BBC Sport and British Eurosport will have full coverage of the 2013 Betfair Masters, snooker’s most prestigious invitation event featuring 16 of the world’s leading players.
The tournament promises to be the perfect start to the new year for all snooker fans and will be played at one of London’s finest venues, Alexandra Palace, which stages the event for the second successive year.
Extensive live coverage of all eight days of the event begins on Sunday, January 13, concluding with the showpiece final a week later.
Despite being a non-ranking event, the Masters is one of the most fiercely contested tournaments in snooker.
It consists of the top-16 players in the world, all competing for the £175,000 top prize.
With the likes of world number one Mark Selby and Judd Trump in devastating form coming into the tournament, the competition between players is likely to be intense.
A stunning international match between defending champion Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui gets the action underway, both of which are backed to do well in the competition this year.
Robertson will be the first Australian to defend the title, having beaten Shaun Murphy 10-6 in last year’s final.
A high-quality and tense encounter ebbed and flowed, but it was Robertson who finished the stronger in the first session, winning the final two frames to secure a confidence-building 5-3 lead.
The man from Melbourne grew in confidence as the match progressed to complete his seventh victory in the seven rankings finals he had contested at the time.
Also set to compete for the prize at Ally Pally will be the likes of crowd favourite Judd Trump, December’s UK Champion Mark Selby, the legendary John Higgins and Chinese star Ding Junhui.
BBC Sport will have the the action covered across all eight days from North London on BBC Two, BBC Red Button and Online.
Hazel Irvine and Rishi Persad introduce coverage thoughout the week on BBC TV, which includes up to five hours of coverage each afternoon on BBC Two, live coverage of the evening sessions from Thursday, plus a nightly highlights programme.
Persad will be part of the BBC snooker team for the last time during this tournament after taking up a reporting role with Channel 4 Racing. He has been on the roster of presenters since the 2007 Grand Prix in Aberdeen.
Fans can enjoy further live coverage of each day’s proceedings on the BBC Red Button or access live coverage of both tables online via the BBC Sport website on PCs, laptops and mobiles, as well as via internet-connected TVs.
Commentators and studio analysis comes from Steve Davis, John Parrott, Dennis Taylor, John Virgo, Ken Doherty and Stephen Hendry.
In the run up to the tournament, the BBC confirmed that it has signed a new deal to cover the World Championship, Masters and UK Championship until 2017.
British Eurosport will also have full coverage from Alexandra Palace, including exclusive high-definition coverage of every session via its two channels.
Eurosport’s commentary team includes Mike Smith, Mike Hallett, David Hendon and former World Champion Joe Johnson.
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Watching Snooker on Eurosport with Joe Johnson rattling on endlessly makes one yearn for the days of Ted Lowe, who realised that being on television, not much commentary needed. So could Joe please “button it”?
think everybody is getting fed up of john virgo shouting when commentating. and im sck of hearing wheres the cue ball going!!
also agreed he looks scruffy as well.
wot about parrot constantly sayin”absolutely!!!”
Also does parrott have to sit there with legs wide open everytime it cuts to the studio!!
WT never commentated at last years masters either:( he is by far the best commentator the beeb have left after clive everton as for doherty he is making me want to turn off!!!!
why is the Great WT (willie thorne) not commenting on the Masters
get wt back and get that scruffy virgo out
where is willie thorne?
please buy john virgo a new shirt instead of that stripped one he always wears it on tv and get him to have a haircut, look at davis, parrot, and hendry how smart they are they are a credit to the game