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Saga Insurance Masters - Preview
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This weekend (13th January) the Saga Insurance Masters starts at the Wembley Arena in Snooker's first tournament of the new year.
Snooker's biggest invitational event features the world's top 16 players plus two wildcards battling for one of the most prestigious and coveted titles on the calendar.
The tournament started way back in 1975 when the first ever staging of the Masters was won by John Spencer who defeated Ray Reardon 9-8 in a very closely fought final.
Since that date the tournament has been won by 16 further snooker greats with the previous winners reading like a who's-who of snooker. Topping the overall table with 6 Masters titles is Stephen Hendry who also dominated this event between 1989-93 winning 5 titles in a row. Following Hendry are Steve Davis, Cliff Thorburn, Last years winner Ronnie O'Sullivan and the late, great Paul Hunter, all of whom have three Masters titles.
Favourite for the title again this year is Ronnie O'Sullivan who defeated Ding Junhui 10-3 in last years final. That match was one of the best televised snooker matches I have ever witnessed and Ronnie destroyed Ding to take his third Masters title.
Stan James have the odds for the overall title as:
| O'Sullivan, Ronnie |
7/4 |
|
| Junhui, Ding |
6/1 |
|
| Higgins, John |
8/1 |
|
| Maguire, Stephen |
10/1 |
|
| Murphy, Shaun |
12/1 |
|
| Hendry, Stephen |
18/1 |
|
| Selby, Mark |
18/1 |
|
| Ebdon, Peter |
20/1 |
|
| Robertson, Neil |
20/1 |
|
| Williams, Mark |
28/1 |
|
| Day, Ryan |
33/1 |
|
| Doherty, Ken |
33/1 |
|
| Dott, Graeme |
33/1 |
|
| Fu, Marco |
33/1 |
|
| Carter, Allister |
40/1 |
|
| Hawkins, Barry |
50/1 |
|
| Lee, Stephen |
50/1 |
|
| Davis, Steve |
150/1 |
The draw for the first round is below:
Wildcard Round:
Ryan Day vs Barry Hawkins
Steve Davis vs Marco Fu
First Round:
Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Stephen Maguire
Stephen Hendry vs Mark Selby
Ken Doherty vs Mark Williams
Shaun Murphy vs Ali Carter
Graeme Dott vs Stephen Lee
Peter Ebdon vs Winner Wildcard 1
Neil Robertson vs Winner Wildcard 2
John Higgins vs Ding Junhui
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