Blog

Hello, and a happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all had a good Christmas.

Mine was really good, it was the first for me and Vikki in our new home and we had her family over to join us, so that was really nice. But the new year started quickly for me with the Championship League. It was great to get back on the table and even greater to win at the first time of asking! It means I now have a really good chance of getting back into the Premier League, which I really want to do because I want to be involved in that every year, not just the odd ones.

Winning early also gave me more time to relax and practise ahead of the Masters. As defending champion, this is a massive tournament for me and I can’t wait for it to start. At the time of writing, I’ve only got about two and a half hours before I play Ricky Walden in my opening match.

I’ve just got back from the venue where I had my second practice session of the day, so it’s all about relaxing now before the match starts. I’m back in the hotel room, I’ll have something to eat and challenge Mukesh to a bit of Sudoku, get my brain working, and then concentrate on the job in hand.

Other than practice today, I’ve done a little bit of media work and generally just tried to chill out. I watched a bit of Shaun Murphy’s match against Ding Junhui, but I don’t tend to watch too much of the other players, I just want to concentrate on my own game.

The nerves can start to kick in before a big game, but I’m excited more than anything. I can’t wait to get back to the venue, see my name on the honours board in the players’ lounge and the huge posters of me on the wall. It’s only the second time I’ve been here, and I want to go out there, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy it.

It will get more nerve-racking as it gets nearer the time, as I will be putting extra pressure on myself because I’m the defending champion and I’ve got something to prove. The last thing you want to do as defending champion is bail out in the first round. But it will be great to get the opening match out of the way, get over that first hurdle.

Ricky beat me in semis in Shanghai last year, so I owe him one now. It’s going to be a tough game, we’ve more or less grown up together through the junior ranks so we are really good friends. But when you get out there on the table, friendships go out of the window.