German Masters 2012 - Living the German dream

The first day of February marks the start of a very special snooker tournament - the German Masters. Germany's Berlin is once again opening its loving arms to receive the baize gladiators and for the next five days they will try and give their best to entertain the crowd.

If Martin Luther King said "I have a dream", the snooker players can very easily state that "We have a German dream", for each and every one of them felt the warmth and support received during last year's edition of the German Masters from the packed audience. Such a thrill to play for a crowd like that.

Although the competition itself is not a new one, it was only last year when it was properly introduced into the eye's of the public and transformed into a genuine ranking event.  After last year's edition the conclusion was a simple one: Germans love snooker and snooker loves Germany. So we are going back this year.

But the 2011 edition was a special one also because Mark Williams won the title. The Welshman has a pretty close history with Germany, here happening to win one of his first abroad titles.

Mark Williams is defending champion

However, from that moment on, he hasn't won any other tournaments even if he reached the final of the 2011 Shanghai Masters (when he was defeated by Mark Selby) and the 2011 Australian Open (when he lost to Stuart Bingham).

Surely he'll try to defend his crown and to win himself a nice trophy after such a "silent" times spent away from the winning line. It's not going to be easy, by any means, with such a great line-up of tough players, but if someone can do well under pressure is Williams.

This year's German Masters is starting with no less then eight wildcards matches, closely followed by the first matches from the Last 32 round. So it's going to be a busy day. 
EuroSport's commentators are on duty this week, so we are going to have the pleasure of hearing Dave Hendon and Joe Johnson again, but also Mike Hallett and Mike Smith.

So, let's cut the talking (aka. reading in this case) and see tomorrow's match schedule, shall we?

9am (Wildcard round)


1pm
7pm
*all hours are UK time

TV coverage for the UK:

All matches including the quarter-finals are played under the "best of nine" rule and they can be watched also online at: www.sportlemon.tv