Class act Robertson can defend his Masters title

7Jan 2013

Betfair

Betfair are proud to be sponsoring one of the jewels in snooker's crown, the Masters, starting at Alexandra Palace next week. Neil Robertson will be defending his title and Paul Krishnamurty reckons the Aussie will take plenty of stopping once again..

If there was one conclusion to be drawn from last month's UK Championship, it's that snooker is more wide open than ever before. The decision of reigning world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan to withdraw from this season has left a vacuum at the top, with at least five players realistically vying for the world number one spot.

Mark Selby reclaimed that status with victory in York, but it easy to envisage a scenario where the rankings lead changes after each event. Indeed, given the nature of Selby's gutsy yet flawed performances, next week's Betfair Masters will likely represent a better guide to the current snooker hierarchy.

The second leg of snooker's triple-crown invariably produces a winner of the highest class. O'Sullivan always started hot favourite in his hometown, and featured in six of the last nine finals. The last 'outsider' to win was 12 years ago, when the late Paul Hunter traded around 25.0 before the first of his three titles. A crucial distinction with this event is that, as an invitational restricted to the top-16 players, the top names are guaranteed to reach what would be the latter stages of a normal ranking event. At York for instance, only 11 of the elite reached the last-16 stage.

Moreover, competition amongst that elite has become ever fiercer since Barry Hearn's radical restructuring of the snooker season started to sort the wheat from the chaff. Not so long ago, a top-16 member could get away with struggling all year, just by winning their first round match at the World Championship. Nowadays, because the rankings are updated throughout the season with many more counting events, nobody can rest on their laurels.

A much busier schedule has also yielded massive improvement from one-time journeymen, meaning there are no easy games at this level anymore. Take the examples of Stuart Bingham and Mark Davis. In two decades as pros, both men had won the old qualifying tournament for the Masters, yet never seemed capable of gatecrashing the top-16. Since enjoying the opportunity to play all these extra tournaments, however, both have joined the elite and on last month's evidence, are well capable of causing further upsets.

So who will prevail at Alexandra Palace? There's an obvious case to be made for Selby as this has tended to be his favourite tournament, winning in 2008, 2010 and losing the final in between. Having shown last month that he can win the second most prestigious ranking title playing nowhere near his best, drawing instead on vast reserves of tactical nous, mental stamina and bottle, an in-form, fluent Selby would take the world of beating.

There is no reason, however, to assume Selby will be either in-form or fluent as he has a longstanding tendency to make hard work of his victories. Even during that golden three year period at the Masters, the Jester from Leicester needed a final frame for seven out of 11 victories. While his battling qualities at York were admirable, his snooker was pretty ugly and opponents threw away chance after chance. In particular, Neil Robertson must be wondering how he blew a 4-0 lead in the quarter-final. On their wider form, the Aussie would surely warrant favouritism if they were to meet in the Masters final.

Punters tend to agree, with Selby rated only the fourth likeliest winner according to current odds. As usual, they prefer to get behind 4.8 favourite Judd Trump, in expectation that the game's new sensation will emulate O'Sullivan. Trump certainly has much greater scope for improvement than his closest rivals and will surely become a snooker legend, but at this stage he can still be unreliable. His York defeat at the hands of rank outsider Mark Joyce was an abject affair and some favourite backers are still licking their wounds from his self-inflicted defeat to Ali Carter at the last World Championships.

Nonetheless, Trump made a huge impact at Alexandra Palace last year, trouncing O'Sullivan before losing to Robertson. In the aftermath of their enthralling semi-final, there was much talk that this would become snooker's greatest rivalry, reminscent of classic battles between O'Sulivan and John Higgins, or Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White. Their most recent meeting came in the final of The International, which Trump won 10-8, and the rivalry may develop further in London as they are drawn to meet in the final.

Even if Trump has more long-term potential, Robertson looks the most complete player on the circuit right now, and the Aussie seems to be perfecting the art of timing his best form to coincide with the biggest tournaments. He was imperious in winning this title 12 months ago, and similarly so up to the quarter-finals of the two triple-crowns since, the World and UK Championships. A vintage O'Sullivan performance denied him in the former, and Selby's doggedness broke him down in the latter.

Robertson will have been hurt and annoyed with himself for the York defeat, and is expected to arrive in determined, tip-top shape for the defence of his Masters title. The Melbourne Machine has traded well below his current 8.6 odds in the last four triple-crowns and again rates the best pre-tournament value.

Recommended Bet

Back Neil Robertson @ 8.6