Ssb - masters draw

[MySockPuppet]

Mark Selby will begin the defence of his Masters title against Mark King at Wembley Arena next January.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, Selby's beaten opponent in last season's final, will face Mark Allen, who beat him in the second round of the 2009 World Championship.

Reigning world champion Neil Robertson tackles six times Masters champion Stephen Hendry while Jamie Cope makes his Wembley debut against Shaun Murphy.

The format includes scope for two wildcards but this is still to be confirmed.

Draw:
Mark Selby v Mark King
Shaun Murphy v Jamie Cope
Mark Williams v Ding Junhui
John Higgins v Graeme Dott
Ali Carter v Peter Ebdon
Stephen Maguire v Marco Fu
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Mark Allen
Neil Robertson v Stephen Hendry


More...

[Masterdoctorgenius]

allen first up for ronnie then possibly neil

it doenst get easier for the rocket

selby has apart the first round a tough draw also

can we see another selby-ronnie classic

[The Boss]

King should have beaten Selby in Shanghai and is due a win over the Shark

[Looki]

MJW and Ding have gone head to head quite a few times this season. And once again!

[Odrl]

MJW and Ding have gone head to head quite a few times this season. And once again!

Yeah, and they were in the same quarter in Shanghai as well, but were surprisingly knocked out before they could meet.

[spike]

Robertson/Hendry and O'Sullivan/Allen look to be the most exciting of first round matches, but to be honest they all look to be good on paper..

[Mr P]

Selby should get past King.

What's the format in the first round, is it first to 6 or something?

[gavpowell]

Best of 11 until the final, which is best of 19.

Can't decide whether to book hotel and tickets now or wait til nearer the time.

[PaddyLowson]

Interesting that they've made the draw before deciding whether they are going to have any wild-card round matches. TBH I think that it would be very hard to finalize a draw and then expect 15th and 16th seeds for this tournament to play the wildcard round.

Looking at that draw it looks like we're going to be in for a great week at Wembley once again, playing best of 11 matches (which are normally SFs in most rankers) is one reason why its anticipated as its a format that's not normally done much. For some reason I think if they ever have the WC round in the Masters they ought to do that on a saturday - eases the rush to get matches done on the Sunday and Monday anyway.

I reckon that in the Masters its always going to be hard to get anything right for sure but If I was asked to predict it at this stage Id say something like this to begin with.

Mark Selby 6-2 Mark King
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Jamie Cope
Mark Williams 5-6 Ding Junhui
John Higgins 4-6 Graeme Dott
Ali Carter 6-3 Peter Ebdon
Stephen Maguire 6-1 Marco Fu
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-4 Mark Allen
Neil Robertson 6-3 Stephen Hendry

Selby 6-4 Murphy
Ding 6-3 Dott
Carter 6-5 Maguire
O’Sullivan 6-4 Robertson

Selby 3-6 Ding
Carter 4-6 O’Sullivan

O’Sullivan 10-7 Ding

[The Boss]

Mark King will reach the final. Stephen Lee did it a few years ago when no one expected it. Will he win it? I don't want to go that far yet, but i think King will be there on the last Sunday

[Mr P]

I can't work out whether you're being serious or not, Boss.

[hotpot]

I also fancy King to topple the joker from leicester

[Mr P]

You don't though, you really don't have to lie. I fancy MJW to beat Ding, I don't hide it.

[hotpot]

I do i think he has the fighting spirit to play spanners at his own game and beat him

[Mr P]

But there's no doubt that Selby will win. Time will tell.