The first big tournament of 2025 begins on Sunday when 16 of the best players in the world head to Alexandra Palace in London for The Masters, the most historic invitational event in the game with a place in history on the line.
Ronnie O’Sullivan wrote his name into the record books even more when he won this tournament a year ago but he pulled out in the days leading up to his title defence so we are guaranteed a different champion this week.
Recent Winners
2024 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2023 – Judd Trump
2022 – Neil Robertson
2021 – Yan Bingtao
2020 – Stuart Bingham
2019 – Judd Trump
2018 – Mark Allen
2017 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2016 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2015 – Shaun Murphy
The Format
There are no nuances to the format this week. It is a pretty simple one it has to be said. The tournament is a straight knockout right from the beginning with every match up to the final over the best of 11 frames on the one main table in the venue. The final is the best of 19 on the second Sunday of the competition with two sessions of action being used to determine who will land the second Triple Crown event of the campaign.
Top Quarter
This is the part of the draw where as the defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan should have been launching his title defence from but his withdrawal has opened this quarter right up. Shaun Murphy is now the highest ranked player in the section and he’ll be looking to take advantage of that. He is joined in this quarter by the Welsh Open champion Gary Wilson, legend of the game John Higgins who will be looking to win this for a third time. Neil Robertson is the lucky man who has replaced O’Sullivan and beware the man playing with the house money.
Second Quarter
The second quarter in any competition that uses seeded formats is always the open looking one and that is the case with this draw as well. Mark Selby has made it into this section as the highest ranked player and he’ll be looking to enhance his fine record in the competition, especially with O’Sullivan out of his half of the draw too. Mark Allen is seeded to be his quarter final opponent and the former champion will be looking to win his first major title of the campaign here. Ali Carter was beaten in the final here a year ago and he is in the second quarter while Si Jiahui completes the four men on his debut in the event.
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Third Quarter
Judd Trump is the tournament favourite going into the event but he doesn’t have the greatest record in these major competitions, although he does arrive here having won the UK Championship last month. He is scheduled to face off against the former champion Mark Williams in what would be a tasty quarter final should it happen. Two men will be looking to stop that from happening. Barry Hawkins lost to Trump in the final of the UK Championship so he’ll be motivated to beat him in the first round here while Ding Junhui could be a huge danger in an event he has won in the past.
Bottom Quarter
The world champion Kyren Wilson will be the headline draw from the bottom quarter of the competition. Wilson is enjoying his time as the world champion and has already won two titles and it would be huge for him if he could add a maiden win at The Masters to his collection. Luca Brecel is scheduled to be his quarter final opponent in what would be a battle of the last two World Championship winners. The International Championship finalist Chris Wakelin makes his debut in the competition this week and he is in this quarter as is Zhang Anda.
Betting
This feels like a very open renewal of this tournament with so many potential winners and there could be quite a few players who could be considered value this week. I never like backing anyone too short here because every game is like a final from the first round but the 25/1 on Luca Brecel winning this tournament might be a little big based on what we’ve seen from him in the last month, not least because with his ranking this will be his last chance to win this tournament for a while barring something extraordinary throughout 2025.
Brecel has only won one match here in four years of coming to the tournament but we have seen his best results come in the bigger events. He won the World Championship out of nowhere and comes here having made the final of the Saudi invitation event last month where he beat Kyren Wilson along the way, which is significant as those two are scheduled to meet in the last eight on Friday. Brecel opens up against a debutant Chris Wakelin who hasn’t really done much in events of this magnitude so he should be able to get his way into the tournament and then from there anything can happen. At the price I’ll take the Belgian who is in the last chance saloon as far as this tournament is concerned for a while.
Tips
Back L.Brecel to win The Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Unibet (1/2 1-2)
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