German Masters 2011 (the qualifiers)

The race for the German Masters starts here

While some people are babbling about how Power Snooker represents the future of this lovely sport, I have decided to look the other way and see what else is on. Blimey if it isn't a real competition where they play actual, proper snooker!

Yes, for the next five days in the city of snooker (aka. Sheffield) the lads will try their best and give their best in order to qualify for the 2012 German Masters edition.

As you well remember this year's tournament was a huge success, reuniting the German snooker fans with players that they were craving to see for ages. Sure, one of the most illustrious figures, Ronnie O'Sullivan, decided to pull out of the event in the last minute and we also had that incident with Robertson losing his passport, but drawing the line it was a lovely event that, in my opinion, surpasses tournaments like Shanghai Masters, or even the Welsh Open.

The Germans came in large number to see their favourite snooker stars and I'm sure you recall the final, the one that featured the names of Mark Selby and Mark Williams. Needless to say it was a spectacular one with the guys finding a strange pleasure in re-racking several frames more than once. I'm only joking! As they declared after the match, that's a sign of how good and close the match was.

Mark Williams won the 2011 German Masters edition

"The Welsh Potting Machine" was the one that lifted the first German Master crown of modern times, beating his opponent 9-7 and making his dream come true. Williams has a history with winning titles abroad and he really enjoys playing far from home, Germany representing his springboard, if I may put it like this, and so having a very special meaning for him.

Also it kind of erased a bit of the disappointment he received when losing the 2010 UK Championship title to John Higgins.

So with so many hungry fans, with an electric atmosphere and with great memories from the last edition is no wonder why the lads are already biting their nails to start the qualifiers. And may I add that the event carries ranking points? As many as the Welsh Open? That should bring up some competition, don't you think?

The battles of cues will start tomorrow evening with the preliminary round (two matches), but the all-day-long-snooker is kicking off on Tuesday morning with no more than 16 matches per day.
Below you can check the match schedule:


From 18:00

From 10:00

From 14:30

From 19:00
*all hours are UK time

Each session will have two matches broadcasted, matches that you can watch on www.sportlemon.tv