One Of the three prestigious snooker events, on the snooker calendar came to a close on Sunday 18th January. The Snooker Masters, a week long tournament started with Sean Murphy who beat the reigning World champion Mark Selby – and ended with Murphy defeating Neil Robertson by a massive 10 frames to 2.
The Masters tournament itself did produce a lot of high quality matches, with each game having a century in it bar one. There were also a few surprise results, such as Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen beating Scotland’s John Higgins who has won this tournament in the past. Wins for Sean Murphy and Marco Fu against Mark Selby and Stuart Bingham respectively deserve a mention.
In fact Marco Fu in his match against Bingham made a 147, which for once was the only one of the tournament. Great news for snooker fans and Ali Carter fans in particular. The Essex who returned to the sport after a cancer scare, returned to action to a standing ovation in the first round.
Carter in his first round match was quite simply brilliant and took apart an out of sorts Barry Hawkins 6-1. Ali Carter’s tournament would end though in the next round with a 6-1 defeat of his own to world number 1 Neil Robertson, there is no shame in that.
Practice partner and pre tournament favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan started his campaign with a solid 6-4 win over Ricky Walden. The Rocket however in the quarter final defeated Marco Fu with a 6-1 demolition. The Rocket was gaining momentum it seemed and was seen as the man to beat by many.
Sadly for O’Sullivan fans, their hero’s quest for yet another masters title was over as the 39 year old lost quite convincingly to world number 1 Neil Robertson in the semi finals, it finished 6-1 to the Australian. The Australian was into yet another Masters final after having a monopoly on this tournament in recent years.
If commentators and analysts thought this tournament was a forgone conclusion they were wrong. Sean Murphy a former world champion and Uk champion winner came the man who was looking to stop Neil Robertson in this one.
Stop him he did, Sean Murphy was solid throughout the week with out catching the headlines like Ronnie O’Sullivan or Neil Robertson were. The Rotherham man won the masters final at a canter, winning it by 10 frames to two. Ironic to think Sean Murphy was planning to quit the sport when he quite clearly has more to give to it.
The Bearded Captain 
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