Mark Selby to take on Mark King at the Masters
The draw for the snooker Masters has been made, and reigning champion Mark Selby will begin the defence of his title against Mark King in January next year.
Selby came from 9-7 down to win 10-9 in the final frame in last year’s final against Ronnie O’Sullivan and lifted the Waterford crystal trophy for the second time in three years.
Snooker’s most prestigious event doesn’t reward ranking points but is an exclusive one for the top-16 players as well as two wildcards.
O’Sullivan will be hoping to win his fourth Masters title, and he begins his campaign against Mark Allen. O’Sullivan has been in the final of this event held at Wembley Arena six times in the last seven seasons and is always the crowd favourite.
Current world champion and world No.1 Neil Robertson will play seven-time world champion and six-time Masters winner Stephen Hendry, while Stephen Maguire plays Marco Fu.
John Higgins will make his return to snooker at the UK championship in Telford in December after being banned for six months following the match-fixing scandal by the News of the World. Higgins will be involved in an all-Scottish affair against Graeme Dott, while Ali Carter, the Shanghai Masters champion, will play 2002 world champion Peter Ebdon.
Shaun Murphy has a match against Masters debutant Jamie Cope, and Mark Williams, the current China Open champion, has a mouth-watering encounter with the current UK champion Ding Junhui.
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