News Beat
Snooker star Neil Robertson completes 20MILLION to one feat with 6-2 Masters win as ‘crazy’ run goes on
NEIL ROBERTSON made it EIGHT 6-2 wins in a row at the Masters – at odds of 20 million to one – and then joked: I hope I’ve made someone very rich!
The Australian, 43, beat Chris Wakelin by six frames to two in the final game of round one at Ally Pally.
According to leading bookmakers Betfred, a punter would have had odds of 220,000 to one if they had bet 6-2 either way across the entire first-round draw.
Yet there would have been extraordinary odds of 20 million to 1 if someone had correctly predicted all eight winners, in an accumulator bet, with a 6-2 result before a ball had been potted.
The run started last Sunday afternoon when defending champion Shaun Murphy was dumped out of the tournament 6-2 by Chinese cueist Wu Yize.
And it has continued all the way until Wednesday evening.
It will be fascinating to see if it will happen in matches on Thursday, Friday and Saturday when the quarter-finals and semi-finals of this Triple Crown event are scheduled, which are all the best of 11 frames.
The final on Sunday is the best of 19 frames so the scoreline cannot happen then for obvious reasons.
It is a bizarre set of circumstances, which have lightened up a tournament that has been lacking fireworks on the table.
World No3 Robertson – who hit three centuries in the eight frames against the reserve Wakelin – now plays world No2 Kyren Wilson in a Friday night blockbuster in North London.
BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS
When he was 5-2 up, he admits he was fully aware of the strange sequence and was hoping that while he did not muck it up, someone in the 2,000-strong arena would benefit financially.
Robertson laughed: “I wasn’t even thinking about winning the match. I was thinking: ‘Just win it 6-2!’
“I didn’t know if maybe someone in the audience had a pound on all eight matches being the same scoreline.
“It’s amazing. I hope I have made someone a multi-millionaire. Maybe someone had 50p on it. It’s crazy odds. Never seen anything like that before.”
Melbourne ace Robertson, a two-time Masters champion, had thought about making a point about another big scoreline on his mind – the one in the Ashes.
Ben Stokes’ England flops had been battered 4-1 by Australia.
But Robertson decided it was not wise to antagonise a very pro-English crowd, like he did at the UK Championship in York.
The 2010 world champion said: “With Australia winning the Ashes, I wasn’t sure if I would be booed or cheered coming down the stairs.
“In the UK Championship semis at York, I did my batting technique [with a cue].
“I thought I wouldn’t do that here. This is the best event in terms of atmosphere. It was awesome.”
David Grace, the world No97, took a screenshot of the first-round draw bracket off the BBC TV, which showed all the 6-2 victories, and he jokingly said on social media: “Definite glitch in the matrix.”
Several hours before Robertson’s win, Judd Trump knocked out Ding Junhui from round one with a familiar 6-2 result.
Another big triumph
The Juddernaut, 36, remains in the hunt for a first tournament triumph since December 2024.
At that point in the competition, Betfred told SunSport that the odds of a punter getting 6-2 “either way” would have been 44,000 to one.
If someone had correctly predicted all seven winners in a row, with a 6-2 result, in an accumulator bet, they would have got odds of 3.7million to one.
Trump laughed when he was told about this crazy situation and though he cannot bet on snooker outcomes himself, he said: “It’s the way the tables are playing.
“The table is very quick. If you’re not in and you’re not confident, then it’s very easy for your opponent to score heavily.
“We’re seeing it’s very easy to rattle off a few frames in a row and get a bit of rhythm.
“We’re seeing players win three or four frames in a row. That’s the only reason I can think of. Other than that, it’s an absolute freak.
“Every game here is a belter – let’s hope the next one is not 6-2 anyway.
“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.’
“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.”
