little resistance when it's not his day. He ended the year on a very poor note, with a loss in the German Masters qualifiers and a 1st round exit in Lisbon. He played a great match to beat Robertson 10-8 in the 1st round of the 2013 WC, but Robertson has already got some revenge by beating him at the business end of two ranking tournaments since, and I don't think it's very likely for Robertson to underestimate Milkins ever again. :wink:

It's tough to decide what the most interesting quarter-final match could be here. Robertson and Hawkins are the highest seeds, and they have already played a major semi-final this season in Wuxi, Robertson winning 6-3. As I said before, I had the feeling Hawkins was playing well enough to get through on that occasion, but he put in a mediocre performance at the wrong time, while Robertson went on to win the title. Robertson has also won their other two matches of medium length, so he should be favourite in that match-up. He also has the edge over Carter, having beaten him twice in the long matches of the WC. His 13-8 win in 2009 was en especially interesting match, as Robertson won four of the last five frames of the middle session on the final black! His other wins include that excellent 6-5 win in last season's Champion of Champions, when they had five centuries between them, the semi-finals of the China Open last season, and the whitewash in the Champion of Champions this season. Carter's best win over Robertson was probably the semi-final of the 2013 German Masters, a tournament Carter went on to win. The other possible pairings are a lot less common, Carter has a couple of wins over Milkins in the major events in recent years, including a 6-4 in the 2011 UK Championship, while Hawkins and Milkins have not played each other in more than 10 years!

Quarter 3:

Ding Junhui v. Joe Perry
Mark Allen v. John Higgins

I'm not sure if Ding Junhui has ever played as little snooker at venues as this season. He missed out on a couple of trips to China by losing in the qualifiers, and he hasn't featured much in the PTCs either. That match against James Cahill in the UK Championship was very entertaining, but it was clear that Ding was not really prepared for a battle, and found himself a long way behind before he started to play a bit. He could be a little rusty here and might need a few matches to play himself into the tournament, but he doesn't really have that luxury in a tournament such as the Masters. He won it in 2011 in style, but since then he has lost in the 1st round for three years in a row. In fact, he hasn't played at the business end of any of the big three UK events since 2011 now. Joe Perry is exactly the kind of solid player to take full advantage if Ding is out of sorts. He played his best snooker in the Wuxi Classic at the start of the season, losing in the final, but since then he has gone out in the early rounds of all other major events. Last season he hardly played two tournaments in a row without reaching the business end, so you could say he is struggling a little at the moment, at least compared to his 2013/2014 form. He reached the quarter-finals in Lisbon though, before losing to Hawkins. They played each other in the Masters way back in 2004, when a 16-year-old Ding beat Perry 6-3 in the wildcard round. Ding has mostly dominated their matches over the years, with some of their best clashes coming last season, including a 5-1 win for Perry in Wuxi, and wins for Ding in Germany and Wales, the latter being a best-of-11 semi-final which Ding won 6-4. There is also Perry's poor record in the Masters to be considered, even worse than Bingham's, Hawkins' or Carter's in fact, failing to get past the 1st round in any of his previous six appearances here. :wink:

Mark Allen must be relived to land far away from Robertson in the draw this time. They played in this tournament in each of the last four years, Robertson winning the last three, but this time they can only meet in the final. Allen has finally found a bit of consistency this season, stringing two ranking finals together in Shanghai and Chengdu, but failing to win either of them. He was one of the outside favourites for the UK title, but surprisingly lost to Rod Lawler in the last32. Like Ding, he too has struggled in the big three events in recent seasons, losing in the 1st round of about half of them since that UK final in 2011. I would still make him favourite against John Higgins here though. First of all, he has a good recent record against him, having beaten him in the World Open in 2013 and 2014, playing superbly both times. He also beat him in the Masters in 2010, when Higgins was playing really badly. It was surprising to see at the time, but I don't think many would be surprised if Higgins played badly this time. This season he is yet to reach the business end of any major tournament. He had an excellent chance in the UK Championship, and he played quite well in his first couple of matches, but then played a pretty poor match against Anthony McGill and went out in an underwhelming way yet again. He was always known for his extremely solid B-game, but that seems non-existent at the moment. He is struggling with his long-potting, struggling to score, and his safety is all over the place at times. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have much patience at the moment either, and often tries to get something going with crazy shots, instead of waiting for better chances. He still plays very well sometimes, but that's now limited to single matches here and there, and you can't really expect good runs in tournaments that way. As I said before the UK Championship, Higgins seems like the kind of player the best-of-11 format should suit, but for some reason his results suggest otherwise, and the Masters has never been his strong tournament, even when he was playing well. Having said that, he has a semi-final and two quarter-finals in the last three years, which is still better than most tournaments in this period. In Lisbon he reached the last16, losing to the eventual winner Maguire. Is it time for him to play a good tournament?

Ding against Allen would be my bet for the quarter-finals, and it could be a pretty good match as well. You have to go back a few years to find a match of at least medium length between them. Ding won 6-2 in the semi-finals of the 2010 China Open, while Allen won 9-8 in the UK Championship later that year. Everything else has been short stuff, so this pairing would be interesting to see here. Ding against Higgins would be a good one as well. It would be their third meeting in the Masters, Ding winning 6-4 in 2008, Higgins winning by the same scoreline the following year. They also met in a UK final in that period, Ding winning 10-8. In the more recent times Higgins played one of his best recent matches against Ding in the 2013 World Open, when he whitewashed him 5-0 in the quarter-finals with some superb snooker, while Ding got a bit of revenge with a 5-2 win in the China Open last season. Ding actually started to remind me of Higgins quite a lot last season, just winning matches and tournaments with solid all-round snooker, without playing anything flashy, but with Ding struggling so far this season that comparison seems a little out of place at the moment. :wink: Allen and Perry have only ever met once over medium distance, in the 2013 International Championship, Perry winning 6-4, while Higgins beat Perry in the quarter-finals of the Wuxi Classic at the start of last season, which was their first major match in a long time. A really tough section to call this...

Quarter 4:

Judd Trump v. Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby v. Shaun Murphy

The fourth quarter looks the most exciting to me, and I'm sure many will agree with that sentiment. Judd Trump is not among the most experienced players here, at least in terms of appearances, but he still finds himself among the big favourites. Two of his four major titles so far have come in the best-of-11 format, so this tournament should definitely suit him. Of course he also reached the final of the Champion of Champions this season, which also had a couple of best-of-11 matches. He has been very solid for most of the season, the highlight being his win in the Australian Open, but to be honest, he really should have won the UK title. He was the best player during the week, but the mental approach and some of the tactical choices really let him down in the final. I hope he is a more positive person than me, because I would really struggle to take the positives out of that defeat, although his comeback from 9-4 down was to his great credit. He was a quarter-finalist in Lisbon, losing to Selt, so he still seems to be playing alright. For some reason I have a bad feeling about him though, I think he might be one of those players who could have done without the new year break. It's nice to see Stephen Maguire playing a little better again. He seemed to be making a big effort in Wuxi at the start of the season, but followed it up with a couple of really poor tournaments, so it was good to see him playing some solid snooker in the UK Championship. He wasn't quite on fire, but he had the patience and the discipline to compete anyway, and that's what you need to give yourself a chance of winning titles. He beat a pretty strong field to win the title in Lisbon, and the thing with him is, his good form always seems to come in prolonged patches, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him playing well for the rest of the season now. Maguire and Trump have had a great rivalry in recent years, with Maguire enjoying the better of it, but looking only at the best-of-11 matches, it's actually 2-1 to Trump. The most recent one was of course in the semi-finals of the UK Championship, Trump winning 6-4, while Maguire has a good win over him from Wuxi earlier this season, a 5-0 whitewash, although most frames came down to the colours that day. :wink:

Mark Selby is the king of this tournament in recent years. He has played in it seven times now, won the title three times and lost in the final twice, which just shows how hard it is to beat him in the best-of-11s. It's also amazing that half of his matches have gone all the way, and he is still undefeated in deciders, 11 out of 11. This season he has missed out on a couple of venues, like Ding, so he could do with a good result here. I expected him to be back to form for the UK Championship, and perhaps he was, but David Morris played really well to knock him out early. Quite a few players have struggled for a time after becoming fathers in the past, so it wouldn't be a huge surprise if Selby isn't quite back to his best yet, but I have a feeling he could play a good tournament here. Shaun Murphy is a tough opponent for anyone, and one of only three players to ever beat Selby in the Masters. I will give you the statistics with him again... In the major events this season he has won 11 out of 11 matches against the lower-ranked players so far, but lost 6 out of 6 against other top16 players. In the Masters top16 players are his only possible opponents. :wink: Having said that, he had similar problems last year, and he managed to turn them around in the Masters and get a couple of wins, probably gaining the confidence that later helped him win the World Open title. He has never really been a prolific winner, winning an occasional title here and there, but he was always very strong at reaching semi-finals and quarter-finals. In the last two seasons that's not the case anymore. He only has one major quarter-final this season, in the Wuxi Classic right at the start, while his performances in the PTCs are much better, except the last one, where he lost in the 1st round. His most consistent tournament actually seems to be the Masters now, the final in 2012, followed by two semi-finals, so I definitely wouldn't rule him out. He always seems to be the underdog when he meets Selby, but it seems to suit him. He won their World Open final last season, and also won when they played in the Masters in 2012, but lost the following year with a very poor performance. Should be one of the most interesting matches of the 1st round. :smile:

The quarter-final could be any combination really... Selby against Trump seems like the best bet, a repeat of the 2011 China Open final, which Trump won 10-8. They fought for the top spot in the rankings for a period after that, but still somehow avoided each other in the major matches, until very recently when Trump beat Selby 6-1 with a great performance in the Champion of Champions. He has also had the better of Murphy in most of their matches, such as the 5-2 win in the German Masters last season, or the excellent 13-12 win in the quarter-finals of the 2013 WC, when he came from 7-2 down. On the other hand, Murphy won their semi-final in the Ruhr Open, coming from 3-0 down to win 4-3. The Maguire-Murphy rivalry could also do with a revival. The last time they played a best-of-11 Maguire won 6-0, in the semi-finals of the 2012 German Masters, and he generally has the better record against Murphy in the longer matches. But as we know, rivalries often come down to who needs it more at the time, and the underdog seems to win unusually often. :wink: As for Maguire and Selby, I wouldn't mind that pairing at all, because it always seems to be a good match when they play. Selby has won both of their matches in the Masters, 6-5 in 2008 and 6-3 in 2010. They've met in quite a few other long matches, but none very recently. This is another tough section to call, and as I said before the UK, when in doubt go for Selby. :wink:

Possible semi-final lineup:

Ronnie O'Sullivan v. Neil Robertson
Mark Allen v. Mark Selby


That's what I think anyway... :smile: This should be one of the highlights of the season, and I have a feeling I will enjoy every minute of it. :smile:

[RoryM147]

Wtf lol did you copy paste that ?