Masters 2025: Why Neil Robertson's World Championship record remains one of snooker's greatest unsolved mysteries
Published 13/01/2025 at 12:00 GMT
Neil Robertson replaced Ronnie O'Sullivan and demonstrated why he has the talent to claim a third Masters title with a statement 6-5 win over John Higgins from 5-1 down. The 2012 and 2022 champion produced some majestic form as breaks of 63, 118, 80 and 57 saw him secure a quarter-final with Shaun Murphy on Thursday in a repeat of the 2012 and 2015 finals at Alexandra Palace.
'Hendry won't give me stick about that one!' - Robertson reflects on 'unbelievable' comeback
Video credit: TNT Sports
Neil Robertson finished off a glorious 6-5 win against John Higgins in the opening match of the 51st Masters in London by using his snooker cue as an imaginary driver and smashing a golf ball straight down the middle.
Or straight out of the park for a home run in baseball. Or straight out of the ground for a six in cricket. You get the picture.
After replacing defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan as a last-minute call-up, it was hardly a case of after the Lord Mayor's Show at a packed Alexandra Palace, with both men providing their blissful Sunday best.
There are not too many players who can joyously win five straight frames from 5-1 behind to reach the quarter-finals of the sport's greatest invitational event by reducing a four-time world champion to the role of helpless onlooker.
But then again, there are not too many players like the cricket-loving Aussie, who can master the green baize with as much authority as David Boon smashing a ton at the MCG on Boxing Day.
After encountering plenty of rough in being boxed in by falling four down with five to play, it would be fair to say Robbo spent the rest of the afternoon on the short stuff with the little white ball dancing to his tune.
It was probably accompanied by the mental mood music of Advance Australia Fair.
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Higgins missed one easy red in the closing five frames, and paid a hefty price for such a minor blip after racing clear with breaks of 54, 78, 59, 86 and 66 reminding us of his two Masters victories of yesteryear.
The Scotsman has been accused of failing to close out matches in recent times - he lost 10-9 to Robertson from 9-4 up in the 2022 Tour Championship final - but you can hardly choke when the other bloke has his foot on your neck.
"I don't think John did a lot wrong. I played at my absolute best," said Robertson. "I'm glad I could take my chance with Ronnie dropping out, and give the crowd something to cheer today.
"I don't think many people have seen what I can do. That match shows how well I can play."
Indeed, when you witness Robertson in this sort of form, reeling off breaks of 63, 118, 80 and 57 with such preening pace and poise, it is difficult not to bring yourself back to one of snooker's greatest unsolved mysteries.
He comes from a land Down Under, but is Robertson, relative to his own prodigious potting powers, guilty of underachievement?
When he lifted the world title at the age of 28 in 2010 with an 18-13 win over Graeme Dott, one suspected we would see him become a multiple world champion at the Crucible in the ensuing decade, but 15 years later it remains his solitary victory at the sport's ultimate event.
As his country's only world snooker champion and a former world No. 1, Robertson has also claimed two Masters titles of his own, in 2012 and 2022, amid 24 ranking titles. He is the fourth-heaviest century maker of all time behind O'Sullivan, Judd Trump and Higgins with 966 and counting.
But still, it remains difficult to work out why such a formidable all-round game has returned to the one-table set-up at the Crucible only once, a 17-15 semi-final defeat to Mark Selby in 2014, since his landmark title lift.
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'He's getting better and better' - Robertson seals superb century as comeback gathers pace
Video credit: TNT Sports
"Robertson has got the best cue action there has ever been, there's no doubt about it. So smooth, just straight through the ball, so smooth for a big guy as well," said O'Sullivan in analysing the Robertson technique.
Perhaps the nature of the Crucible does not suit his game, or perhaps the English Open champion's own raw expectation levels are too overpowering, but then you saw Shaun Murphy throttle Gary Wilson 6-3 with runs of 69, 56, 64 and 103 later on Sunday evening, and you are probably left asking the same question.
Robertson and Murphy stand alongside Mark Selby as the leading trio of figures that came after the 'Class of 92' in Higgins, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Williams.
Murphy was 22 when he carried off the world title as a 150-1 qualifier by edging out Matthew Stevens 18-16 in 2005, his solitary moment in the Sheffield sunshine, with three final defeats to Higgins, Stuart Bingham and Selby perhaps denying him a sense of greater self-fulfilment.
"I don’t know what it is, whether it’s a lack of killer instinct or something," said O'Sullivan during the 2023 Welsh Open.
"Sometimes you’ve got to be a bit nasty on the table, and he doesn’t look like he’s had it. But he’s won the big tournaments, the Masters, the Worlds, nine ranking events, but that’s not a great return for the type of game he plays."
Selby has at least made good on his early promise by emulating Higgins' haul of four world titles with victories in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021 after losing to the Scotsman in the 2007 final.
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'It's Neil's world - we're just living in it'
Video credit: TNT Sports
Robertson and Murphy have also contested two Masters finals. Robertson won 10-6 in 2012 with Murphy responding with a one-sided 10-2 romp three years later.
"It will be a delight to play Neil. We turned pro in the same year in 1998, and I have immense respect for him," Murphy told reporters.
"Over the past couple of days, people have been saying that Neil is on a free roll. But he is a multiple winner, not a wild card who has never been here."
In the wider picture, both would like to end their respective life and times in snooker by becoming only the 10th multiple world champion of the modern era to join an iconic club that includes O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, Ray Reardon, Steve Davis and Alex Higgins.
Both players clearly have the ability, desire and time on their side to realise their childhood ambitions, but it is always easier said than done.
Robbo replaced the Rocket and smashed it straight out of the park on Sunday. Maintaining such pristine levels is always easier said than done.
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