BGC Masters Day 8: Neil Robertson defeated Shaun Murphy by 10-6 in the final to claim his first Masters title at Ally Pally.
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| Robertson is The Masters Champion |
Both finalists each have won World Championship once whilst Shaun Murphy was a UK Champion as well. He aimed for winning the Masters title to accomplish the goal of being the first player born in 1980s to win the three major tournaments (World, UK and Masters). However, his opponent Neil Robertson from Australia holds a proud record of being undefeated in the finals that he has reached. Neither of them has reached the final of Masters before, we will have a new winner again this year.
Robertson took the scrappy first frame of the first session before Murphy took the lead with breaks of 102 and 65. Robertson responded with a 103 to draw level 2-2 at the mid interval. The following two frames were shared but The Aussie dominated the last two frames to end the session with 72 and 60. Robertson led Murphy by 5-3 before the match resumes.
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| Neil Robertson And Shaun Murphy |
The Magician grabbed the opening frame at the night session but Thunder From Down Under retained two-cushion advantage with 101 in frame 10. Close frames were not favourable for Murphy, Robertson took the important frame 11 as well as the coming frame 12 with 72 to walk away from Murphy. Robertson was leading by 8-4, only two frames away from winning the Masters title.
Murphy was not in form at the session which left Robertson a decent chance to reach the match point, 9-4 with 76. The Magician had the pressure off his shoulder and it brought out his solid snooker. 52 and 86 helped him to reduce the gap to three frames and looked like he was going to turn over the match. Unfortunately he left a red over the pocket in the next frame Robertson did not let it slip, making a 70 to end Murphy's comeback. Neil Robertson is the first Australian to win Masters.
Robertson was told in his post match press conference that Murphy had described him as snooker's best all-round player and responded: "I can't really explain how nice it is for someone like Shaun to say something like that because he is very genuine with everything he says. He's a great champion and obviously he was going for a huge piece of history here tonight, not many players have won all three (the World, UK and Masters), but I'm sure he will win here one day and he gave me one hell of a scare.''
Robertson's proud record keeps rewriting by himself, "The run of winning major finals won't last forever. Obviously I'm confident going into finals because I have a great record. I always fancy my chances.''
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| Ally Pally |
Murphy was disappointed to lose but pleased by his run to the final. He said: "My real attacking power has come back and it gives me a good chance to build on this going forward for the rest of the season. It's too early to look at the World Championship just yet, we've got a lot of snooker to go between now and Sheffield, but I've been able to play very well in a major championship.''
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