2014 DAFABET MASTERS
THE FINAL
The final was billed to be a clash of the titans: the reigning champion v the world champion, the best break builder in the world v the best safety player in the world, the Rocket v the tractor… It was a damp squib. O’Sullivan brought his A-game to the first session and in just a very short space of time, a battered and bruised Selby was staring at a potential whitewash in the final at 5-0 down. He rallied though to win the sixth frame but the Rocket was firing and finished the session 7-1 against a demoralised opponent. Could Selby respond that night?
The short answer was “no”. Although Selby did manage to take the match to the mid-session interval by sharing the first four frames with O’Sullivan and take the 13th after the restart
he never even caught a sniff of a comeback and the match was won 10-4, much to the delight of a raucous, partisan London crowd.
O’Sullivan took the £200,000
(which would pay for school fees, of course) and the trophy to become the 2014 Dafabet Masters champion and remind his fellow 127 professionals that he’s still much, much more than a big draw.
Moving away from O’Sullivan’s masterful win, the BBC’s montage during the night mid-session interval was one of their best for many a tournament. Ken Doherty guided us through all the years of the Masters from the first tournament won by John Spencer,
FINAL THOUGHTS
through Stephen Hendry’s dominance of the 90s, up to recent years and, of course, a reminder of Paul Hunter’s three deciding frame final wins.
The decision to have players wear neckties instead of dickie bows during the day sessions was met with a mixed response. Whilst I am against the move (“Bow ties are cool!”), it makes no difference to the quality of snooker on offer and if the players prefer them instead of bows, let them wear ties.
Overall, I wouldn’t say the tournament was one of the best ever in terms of quality but it was quite entertaining - problems with earpieces and scoreboards spring to mind! (“You get four for a foul, Paul,” jested the Jester). The five matches involving deciding frames provided matches which were not quality-filled with dramatic endings. Mark Selby proved that he’s still the most fashionable snooker player around, closely followed by the new slim line Shaun Murphy. John Higgins showed us he’s not finished yet and can still play very well on his day but what the tournament has really told us is that when one man turns up in the mood, you’ll have to be playing well to match him."
Photo: Monique Limbos
Photo: Monique Limbos