Well with one match going to a deciding frame and the other featuring a 147,I think its fair to say that the Masters has had worse first days in it 40 year history.
In the days opening match Shaun Murphy eventually got the better of Mark Selby but only after surviving a trademark comeback from the world champion.
Selby has struggled for form so far this season,but he has always produced his best form in this tournament and it looked as though that was the case here again,as he took the opening frame with a break of 100.
The next two frames were the sort of scrappy affairs that normally go the way of Selby,but here they both went to Murphy and when he knocked in a superb long red on his way to a 92 break,He would take a 3-1 lead to the interval.
Selby was really struggling now and things didn't get any better as Murphy seemed to grow stronger,knocking in breaks of 55 & 56 to move within one of victory at 5-1.
One thing we do know about Selby though is that no matter how he is playing he will never give up without a fight and he won the seventh frame to close to 5-2. That became 5-3 in the next as Seby knocked in his second century of the day,this time a 120.Murphy was first in in the next,but an unexpected missed black off the spot allowed Selby to close within one at 5-4.
Things had certainly changed now as the grin on Selby's face replaced the worry that had been there not long before and he had even more to smile about as he took the next to level at 5-5.
Into the decider then and considering all that had gone before it is to his immense credit that Murphy seemed to find his cuing arm just when he needed it. A series of superb single pots chipped away at the balls left on the table as he eventually got over the line to seal a dramatic 6-5 win.
The evening match between Marco Fu & Stuart Bingham had quite an act to follow then and after a slow start it eventually exploded in the fourth,when Marco Fu became only the third man in history,after Kirk Stevens & Ding Junhui, to get a maximum 147 in The Masters.
This break was Fu at his brilliant cueball controlling best and put him 3-1 up going to the interval.Another century in the next saw that become 4-1 and although Bingham started to find some form of his own to close to 4-3,a third century of the match from Fu moved him to the brink at 5-3.
He sealed his victory in the next on a night he'll never forget to move through to the Quarter finals with a 6-3 win.
A dramtic start to this years tournament then and the big clashes continue tomorrow afternoon with Judd Trump taking on Stephen Maguire & in the evening Neil Robertson facing Robert Milkins
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