The Masters 2018 Draw and Format were published by Worldsnooker today
The draw and format for all rounds of the 2018 Dafabet Masters is now available. The tournament will run from January 14 to 21 at Alexandra Palace in North London.
Click here for the Masters draw
Click here for the Masters format
Ronnie O’Sullivan will begin the defence of his Dafabet Masters title against Marco Fu on Tuesday January 16 at 1pm.
If O’Sullivan wins his opening match he’ll face Luca Brecel or Mark Allen in the quarter-finals on Thursday January 18 at 1pm.
World Champion Mark Selby has been drawn against two-time Masters king Mark Williams, and that will be the opening match of the tournament on Sunday January 14 at 1pm.
Judd Trump will take on Chinese ace Liang Wenbo while John Higgins faces an all-Scottish clash with Masters debutant Anthony McGill.
Tickets for many sessions have already sold out, including the final, semi-finals and first round matches involving O’Sullivan and Selby. However tickets for other sessions including the quarter-finals on Thursday January 18 and Friday January 19 are still available. For ticket details click here
The Dafabet Masters is one of snooker’s Triple Crown events, with a rich history dating back to 1975.
First round draw:
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Marco Fu (Tuesday January 16 at 1pm)
Mark Allen v Luca Brecel (Sunday January 14 at 7pm)
John Higgins v Anthony McGill (Wednesday January 17 at 7pm)
Ding Junhui v Ryan Day (Monday January 15 at 1pm)
Judd Trump v Liang Wenbo (Monday January 15 at 7pm)
Shaun Murphy v Ali Carter (Wednesday January 17 at 1pm)
Barry Hawkins v Kyren Wilson (Tuesday January 16 at 7pm)
Mark Selby v Mark Williams (Sunday January 14 at 1pm)
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Yeah, weird, #1 should face #16 in the first round and # 2 in the final…
Don’t think it’s that way, other than in the World Championship. Here it’s the top 8 “seeded” but then the others being randomly drawn against the seeds.
Regarding the Masters draw, it seems to defeat the purpose (to some extent) of having seeds when the #1 seed has to face #9 in the first round, while (for example) #5 faces #14. Not only does it seem unfair that #1 has to face a much higher seed than #5 gets to face, but it’s also unfair to #9 that he has to face #1 while #14 gets to face #5….