Too strong! Chong full score 147-0, blast 124-0, 82-1, Murphy 6-2 strong knockout Robertson
Beijing time on the morning of January 17th, the 2025 Snooker Masters continued. On the first day of the quarter-finals, World Championship winner "Magician" Shaun Murphy performed brilliantly, easily defeating "Melbourne Machine" Neil Robertson 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals. In the first round, Ding Junhui made a comeback from 6-5 against three-time World Champion Mark Williams.
The Snooker Masters is one of the top three snooker events and is highly regarded by all players. Last season, "China's No. 1" Ding Junhui hit a maximum break of 147 in the competition but unfortunately lost to his old rival O'Sullivan. In this Masters, Ding Junhui once again challenged for the championship and made a comeback in the first round with a 6-5 victory over Williams.
In the first round, the first Grand Slam winner after 80s "Melbourne Machine" Neil Robertson also performed well. He showed his super big heart in the match against four-time World Champion "Wizard" John Higgins, coming back from a 0-5 deficit and five match points down to win 6-5 and advance.
Robertson's performance in these two events was poor, and his current world ranking has fallen out of the TOP16 again. He originally did not qualify for the Masters, but because the defending champion "Rocket" Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew temporarily, he was able to replace him and participate in the Masters.
Regarding this "unexpected wealth," Robertson said, "I don't have much time to prepare, but I've always been in competitive form and am ready to take the field. I always believe that I can win the game. I have nothing to lose because I didn't expect to be able to participate in this competition, which might also make me very 'scary'..."
In the match against Higgins, Robertson hit a century break (118 points) and three 50+ breaks (63 points, 80 points, 57 points), while Higgins made five 50+ breaks (54 points, 78 points, 59 points, 86 points, 66 points). In the quarter-finals, facing Murphy, who has been in good form this season, Robertson was eliminated with a 2-6 defeat, indicating that his form is still not good. While winning the game, Murphy almost hit a 147 in the eighth game. He had completed a combination of 15 reds + 15 blacks, but made a positioning error and scored 120 points, a small regret.