The 2024 Masters field has been halved with eight players through to the quarter-finals of the draw in London.
Four days of first-round action saw seven Englishmen and a Northern Irishman advance to the next stage at the Alexandra Palace.
A further three victories separate the remaining contenders from the Paul Hunter Trophy and a whopping ยฃ250,000 top prize.
Let’s take a look at each of the quarter-finals matches in the 2024 Masters draw.
Jump to draw with results and live scores.
Judd Trump vs Ali Carter
Friday, 1pm UTC
Reigning champion Judd Trump began his defence with a nervy-jangling 6-5 triumph over Kyren Wilson on Tuesday.
The world number two led 5-3 but looked like he was heading for an early exit when Wilson got in with the first opportunity in the deciding frame.
But after the Kettering cueist broke down, Trump produced a clinical clearance to pinch the win on the final black.
A day earlier, Ali Carter had reached the last eight courtesy of a 6-4 defeat of 2023 runner-up Mark Williams.
Trump and Carter have represented two of the form players over the last year or so.
The Captain emerged with the silverware at last year’s German Masters and reached a couple of other ranking finals, including the Wuhan Open where he was denied glory by Trump.
That success for the latter, of course, came in the middle of a rare hat-trick of consecutive trophies during a glittering month of October.
The pair’s head-to-head is quite close, with Trump winning 15 to Carter’s 12 from their prior battles with one another.
Mark Selby vs Mark Allen
Friday, 7pm UTC
The quarter-finals of the 2024 Masters will conclude on Friday evening with a battle of the Marks between Selby and Allen.
The duo came through contrasting round-of-16 fixtures on day four of the competition at the Ally Pally.
Champion of Champions Allen was far from his best but managed to outlast John Higgins in a taxing encounter that lasted the distance.
It marked the first time since 2018 that the Pistol won a match at the Masters, which was the year he went on to etch his name onto the trophy.
Selby enjoyed a much easier time of it, comfortably overcoming Robert Milkins 6-1 with breaks of 119, 74, 70, 64, and 53.
The Leicester man won three Masters titles in his first six appearances between 2008 and 2013, but he has failed to go beyond the quarter-finals since 2014.
Allen and Selby have crossed paths on 23 occasions in all competitions, most recently in the semi-finals of last year’s World Championship.
Selby won 17-15 to take a 12-11 lead in their head-to-head, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if this duel turns out to be just as tight.
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Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Barry Hawkins
Thursday, 1pm UTC
On Thursday afternoon, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Barry Hawkins will clash in a repeat of their Masters final from 2016.
On that occasion, the Rocket thrashed Hawkins 10-1 to capture the sixth of his record seven Masters crowns.
O’Sullivan defied a 147 from first-round opponent Ding Junhui on day two, compiling a brace of his own century breaks in a 6-3 victory.
Hawkins matched that scoreline the following day when he outplayed the out-of-form Neil Robertson.
The Hawk has experienced beating O’Sullivan just three times in his professional career from 20 previous encounters, and one of those was in the Championship League.
The 44 year-old has done well this season, winning the European Masters and reaching the latter stages of a couple of other tournaments.
Yet against the world number one, he will be a huge underdog to reach the semi-finals.
O’Sullivan will have been inspired by his triumph at the UK Championship last month, and he’ll be hoping to match those eight titles in this prestigious tournament too.
Shaun Murphy vs Jack Lisowski
Thursday, 7pm UTC
Shaun Murphy and Jack Lisowski reached the quarter-finals of the Masters draw way back on the opening day on Sunday.
Lisowski took advantage of a sloppy display from Luca Brecel to beat the world champion 6-2.
Murphy, the 2015 Masters champion, then ousted debutant Zhang Anda by the same four-frame margin.
It has been a bit of a strange season for the Magician, who has enjoyed highs of winning Championship League Snooker and compiling a magnificent Shoot Out maximum.
Other than that, there have been a lot of dross displays that have led to his early demise in many competitions.
Lisowski has likewise flattered to deceive more often than not, especially left to rue a missed opportunity at the Northern Ireland Open when he lost to Chris Wakelin in the semi-finals.
The 32 year-old is still searching for a maiden title on the main tour, and the Masters would be quite the place to do it.
Murphy boasts a 5-3 superior head-to-head record and has more experience on the bigger stages, but Lisowski interestingly has emerged triumphantly from their last three affairs.
How to watch the 2024 Masters
The full 2024 Masters schedule will be broadcast live on the BBC and Eurosport.
There are various other broadcasters around the world providing coverage of the Masters schedule, which can be viewed on the WST website by clicking here.
For all other territories, the action can be followed on the Matchroom.Live streaming service via a subscription.
2024 Masters
– draw, live scores, results –
Last 16 (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-5 Kyren Wilson
Mark Williams 4-6 Ali Carter
Mark Selby 6-1 Robert Milkins
Mark Allen 6-5 John Higgins
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 Ding Junhui
Neil Robertson 3-6 Barry Hawkins
Shaun Murphy 6-2 Zhang Anda
Luca Brecel 2-6 Jack Lisowski
Quarter-Finals (bo11)
Judd Trump 5-6 Ali Carter
Mark Selby 5-6 Mark Allen
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 Barry Hawkins
Shaun Murphy 6-3 Jack Lisowski
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Ali Carter 6-3 Mark Allen
—
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-2 Shaun Murphy
Final (bo19)
Ali Carter 7-10 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Featured photo credit: WST
Seven English players in the last eight is the most from one country at this stage ever.
Lisowski, Carter and Hawkins are the three players left yet to win a Triple Crown title
Dave Hendon made a good point on the Snooker Scene Podcast about why he and some other statisticians overlook matches less than best-of-7. He mentioned how two players can face each other so many times in the Championship League that it skews the head-to-head. I side with him as opposed to Ron Florax who even includes the Shootout.
I used to agree with Hendon’s point, but now I completely disagree. As soon as there started to be ranking events with shorter formats, it became a no-brainer for me to include those matches in the H2H records. And the easiest thing beyond that is to just include every pro match (except maybe 6 reds). When we talk about ranking title victories, do we say that Murphy has only won 11 because one of his was this season’s CLS? Or that Allen is still on 9 because of the Shoot Out? That wouldn’t make any sense, so neither does leaving out the H2Hs from those tournaments in my opinion.
I reluctantly accept that those events should be added on a player’s tally, even though neither should have ranking event status. The argument for including these matches in the H2H is less compelling as a player can be say trailing 12-11 in a H2H but eight of those wins came in the best of 5 or less events compared to the player with 12 wins who achieved his victories in matches that are best of 7 or longer. I find the H2H records more interesting and meaningful when sticking to matches of substance.
Why did I recieve this email halfway through the first quarter final. Why did the first match reviewed be the one starting on Friday. Far too biased towards Trump who to gat through this far depends so much on flukes as his positional play is so poor for matchplay. Even the commentary is so biased.for a ball slammer.
Hi Richard. The email was supposed to go out automatically at 11am. I’ll have to check why it was delivered after 1pm, but apologies for that. As for the order of the match previews, it’s simply the same as how the draw itself looks. Enjoy the rest of the tournament.
Although Trump is a notch down on O’Sullivan and Ding for cueball control, he’s still top class in this regard.
O’Sullivan out of sorts apart from the first and last frame this afternoon. Hawkins even worse. The Rocket into a record-extending 15th Masters semi. The only one he’s lost previously was to Neil Robertson in 2015. His first, in 1995, saw him beat Peter Ebdon.
Seven matches between Allen and Selby have finished 6-5, including two wins by that score for Selby in the Masters quarter-finals of 2009 and 2010.
Excellent preview of the quarter-finals at The Masters! I’m looking forward to seeing Ronnie O’Sullivan take on John Higgins tomorrow. Both players are in top form and it should be a great match. Can’t wait for the updates!