Neil Robertson will head into this week’s qualifying for the German Masters buoyed by his dramatic victory in the final of the Dafabet Scottish Open. The Australian had endured a difficult 2017 as he had fallen outside the top 16 of the world rankings and failed to secure an invite to next month’s Masters event. But he put that poor form to one side as he came from 8-4 down to beat Cao Yupeng 9-8 in Sunday’s final at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena.
The victory was Robertson’s first in a ranking event since June 2016 although he did also achieve overall glory at the non-ranking Hong Kong Masters in July. The 35-year-old is now hoping to build on his latest success and he believes the victory is vindication for all the hard work he has put in over recent months. “The funny thing is now that I’ve won this and the Hong Kong Masters earlier in the season, all of a sudden I’ve won two events and it’s all good again,” Robertson told the Scotsman. “I’ve practised so hard it’s incredible, at some stage over the last few months I was practising 200 long balls a day, as well as the other things you have to do.”
Robertson will now be hoping to take his rediscovered good form into qualifying for the German Masters this week. The Melbourne native must negotiate two rounds of qualifying to secure his place at next year’s tournament in Berlin, starting with his first match against England’s Chris Wakelin on Thursday.
German Masters Qualifiers odds available at Dafabet.