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'A showcase for snooker' - Why the growing appeal of the Masters makes it one of the sport's most prized titles
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Published 07/01/2023 at 12:33 GMT
This year's Masters kicks off on January 8 with all eyes trained on Alexandra Palace in London for the first major snooker event of the year. Dave Hendon takes a look at what makes the tournament so special and what lies ahead at the 2023 event, with snooker needing a much-needed boost in light of off-table controversies. Stream top snooker action including the 2023 Masters live on discovery+.
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Once again, London is calling. If the World Championship in Sheffield is a marathon of the mind then the Masters in the capital is like a New Year HIIT session – full pelt, high energy and, with matches played over one session, little recovery time.
It’s a survival of the snooker fittest. Cliff Thorburn once described the Masters as “the Big Daddy after the World Championship.” Thorburn won the event three times, which possibly shaded his opinion, but it’s hard now to argue with the Canadian legend’s assessment.
An elite field of 16 players competing in front of a lively crowd at Alexandra Palace, every match feels like a final with the focus on quality.
Snooker needs a good week after a wave of suspensions of Chinese players as the authorities investigate potential match fixing. Zhao Xintong is the latest – and biggest – name to be suspended, a depressing turn of events considering his rise in the last year as the sport’s newest star.
This is a dark cloud but the sun can still shine on snooker. It’s up to the rest of the field to put on a show and remind the public what a great sport it is. This is the perfect event for such an exhibition.
The Masters began 48 years ago as the professional circuit started to take shape thanks to television interest.
For a time in the 1980s, the lack of ranking points available led some to question whether it was really a major. Chief among them was Steve Davis, who by 1987 had won it only once. After a first-round defeat that year, he said: “I don’t seem to get so excited at a tournament which doesn’t carry ranking points. To me, the Masters is just a money tournament. There’s no prestige except the money.”
Davis got over this by hammering Mike Hallett 9-0 in the final the following year before completing a hat-trick in 1997. In between, a number of the ranking events he dominated in his pomp disappeared from the circuit, leaving the Masters as one of game’s most prized titles. Nobody questions its prestige now.
Its appeal comes from its elitism. One table, big money, the best players in the world and a large crowd. If you could invent a showcase for snooker, this would be it.
Like any long-running event, it has also created a vast reservoir of memories. The first final in 1975 saw John Spencer edge Ray Reardon 9-8 on a re-spotted black. This year is the 25th anniversary of Mark Williams’ dramatic 10-9 re-spot win over Stephen Hendry.
Hendry had won the Masters the first five times he played in it, a reign so impressive that he was given the old trophy to keep. Ronnie O’Sullivan became the youngest champion at 19 in 1995 and holds the record for most titles, seven to Hendry’s six.
In many ways, though, the player most identified with the Masters is Paul Hunter, in whose honour the trophy is named.
Hunter won the title three times from 2001 to 2004, all in deciders having been forced to come back from various deficits: 6-2 down to Fergal O’Brien, 5-0 down to Williams and 7-2 down to O’Sullivan.
He was a gregarious character, as befitting this event, loved by the crowds and much missed following his sad death at the age of 27.
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In the first four stagings of the Masters there wasn’t a single century recorded. Perrie Mans won the title in 1979 with a highest break of 48.
Times moved on. Hunter made five centuries in the 2004 final alone. The game now is so competitive that four players who have won ranking titles in the last year –Fan Zhengyi, Joe Perry, Robert Milkins and Gary Wilson – aren’t even in the field.
World Snooker Tour did a superb job last year of making the event feel even more special, including corporate hospitality and creating a dynamic atmosphere in keeping with how a modern sporting occasion should feel.
It looked like a must-have ticket, and most sessions this year are duly sold out. So, who is going to win?
Neil Robertson seems to have developed a problem producing his best at the intimate Crucible theatre in Sheffield but has no such issue strutting his stuff at Alexandra Palace.
Last year, he won an extraordinary semi-final against Williams, 6-5 on the final black, before overwhelming Barry Hawkins to win his second Masters title. He starts his campaign for a third on the opening afternoon with a tricky tie against Shaun Murphy, who beat him 10-2 to win the trophy in 2015.
O’Sullivan, who last won the title six years ago, starts out against Luca Brecel, appearing at the Masters for only the third time.
Mark Allen has been the player of the season. He won the Masters in 2018 but has not won a match in it since, so will be looking to remedy this against Hawkins.
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John Higgins was champion in 1999 and 2006 but has also lost his opening match 13 times. The Scot has endured a disappointing season and could be vulnerable against Jack Lisowski, although the dashing left-hander is yet to win a match at the Masters from three previous appearances.
The well of titles has dried up for Judd Trump, whose last trophy came at the Turkish Masters last March. The 2019 champion faces Welshman Ryan Day, this season’s British Open winner, in the first round.
Mark Selby, three times the champion, opened up about his mental health battle following his Masters exit last year. He ended 2022 by winning the English Open but has not been past the quarter-finals at Ally Pally for nine years. Hossein Vafaei, who beat him at the UK Championship this season, comes in for the suspended Zhao but will have to adjust quickly to the unique Masters atmosphere.
Dave Gilbert, a semi-finalist on each of his two previous Masters appearances, has been called up following Yan Bingtao’s suspension and will face Williams in round one.
The remaining first-round encounter sees Stuart Bingham, the champion in 2020, tackle Kyren Wilson, who beat him 6-5 in a thriller at the same stage 12 months ago.
The Masters is the first tournament of the new year and fires the starting gun on the countdown to the World Championship in April. But it’s a major event in its own right, if anything growing in prestige every year.
It also provides a platform for the players to bring some much needed positive publicity to snooker – as important as whoever walks away with the trophy and £250,000 first prize come January 15.
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Stream top snooker action including the 2023 Masters live on discovery+ and Eurosport.
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