Masters Snooker: How A Week of Incredible Drama Has Unveiled So Far

The 2019 Dafabet Masters has yet again provided fans with incredible drama all week – and there’s still plenty more to savor going into the final weekend.

Last Sunday the opening day of the event saw two final frame deciders in both matches with the defending champion Mark Allen crashing out 6 – 5 to Luca Brecel and then in the evening four time World Champion John Higgins crashed out to Ryan Day.

Fans then saw the World Champion Mark Williams crash out to Neil Robertson in the first round after being 3 – 1 up and even had the opportunity to go 4 – 1 up but Robertson battled back to win that encounter.

Wednesday saw Kyren Wilson and Judd Trump extend their rivalry as the Warrior Wilson had beaten Trump on four occasions last year but this time it was Trump who exacted revenge for those losses and battered Wilson 6 – 2 with being 4 – 0 up. It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Kettering 27-year-old as their rivalry reached Alexandra Palace once again in the top billing.

Younger Rivalries

Before the match Trump had admitted to BBC Sport, “we don’t see eye to eye, we don’t really get on” as both seek to become the new generation of consistent snooker champions and take over the reigns of power from the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams, all into their forties.

Ronnie O’Sullivan has not been vintage so far in the event as he hunts for an 8th Masters title and 20 major titles, but saw off both Ryan Day and Stuart Bingham – in solid fashion.

Tons of Drama

And the world number one Mark Selby, who plays the in form Trump today in the two remaining quarter-finals before the main events at the weekend, was back to dashing form in his first round match, knocking in three tons along the way and seeing off comfortably a disappointing Stephen Maguire, who came back to some kind of form to qualify for the Masters.

Finally, Thursday saw yet more incredible drama as China’s no 1 Ding Junhui went head to head with Europe’s Luca Brecel, a player who won his first ranking title a couple of season’s ago in the China Championship as the match was nip and tuck all the way. It was an incredible loss in frame 9 from Ding when he lost the frame through the 3 miss rule in snooker, you can see that on the video below. That said, Ding held himself together in the decider as the Belgium bullet in the decider missed a red to the middle and let Ding in. We may well be seeing more of Brecel in the future as he is another one of the under 30 top players to be breaking through – slowly.

O’Sullivan will play Ding in the semi-final, but who will be the other two semi-finalists??

The drama continues until Sunday evening January 20 on BBC and Eurosport.