Brazil Masters 2011 - a personal note
Shaun Murphy, happy to be Brazil Masters first champion |
The tournament started in the best possible way, with a match that saw all its frames being consumed. The current world number one, Mark Selby and the fresh conquistador of the Australian Goldfields Open, Stuart Bingham got together to prove once more what a genuine clash of style and determination really means.
Ali Carter, ref Jan Verhaas and Steve Davis |
The second and third day were days of glory for the seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, as the Scotsman hammered the Brazilian wild-card Noel Rodrigues and managed to whitewash the one and only Captain Ali Carter. The audience was thrilled with this great player's performance and many of us started thinking what it would be like to see Hendry win a tournament again.
Unfortunately for him, during the second semi-final, he lost 5-1 in front of the champion Shaun Murphy.
Marcilio Cavalcanti and Stephen Hendry |
The rest is history, for we all know what a great final day the 2011 Brazil Masters had - with the two semi-finals and the final being played in the same day we didn't even have enough time to get a cup of tea. Busy times for snooker.
Shaun Murphy succesfully won by a 5-0 scoreline over Graeme Dott in order to become Brazil Masters first champion. And that big smile of his from the end of the match says it all - it was a long expected victory. Actually, if I well remember he said that he's from a village where people just imagine visiting Brazil, so to be here and win a tournament is a dream come true.
A very emotional Rui Chapeu receives award |
But I believe in giving people a chance. We must not forget that Brazil has a history with snooker (aka. sinuca) and there are a lot of fans and players. Igor Figueiredo was an import player in last season’s professional circuit before dropping out this year due to financial problems.
So, yes, things need to improve before calling the Brazil Masters a ranking event, but let's face it ! The foundation is pretty stable. We can't expect an inaugural edition to catch people's minds and souls totally. We can't expect everything to go clock-wise. We can't expect to have huge audience when the economic crises has stroked into Brazil pretty hard.
And yet, people came. Surely we didn't have German Masters' "I can't see an empty chair in the audience”, but the main thing here is that people came. And to see the legendary Rui Chapéu in the crowd taking part at each match, says a lot about how Brazilian have been longing for this event to happen.
Igor Figueiredo, Mark Selby and Steve Davis |
In my country we have a saying “If you really want to find something wrong with something, then you most probably will". We can make an entire list of things that weren't so good, but we can also make a lost of things that were absolutely great.
What we really should keep in mind is that experience comes with time, while the passion for something can't be taught. You either have it, or you don't ... and I dare to say that Brazil has it. ;-)
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