Neil Robertson, the 43-year-old Australian great, opened his Masters campaign in emphatic fashion with a 6-2 victory over Chris Wakelin in London.
Robertson’s win capped a remarkable first round at Alexandra Palace, where every single match ended with the exact same scoreline, an unprecedented run of uniform 6-2 results that added an extra layer of intrigue to the prestigious tournament.
Robertson opened the contest by claiming the first frame with breaks of 40 and 44 respectively, but Wakelin responded well to level the match in the second. The pair then traded frames to leave the score finely poised at 2-2 after four. From that point on, though, the Australian took complete control, rolling in three centuries across the next four frames to seal a commanding 6-2 victory.
Crazy First-Round Results at the Masters
Prior to Robertson’s win, the tournament had already witnessed an extraordinary pattern, with all seven completed matches ending with identical 6-2 scorelines. Wu Yize, Xiao Guodong, Mark Allen, Zhao Xintong, Kyren Wilson, John Higgins, and Judd Trump had all progressed by the same margin, a highly unusual occurrence at the Masters.
Trump’s victory over Ding Junhui marked the seventh straight 6-2 result of the day, priced at odds of 44,000/1. When Robertson completed the clean sweep with another 6-2 win in the final first-round match, the odds lengthened dramatically to 220,000/1, according to leading bookmakers Betfred.
To put this into perspective, correctly predicting the scorelines and all eight first-round winners would have netted a staggering $20 million from just £1.
Players React to 6-2 Trend at the Masters
Robertson spoke about this unusual sequence of events after his win against Wakelin, saying: “I wasn’t even thinking about winning the match – I was thinking just win it 6-2,” the Aussie jokingly said.
“I didn’t know if someone in the audience had maybe had a pound on all the matches being the same scoreline or something. It is amazing. I hope I have made someone a multi-millionaire. I have never seen anything like that before.”
Trump also spoke about the extraordinary circumstances, saying: “It’s an absolute freak. I had convinced myself that my game would be the one that was not 6-2. When I went 3-0 up, I thought: ‘At least I can’t lose 6-2.'” the World No.1 joked.
“It’s incredible, really. The players are so closely matched. To have every game go that way is really surprising. It has to stop sooner rather than later.”
Robertson will next face world number two Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals of the Masters, while Trump is set to take on Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen.
The Australian, a two-time Masters champion, remains one of the most decorated and accomplished players on the professional tour today. Robertson is one of snooker’s most accomplished modern players, a former world number one and the 2010 World Champion. The Australian has won over 20 ranking titles, completed the Triple Crown, and is widely regarded as one of the game’s most prolific century break-makers.
Renowned for his fluent cue action and long-potting ability, Robertson has been a consistent force at the sport’s biggest events for more than a decade.
About Author
