In the early morning of January 11, Beijing time, the 2024 Snooker Masters continued. In a key match in the 1/8 finals, 4-time world champion "Joker" Mark Selby made a dream start of 4-0 in the first four games with Robert Milkins. Earlier, "China's first brother" Ding Junhui lost 3-6 to "Rocket" Ronnie O'Sullivan, but scored 147 points in the game.
The Snooker Masters is one of the three major events in snooker, and the 2024 Snooker Masters is the second event after the start of the new year, and the first event to be held after the start of the new year is the invitational version of the Champions League. "China's first brother" Ding Junhui gave up the invitation to participate in the Champions League, while his old opponent Selby of the post-80s generation played in the second group of the Champions League.
Selby was in this group, originally in the same group as "Captain" Alister Carter and National Championship champion Zhang Anda. In order to prepare for the match against "Magic" Shaun Murphy in the Masters, Zhang Anda temporarily withdrew before the game, and Matthew Selt came on as a substitute.
In addition, Chris Wakelin, Gary Wilson, Kyren Wilson, Ryan Day, who rolled from the first group to the second group, also participated in the round-robin of this group. After a fierce battle, Selby and Wakelin met in the final.
Wakelin finished fifth in the first group round-robin with a record of just 2 wins and 4 losses, failing to qualify for the semi-finals, but just enough to roll over to Group 2 to continue playing. Coming to the second group round-robin, his form has improved significantly.
After six rounds of group round-robin, Wakelin won 4-2 and tied with four-time world champion Selby, "Embarrassing" Wilson, and "Captain" Carter in the second group, and advanced to the semifinals in the third group.
In the group semifinals, Wakelin defeated "Brother" Wilson 3-1 and advanced to the group finals. In the other group semi-final, Selby defeated "Captain" Carter 3-1. In the group final, Selby lost to Wakelin 21-3 and missed the group championship. With a bit of Champions League regret, Selby played in the Masters, where he was in red-hot form in the first four games against Milkins and quickly took a 4-0 lead.