The second Triple Crown event of the snooker season gets underway on Sunday when 16 of the best players in the world head to Alexandra Palace to compete in The Masters, the most prestigious invitational event in snooker.
Shaun Murphy certainly enjoyed his invitation to the event last year when he stormed to victory and as the defending champion he automatically gets put in the draw to see if he can defend the title. 15 stars will be out to stop him.
Recent Winners
2025 – Shaun Murphy
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
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
As always in snooker the defending champion of a tournament is the top seed and therefore Shaun Murphy occupies that position this year and he is right at the top of the draw bracket and in the first quarter as a result. The other seeded player in this section is the former winner Mark Selby, who is looking to add another Masters title to the UK Championship and Champion of Champions trophies he won prior to Christmas. They are joined by two Chinese players in the top quarter. They are the International Championship winner Wu Yize and the Wuhan Open winner Xiao Guodong.
Second Quarter
We have had a late change to the second quarter of the draw. The top seed in it is Kyren Wilson, the former finalist who will be looking to get his hands on this famous trophy for the first time. The next seed is the Saudi Masters winner Neil Robertson. Robertson should have been taking on Ronnie O’Sullivan in the first round but ‘The Rocket’ withdrew on the eve of the event. He was replaced by the Scottish Open winner Chris Wakelin. Another Chinese player in Si Jiahui completes an open looking section all of a sudden.
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Third Quarter
The third quarter looks a very tasty offering this year with four former winners of this tournament making up the section. The headline act is the world number one Judd Trump who will be out to win his first title of the season after coming up short in the final of the Northern Ireland Open, Champion of Champions and the UK Championship at the back end of 2025. Mark Williams is seeded to face Trump in what would be a tasty quarter final but Mark Allen and Ding Junhui are likely to have plenty to say about that potential encounter happening.
Bottom Quarter
The bottom quarter is where the world champion Zhao Xintong will look to win The Masters for the first time from. This will only be his second appearance in the tournament and he is yet to win a match here so that will be his first aim. His lack of a positive record here will certainly interest a former champion in John Higgins, who is scheduled to be Xintong’s opponent in the quarter final. The former finalist Barry Hawkins and Gary Wilson are the two men who will be looking to deliver first round upsets.
Betting
We don’t know how many more appearances that John Higgins and Mark Williams have at The Masters and more importantly, they don’t either, so we can expect both of them to be giving it everything that they have got to get their hands on the trophy this time around. Higgins actually has a draw he can work with. He has a good recent record against Barry Hawkins and would have the tactical acumen to get the job done against Zhao Xintong or Gary Wilson so the Scot reaching the semi-final wouldn’t be a huge surprise.
Williams has a tougher draw in that Mark Allen could be a dangerous first round tie but Allen has been so off it recently that even though he has posted on Instagram that he is going to be more aggressive in 2026, when the heat is on there is no guarantee he will be. Williams wouldn’t be a total outsider against either Trump or Ding and with both sure to get amazing receptions from a crowd which respects legends, I think a bet on both men at 18/1 and 20/1 respectively is the way to play this tournament.
Tips
Back J.Higgins to win The Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 19.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
Back M.Williams to win The Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
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