|
2025 Masters (snooker)
The 2025 Masters (officially the 2025 Johnstone's Paint Masters) is a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that is taking place from 12 to 19 January 2025 at Alexandra Palace in London, England. The second Triple Crown event of the 2024–25 season, following the 2024 UK Championship and preceding the 2025 World Championship, the tournament is the 51st edition of the Masters, which was first held in 1975. The tournament is organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored by Johnstone's Paint. The top 16 players in the snooker world rankings, as they stood after the 2024 UK Championship, were invited to the event. Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, having defeated Ali Carter 10–7 in the 2024 final to win his eighth Masters title, but he withdrew from the event on medical grounds. Overview The event is being held at Alexandra Palace in London.  The arena at the start of tournament. Neil Robertson is seated, and John Higgins is walking past the table. The 2025 Masters is a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that is taking place from from 12 to 19 January 2025 at Alexandra Palace in London, England.[1] The second Triple Crown event of the 2024–25 season, the tournament is the 51st edition of the Masters, which was first held in 1975 for 10 invited players at the West Centre Hotel in London.[1][2] John Spencer won the inaugural event, defeating Ray Reardon on a re-spotted black in the deciding frame of the final.[2] The Masters is the second-longest-running professional snooker tournament, after the World Snooker Championship,[3] and has been staged at Alexandra Palace since 2012.[a][5] The 16 highest ranked players in the snooker world rankings after the 2024 UK Championship were invited to participate in the single-elimination tournament.[6] The defending champion was Ronnie O'Sullivan, who won his eighth Masters title at the previous year's event by defeating Ali Carter 10–7 in the final.[7] As defending champion, O'Sullivan was seeded first, while Kyren Wilson was seeded second as the reigning World Champion.[1][6] O'Sullivan withdrew before the start of the event on medical grounds and was replaced in the draw by Neil Robertson.[8][9] Participants_2015-02-06_10.jpg) The event features the top 16 players in the world rankings, as they stood after the UK Championship. Si Jiahui and Chris Wakelin, who both entered the top 16 for the first time in the 2024–25 season, will be making their Masters debuts.[10] 17th-ranked Neil Robertson, who was set to miss out on qualifying for the Masters for the first time since 2018, replaced defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan after the latter withdrew.[8][9] BroadcastersThe tournament is being broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and in Europe (including the UK and Ireland) by Eurosport and Discovery+. It is broadcast in China by CCTV5, Huya, the CBSA-WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel and the CBSA-WPBSA Academy Douyin. It is broadcast in Hong Kong by Now TV, in Malaysia and Brunei by Astro SuperSport, in Taiwan by Sport Cast, in Thailand by TrueVisions, and in the Philippines by Premier Sports. In all other territories, the event is streamed by WST Play.[11] Prize moneyThe winner of the event will receive the Paul Hunter trophy[12] and £350,000 from a total prize pool of £1,015,000, an increase of £290,000 from the previous event. The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below:[13]
SummaryFirst round The first-round matches are being played from 12–15 January as the best of 11 frames.[15] In the opening match, Neil Robertson, playing as a late replacement for defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan who withdrew for medical reasons, faced John Higgins, who was playing in the event for a record-extending 31st time.[16] It was the first time the two players had met at this event.[citation needed] Robertson took the first frame but conceded the next five as Higgins made six substantial breaks to lead 5–1.[17][18] Robertson, however, made breaks of 63, 118 and 80 in lifting the next four frames. He won the match in the deciding frame after Higgins missed a pot on a break of 35.[17] "I don't think John did a lot wrong. I played at my absolute best," Robertson said afterwards.[18] Shaun Murphy faced Gary Wilson, who was making his debut at Alexandra Palace.[19][c] Despite several scoring opportunities for Wilson, Murphy led 4–0 after the first four frames, making breaks of 69, 56 and 64. After the mid-session interval, Wilson attempted a comeback, making breaks of 101 and 92 to close the gap to 3–4. However, Murphy made a break of 102 in the eighth frame and after another mistake by Wilson, also took the ninth to win the match 6–3.[19][21] Murphy commented afterwards: "In the first four frames, I was pleased to be clinical with my chances. I was expecting Gary to make a run after that ... So I was pleased to make a good break for 5–3."[19] Wilson was very critical of his performance after the match, saying "I couldn't even enjoy the occasion because I'm frustrated with the way I'm playing", adding "I've been ... showing bits of what I can do, and managing to win three tournaments ... It's great, but I feel deep down it's just getting worse."[19][22] _2014-01-30_01.jpg) Mark Williams met Ding Junhui in the afternoon session. After sharing the first four frames before the mid-session interval, Williams took the fifth with a break of 70 to lead Ding 3–2 but Ding responded with two breaks of over 60 to lead 4–3. Williams took the eighth frame with a break of 136 to level the scores at 4–4. Ding went 66–0 ahead in the ninth but missed a black, after which Williams cleared up to win the frame by a single point and lead 5–4. Ding won the tenth frame to force a deciding frame which he then won with a break of 90, winning the match 6–5 and reaching the quarter-finals in the Masters for an eighth time.[23] Mark Selby faced previous year's finalist Ali Carter. After taking the first frame helped by a break of 62, Selby also narrowly won a 41-minute second frame after a safety exchange on the final brown to lead 2–0. Making breaks of 108 and 92, Selby also took the next two frames to lead 4–0. After requiring snookers, Selby almost managed to force a respotted black in the fifth but failed to pot the final blue, allowing Carter to win his first frame, reducing his deficit to 1–4. Another century of 126 in the sixth and a clearance of 53 in the seventh secured the next two frames for Selby, winning the match 6–1.[21][24][25] Commenting on the start of the match, Selby said afterwards: "First frame I twitched a yellow and Ali should have probably won that. And he should have definitely won the second frame and I pinched that, and then you're settled."[25] Carter commented: "Mark was very good and I was absolute rubbish. ... I just wanted to get out of there in the end."[24] In a rematch of the 2024 UK Championship final, world number one Judd Trump met Barry Hawkins. Trump took the first five frames to lead 5–0, capitalizing twice on similar foul shots by Hawkins when attempting to split the reds. Hawkins made a break of 70 to win the sixth, but Trump made a century break of 112 in the seventh to win the match 6–1.[26][27] Trump admitted to expecting a closer match, saying afterwards: "I was expecting a really tough game, 6–4 or 6–5 either way. ... Today I didn't do a lot wrong and punished his [Barry Hawkins'] mistakes."[26] Quarter-finalsThe quarter-finals will be played on 16 and 17 January.[15][13] Tournament drawThe draw of the tournament is shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seedings, and players in bold denote match winners.[15][28]
Final
Century breaksA total of 9 century breaks have been made during the tournament.[29]
Notes
References
External links
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
_logo.jpg){kind=logo}
