The 2015 Masters final at the Alexandra Palace will see a repeat of the 2012 Masters final as Neil Robertson will take on Shaun Murphy. The pair have been playing sublime snooker just as they did back in 2012, on which occasion Neil Robertson took the title and the spoils with a 10-6 victory in that final, and to make the 2013 final Neil beat Shaun again in the semi-final 6-2. That of course makes this Neil's third final in four years and for Shaun it's his second in four, while he was beaten in the semi-finals on those other two occasions.
Todays semi-finals meanwhile saw comprehensive wins for both Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy such was the standard that both guys played. First up in the afternoon, Neil Robertson was taking on the defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan. It all went Robertson's way right from the off in this one as he opened up with a century break, and Ronnie made the vital error in the second missing frame ball black and when Neil cleared up with 66 you wondered if that was to be an early turning point. A 48 in the next put him 3-0 ahead and even though a 101 from O'Sullivan got him on the board, he was still 3-1 down at the interval and right up against it. From this position, the Australian grabbed the bull by the horns as a 58 put him 4-1 in front, and even though he needed 3 bites in frame six he was still able to go a frame from victory at 5-1. The 5 times Masters champion really did have no answer to the Robertson onslaught, and when his chance came in the seventh he took it with a run of 60 helping him to secure victory and absolutely thrash O'Sullivan 6-1 to book his final place.
Neil then had the luxury of watching Shaun Murphy and Mark Allen battle it out in the evening (if he so wished) for the right to play him in the final, and it was Mark that made the better start of the two as runs of 83 and 62 put him 2-0 in front early on. A missed blue into the corner in frame 2 when the balls were well placed for him to make it 3-0 turned out to be costly as he let Shaun get into the match as a nice 42 made it 1-2 and he was soon level at the mid-session break thanks to a wonderful 80 and Allen had missed a trick. After the break Shaun played pretty flawless stuff as contributions of 83, 76 and 102 saw him one away from the winning post at 5-2 with Allen failing to pot a single ball in those three frames. After a break of 60 ended on an in-off for Shaun he survived a scare and was able to close out the match and make it into his second Masters final with 6 frames in a row to win 6-2.
So, can Shaun Murphy get some revenge for his defeats at the Ally Pally in 2012 and 2013 to Neil Robertson? Well that head to head and the head to head record in other big matches within the last three years would suggest not as things certainly don't make for pretty reading for the Magician. However, on the day the head to head record counts for absolutely nothing and more recent meetings would suggest that the match will certainly be close, especially over the best-of-19 frames where there is enough time (though not too much if you make a horrific start) to play yourself into the match.
Both players have played superb snooker in both their quarter-final and semi-final matches, after playing themselves into the tournament nicely in the opening round. It's all about who can sustain that form now and make the least mistakes when in amongst the balls across the two sessions. When in full flow neither players has looked like missing too often in amongst the balls, and breaks have only been cut short when position has been lost and as you can tell from the breaks that have been made by the players that hasn't been very often at all. Since those matches in 2012 and 2013 the one thing that has changed is that both are improved players, but the most drastic change has been seen by Shaun Murphy within the last twelve months after his wins in 3 European Tour events in 2014 as well as his first ranking title in 3 years at the World Open and his return to his all out attacking style has paid dividends for him, and his confidence is back thanks to all of these victories and all of the hard work he's put in with his coach Chris Henry.
This final is such a tough one to call, but as much as Shaun will be focussed and hungry to finally get the job done at the Masters, Neil has been playing at his best as well this week and he knows what it takes to get over the line in these Masters finals and it is tough to ignore the results he's had in so many big matches against Shaun.
Final Prediction: 10-8 to Neil Robertson
It really has been another great Masters tournament and here's hoping that the final will be just as entertaining tomorrow between the two players who have played the best snooker so far this week and deserve to be contesting the final. I hope you all enjoy the match at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment