From the German Masters in Berlin, hello and happy day!
It’s that time of year again: late January in Berlin, with uninviting weather, yet the draw of world-class snooker easily outweighs this.
Once more, the tempter of the Tempodrom seduces. And this year, since the competition was extended by two days, it does strike for a full week for the first time.
As stewards of the renowned Tempodrom, we will be providing general services and “crowd control” to the Friday females, who are all men. It promises to be a long, demanding, and exciting week.
To be honest, the audience is not included in the promised “full house,” despite the fact that the Monday afternoon and evening sessions saw an incredibly high turnout.
For the first five days, the organizer had provided package tickets, which appeared to be very popular with snooker fans from Germany and other countries.
It does, however, indicate that all seven tables have been crammed into the arena, which is akin to a circus, fully utilizing the available space.
Play was frequently taking place at the neighboring ends of the tables, putting players and referees in danger of colliding.
Play was frequently taking place at the neighboring ends of the tables, putting players and referees in danger of colliding.
Never before did the players lounge appear to be so full. Numerous matches that were left over from December’s qualifying round filled the schedule, giving some rarely seen players a chance to compete against “big names” in this setting.
At precisely 3 p.m. local time, when play officially started, the first number on the scoreboard was Sam Craigie’s seven-point foul.
Hopefully, this was not a bad omen. Speaking of scoreboards, all officials vowed earnestly that the new WST scoring system’s seemingly never-ending bugs have now been fixed, and at least the
not take advantage of the seven-point gift for very long, losing the match 2–5 after dropping the first frame.
Barry Pinches shocked his opponent, the young, somewhat bulky Belgian Julien Leclercq, at the next table by scoring a quick century in the opening frame.
It proved that guys like Pinches should never be written off, especially in light of his somewhat grandfatherly charm, which was quite obvious at the walk-in of all players with his gray hair standing out among the many young guns there.
Even though he had his limits, Leclercq ultimately prevailed 5-2.
Much to the chagrin of many fans, the next two tables included the only appearances by two well-known figures this year.
Shaun Murphy gave up a 3-0 lead against Xu Si, which gave the young Chinese player the opportunity to come back and win the match, 5-3.
Furthermore, it appeared that Mark Selby was not feeling it this Monday. Marco Fu appeared to be confident and faced little opposition.
After the intermission, with the score 0–4, Selby’s lone frame victory seemed more like a duty than the start of one of his fabled comebacks.
The two giants’ exit demonstrated their radically different personalities; Murphy, ever the showman, waved to the crowd and even gave a loud applause in response. Selby simply walked away without turning around.
As is customary for this initial session, the defending champion was first in line at the TV table.
Ali Carter had to put up a lot of effort to advance past Michael White; their bout went to a final, where he ultimately prevailed.
However, Carter exuded confidence and frequently wore a rueful smile instead of his occasionally stern expression when something didn’t go as planned.
Additionally, he constantly showed interest in the games being played at the outdoor tables—something that is uncommon.
After a closer look at Matt Selt’s 5-0 triumph over Martin O’Donnell than the score would indicate, we hurried to eat before the evening session.
All seven tables were used for this.
mp against Germany’s sole main tour player Lukas Kleckers at the central TV table.
Trump showed little mercy with Kleckers, seeing him off 5-0 in a very short match, rubbing in his dominance with an exhibition trick shot at the end of frame two when he downed the last black with a spectacular three cushion trajectory over the entire table and back.
It speaks for Kleckers that he left looking unperturbed, although the match had already begun with an unfortunate gaffe by Emcee Rolf Kalb, who had announced him as the best player yet in Germany: Luca Brecel.
The Belgian world champion was present, but he was beaten 2–5 by Ishpreet Singh Chadha at one of the side tables. For Brecel, the season is still not going well.
Mark Allen, seated across from me, made a lot of careless blunders and for a long time appeared to be in danger of having the same fate.
But he prevailed in the decisive round against Manasawin Phetmalaikul, saving the day and guaranteeing his spot in the German Masters in 2024.
In the end, Neil Robertson won 5-1, but it took him some time to establish his game against Sanderson Lam.
Ashley Carty, who may have harbored dreams of repeating his previous victory on German territory when he advanced to the quarterfinals of the European M
August of last year.
After triumphs of 5-3 and 5-5 over Stephen Maguire and Jamie Clarke, respectively, Joe O’Connor and Scott Donaldson had the final results of this exciting first snooker evening in Berlin.
Thus, we witnessed the early withdrawals of Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby, a commanding Judd Trump, a charming Ali Carter, Mark Allen and Neil Robertson making progress but not yet dazzling, and a number of names lower on the list who might yet pose a threat to players who appear stronger.
It’s snooker time in Berlin again. It is, thankfully, the unique atmosphere of the Tempodrom once more.
