Ronnie O’Sullivan v Neil Robertson – Masters Snooker

Ronnie O’Sullivan starts the defence of his Masters Snooker crown on Tuesday, with a match against Australia’s Neil Robertson. The Rocket won last year’s title in an exciting final against Mark Selby, and is looking to win the tournament for consecutive years for the first time in his illustrious career. O’Sullivan has already won the Masters four time, and the fifth would be crowned nicely in winning it back to back. Selby again could be one of O’Sullivan’s main challengers, and he is worth looking at with the bookies, as he is not always ranked as one of the favourites. That means there should be a good price to take on him. Put simply, Mark Selby performs well at Wembley. He has been in the previous two finals, winning one comprehensively, and then losing to Ronnie O’Sullivan last year. His first round victory, a thumping 6-1 win over UK Open winner Ding Junhui, seems to have set the stall for another impressive year. That victory took him to eight wins out of his last nine appearances at Wembley, against the final defeat against the Rocket last year, the only blot on his record.

Anyway, back to O’Sullivan. He did crash and burn at some pivotal moments last season, notably in the final of the Premier League, and in the semi finals of the UK Championship to John Higgins. Temperament is often the only undoing in O’Sullivan’s game, when that is not there, his concentration can wane. His skill and talent is not any question though, for he is the leading standard, and he is genuinely a natural genius, a joy to watch. His opponent Robertson, may not be one of the leading household names, but he is the most successful non-British player on the professional tour. He did hit the peak of third in the rankings, but is seeded down in ninth place for the Masters. His highlight last year was beating Ding Junhui to win the Grand Prix trophy.

Peter Ebdon is already awaiting the winner of O’Sullivan and Robertson, after he came back from 2-0 to demolish Marco Fu in their second round match. The big clashes will come in the semi final, where O’Sullivan, should he make it of course, will likely meet Shaun Murphy or Stephen Hendry. Those two meet in the second round, in one of the most intriguing match ups. Sadly for snooker fans, Jimmy White failed on his big comeback, as he crashed out 6-2 in the first round to Mark King. King now moves on to play second seed Stephen Maguire in the second round.

Selected Second Round Matches

Stephen Maguire to win: 2/5 at SkyBet
Mark King to win: 5/2 at Boylesports