A repeat of last month’s Dafabet Masters final between Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson is the stand-out tie in the first round of the new Romanian Masters tournament between March 14-18. World Snooker announced the 16-player invitational competition last week and now the draw has been made for the Bucharest event, with Allen and Wilson set to renew their rivalry.
Wilson will be hoping for revenge after he went down to a 10-7 defeat in the Masters final in January when 13 of the top 16-ranked players in the world gather in the Romanian capital next month. In a stellar field, only Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ding Junhui and the injured Marco Fu from the current top 16 will not be present. But plenty of snooker’s top names will battle it out for the 50,000 euros prize money although no world rankings points are available due to the fact the tournament is an invitational event. Welshman Ryan Day, China star Liang Wenbo and Scot Stephen Maguire have been drafted in to replace the aforementioned trio, with Day facing a tough clash against Barry Hawkins while Wenbo goes up against Mark Selby and Maguire takes on Shaun Murphy in the first round.
The remaining games in the first round, which will be played over a best-of-seven frames format, are Judd Trump versus Luca Brecel, Stuart Bingham against Neil Robertson, Mark Williams versus Ali Carter and John Higgins against Anthony McGill. The semi-finals, which are scheduled for Saturday, March 17, will be best-of-nine-frame affairs while the final the following day will be played over the best-of-19 frames.