We will have quite a final looking at the semi-final line up! But let’s not forget, there have been many finals before this year! The Masters has been running since 1975 when John Spencer won the what is now known as the Paul Hunter Trophy against Ray Reardon 9-8 in the ordinarily named West Centre Hotel in London. Considering the Masters has always attracted the elite of all elites in snooker, there is always room for high-profile finals: Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams, Paul Hunter, John Higgins, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby – just don’t be surprised if they feature in this countdown!
Wouldn’t surprise me if this list has done time after time after time, but why not have a countdown on the best Masters finals? It’s not like I have enough material for this anyway, but I hope it’s a bloody good one!
10. Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Joe Perry (2017; 10-7)
The last Masters final – maybe the least memorable of the lot, but there are a lot of reasons why this match is up there. From a very selfish point of view, I watched Joe Perry beat Stuart Bingham in the first round that year. Well done me.
The second reason is the fairytale route of the great underdog Joe Perry. In eight appearances at the Masters, he has only won one match. In 2017, he beat Bingham, Ding and Hawkins to face O’Sullivan who happened to be scraping through his B Game and was very lucky to reach the final at all, had Liang Wenbo missed that black in the first round. Don’t forget, it was Joe Perry that took advantage by leading 4-1 in the final. Then he missed a tricky red which suddenly opened the gates for the Rocket, after Joe Perry suddenly lost his way.
Though Ronnie wasn’t at the top of his game, he had to cope with the extreme mental pressures throughout that week. The next kicker for this final was that his win made him the record-breaking man with the most Masters victories: 1995, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2014, 2016 and finally 2017. Question is: can he make it an eighth at some point in this career?
9. Ding Junhui vs. Marco Fu (2011; 10-4)
Amazingly, the first ever Asian final in snooker history. As the sport shows that its globalisation is paying dividends, two of the biggest players from the booming continent locked horns. Ding Junhui is still a man who promised so much and even back in 2011, it was a surprise that he only won one Triple Crown Event at the time. Marco Fu on the other hand, hadn’t quite succeeded at the same rate as Ding but is a well-established player with the 2007 Grand Prix under his belt and has been dangerous since he reached the final of the 1998 Grand Prix as a No. 377 seed. No, I’m not joking.
This All-Asian match was apparently watched by 100 million viewers from China, since both players are regarded as heroes in their home territories of China and Hong Kong respectively. Perhaps that is what makes it so special – a first in a Masters final of all places! Anyway, back to the match. Ding had a much easier time than he did against Ronnie back in 2007, where he raced to a 6-2 lead at the end of the afternoon session. Marco Fu hit back with two frames and was in course of winning a third in a row – only for Ding to steal it despite needing a snooker. That changed the course of the match.
It was then Ding romped home from 6-4 up to win 10-4 to win his second Triple Crown event. Since then everyone thought that Ding’s World Championship triumph would be inevitable and even Marco Fu mentioned that it was only a matter of time before he finally wins a World Championship. Only time will tell…
8. Alan McManus vs. Stephen Hendry (1994; 9-8)
After winning five Masters trophies in a row, as well as starting his to-be five-year streak in the World Championships, Stephen was becoming impossible to beat, not forgetting that he hadn’t lost a match in the Wembley Conference Centre until 1994 (undefeated in 23 matches since his debut), where he came up against fellow Scot Alan McManus. McManus at the time, lost six straight major finals and so many semi-finals and desperately needed silverware.
‘Angles’ raced 3-0 before Hendry fought back by reeling three frames on the bounce until McManus lead the afternoon session 4-3. However, a few +50 breaks from Hendry put him at 7-5 ahead but the 23-year-old Glaswegian McManus refused to be the nearly man and fought back to 7-7 before Hendry got one and McManus forced a decider before finally, McManus stopped The King of the Crucible’s dominance by slotting in a break of 76. And what is more special than proving that Stephen Hendry can finally be beaten!
7. Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Ding Junhui (2007; 10-3)
Most Masters finals have plenty of memorable moments where you gape in awe, support both players, see a star in the future and see some wonderful sportsmanship. This final had all of them.
Ding Junhui was renowned as the future superstar of the game. Having already won three ranking tournaments at the age of 19, he beat a host of quality players to reach the 2007 final, while becoming at the time the youngest ever player to score a maximum break in the wild-card round against Anthony Hamilton. According to Ronnie’s autobiography, it was John Virgo’s claim that Ding was going to take over the mantle from O’Sullivan that gave himself the motivation to prove his critics wrong.
In the final, Ding started very brightly indeed, scoring a 77 and 109 to lead 2-0. Then Ronnie completely outplayed him. He smashed in four century breaks and nine +50 breaks to 9-3 ahead when Ding went up to shake Ronnie’s hand. Both players left the arena with Ronnie’s arm around an emotional Ding, worried that he was going to walk out in front of a raucous crowd. A remarkable act of sportsmanship. Though it was revealed that Ding thought the match was over, the Rocket finished the match off with a 74 break. It was when O’Sullivan shooed the cameras away to give Ding some much-needed space and later claimed that he will be a multi World Champion in the future. This match was the birth of a new era and a new superstar. We are still hoping to see the day….
6. Mark Selby vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan (2010; 10-9)
You know the finals are good when this one is at No. 6! Mark Selby was very slowly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Winning the Masters on his first attempted in 2008 and losing to Ronnie in the final in the next year, it almost seemed like fate that these two would face each other again, especially at Wembley.
We all know Mark Selby as the man with never gives up and is the sort of player who you underestimate at your peril when leading by a big margin. Despite falling 4–1, 5–3 and 9–7 behind, the Jester from Leicester stuck to him like velcro to complete a phenomenal fightback to get to the decider and dominated that frame too. After settling for a 45 break and Ronnie missed his chances, he then dealt another blow the final frame by doing the double that left O’Sullivan completely speechless.
It was described at one of the most memorable finals in Masters history and according to Mark Selby, it was the best finals he’s ever been involved in at the time because of the atmosphere and more importantly, it showed he had bottle when it really mattered – yet Ronnie was slightly surprised to get to that stage! Just a kicker, apparently Mark Selby beat O’Sullivan with a cue he’d only picked up 2 weeks prior to the tournament!
PART 2 HERE: https://clusterofredssnookerblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/countdown-top-ten-masters-finals-part-2/
References:
BBC Sport., “Masters: Memorable moments from over the years.” (22nd January 2017). Accessed on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38708953
Davies, J., “Five of the greatest finals in the history of Masters Snooker.” LiveSnooker. (13th January 2017) Accessed on: http://www.livesnooker.com/category/invitational-events/top-5-masters-snooker-final-20170113-0003/
Everton, C., “Ding Junhui eases to victory over Marco Fu in Masters final.” The Guardian. (16th January 2011). Accessed: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/jan/16/ding-junhui-wins-masters-marco-fu
Kane, D., “Ronnie O’Sullivan becomes snooker’s greatest Master of all time with final win over Joe Perry.” Eurosport. (22nd January 2017). Accessed on: http://www.eurosport.co.uk/snooker/the-masters/2016-2017/ronnie-o-sullivan-becomes-snooker-s-greatest-master-of-all-time-with-final-win-over-joe-perry_sto6029147/story.shtml
World Snooker., “Ten Masters Moments.” (4th January 2018). Accessed on: http://www.worldsnooker.com/10-masters-moments/
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