Masters Snooker 2012: Selby the bet as Ally Pally era begins

Snooker / David Hendon / 13 January 2012 /

" class="free_bet_btn" rel="external" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/G4/inline-freebet');" target="_blank">

Four tournaments, three finals, two trophies - it's hard to crab Selby's Masters record

"Selby has looked sharp in the last week at the Championship League, his first event since the Christmas break, and has to be a dangerman at the Ally Pally, the Masters’ new home."

The Masters has moved from its Wembley home but the tournament's king - Mark Selby - is going nowhere and the Jester from Leicester is primed to continue his storming record in this tournament, says David Hendon

Mark Selby has played in the Masters four times, appeared in three finals and won the title twice. This season he became only the ninth player in 35 years to assume the world no.1 spot and has every reason to go to Alexandra Palace this week confident of completing a hat-trick of victories in the game's most prestigious invitation tournament.

Selby, just about disputing favouritism with Judd Trump and Ronnie O'Sullivan on Betfair's outright market, started the season superbly, winning three titles, including the Shanghai Masters. His form dipped a little after that, which is understandable in such a long season where players experience peaks and troughs. However, he has looked sharp in the last week at the Championship League, his first event since the Christmas break, and has to be a dangerman at the Ally Pally, the Masters' new home.

The Leicester man won his first Masters title in 2008 with a 10-3 defeat of Stephen Lee, who he will face again in the first round. Indeed, it is Lee's first match in the tournament since that defeat four years ago. Lee has got himself back into the top 16 after some encouraging results following relegation from the elite group, but he's not had a consistent run in a big tournament for quite some time and Selby may consider this a kinder draw than he could have received. He has always relished the game's leading invitation event and last season's opening day defeat to Mark King was surely just a blip for this Masters form horse.

The top half of the draw sees Judd Trump, who had the best year of his career in 2011, with another realistic chance to reach a major final. Trump, 22, won the China Open and UK Championship last year and was runner-up in the World Championship. There's no doubt that the Bristolian is not only a rare and fine talent but also a big occasion player. He enjoys being up on stage and seems to welcome the pressure, while most players shrink from it.

Nobody wants to play Trump at the moment and he is a deserved favourite with Betfair punters, a reflection on how well he has done in the last 12 months. He is snooker's most exciting new star, riding a crest of confidence, but Selby has the game to tie him up, frustrate him a little. If they did meet in the final, I'd fancy this measured approach to triumph over Trump's all-out attack.

The first round features just eight matches, all with their own intrigue. Tickets are already sold out for the opening day clash between reigning champion Ding Junhui and four times winner Ronnie O'Sullivan, whose only previous meeting in the Masters ended with Ding walking off in tears on the end of a 10-3 rout in the 2007 final, jeered by overly hostile sections of the crowd. But that was five years ago and Ding has matured as both a player and a person since.

O'Sullivan's game has declined. He's only just kept his top 16 place at the latest seedings revision and players seem less in awe of him than they once were, but if he is going to turn it on in any event it will be the Masters, in which he has appeared in nine finals. Something tells me that with the big crowd and O'Sullivan's own love for the tournament, he will rise to the occasion.

One player for whom the Masters has not been a happy hunting ground is John Higgins, which seems a strange statement considering he has been in four finals and won the title twice. However, Higgins has also lost in the first round ten times and never seemed to warm to the Wembley atmosphere. A change of venue may bring a change in fortunes, and Higgins must be favourite against Welshman Matthew Stevens, who has only won one match in the Masters since lifting the trophy 12 years ago, but the world champion is yet to get going this season and is probably best leaving alone for this one.

Ali Carter has twice floated thoughts of retirement this season as he struggles to enjoy his snooker against a backdrop of Crohn's disease. Whether he walks away or not remains to be seen but Carter is clearly unhappy and ripe to have any errors punished by Graeme Dott, who displayed trademark tenacity at the World Championship last year when he beat him 13-11, winning three successive frames on the black. Expect Dott to do similar if Carter's mind isn't right.

Two outsiders in the betting who I fancy to come through their first round encounters are Stephen Maguire (against Mark Williams) and Mark Allen (against Neil Robertson).

Maguire played very well to win a recent Players Tour Championship event in Germany but also has an excellent record against Williams, beating him four times in five previous meetings. For some reason, he always seems to play well against him. Allen beat Robertson in the quarter-finals of the Masters last season. Also, Allen is full of confidence and form after his run to the UK Championship final last month whereas Robertson took a long, and deserved, Christmas break and admitted backstage at the Championship League that he wasn't feeling quite as sharp as he had been prior to the festive period.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>