Neil Robertson hopes to get over his Ashes woes by claiming his first Masters title at Wembley Arena.
Aussie sick with Ashes misery, hoping for better in Masters
Neil Robertson hopes to show his fellow Australians how to win with success at the upcoming Masters his target to erase the pain of watching his country's cricketers being battered in the Ashes.
World snooker champion Robertson is one of a dwindling number of Australians to be right at the very top of their sport, and he admits that watching the Ashes series for him was no fun.
The 28-year-old also suffered from illness over the festive period, which did not help his mood, but he hopes to bounce back with a strong performance at Wembley Arena in the Masters.
Robertson said his illness felt like 'being hit in the head with a cricket bat by Kevin Pietersen' and watching Australia bowl worse than his young son hardly help him feel any better.
With his Masters campaign starting on Wednesday, Robertson hopes to remind his fellow Australians how to win.
Ashes woe
"It's absolutely terrible," Robertson said. "Australia are struggling a little bit in the overall sporting scheme, although Mark Webber did pretty well in Formula One.
"It's just me and him waving the flag, where there's usually 20 or 30 Australians with world titles. It hasn't been the case the last couple of years.
"It's just gone from bad to worse in the Ashes. Australia were looking to salvage a win in Sydney so at least they wouldn't lose the series, but now they've lost the series.
"Hats off to England, they've played really well, and improved a lot as a team, but Australia have really failed to replace a lot of the great players who have retired.
"Hopefully some younger players can come through and hopefully they can produce a spinner, because the ones that have played at the moment - I think my son can turn the ball more than them.
"Now I'll have to motivate everyone and show Australians that we can actually still play sport."
Robertson consolidated his Crucible triumph from May with another 'world' title, the 12bet.com World Open in September, before reaching the UK Championship quarter-finals in December.
Masters hope
He should be among the main contenders for Masters glory, with the fading force of Stephen Hendry awaiting him in the first round, before a potential last-eight clash with Ronnie O'Sullivan.
He admits his past results at Wembley are nothing to boast about, and Robertson has now turned his focus on to winning at Wembley.
"The Masters is a tournament I've got to target now," he added. "I haven't particularly done great there. I've played really well there the last two years, despite losing to Ronnie and Stephen Maguire.
"But I've never been as far as the semi-finals.
"I've won the World Open, which used to be the Grand Prix, three of the past four years, which is amazing really, but sometimes it doesn't happen at other tournaments.
"The Masters is a tournament I definitely see myself winning, so hopefully I can start playing pretty well over the next week.
"I had the flu over Christmas - actual proper flu, not 'man flu' or a cold - and it was like being hit in the head with a cricket bat by Kevin Pietersen.
"I've only just started to come better this week. I've only played a couple of hours since Christmas. It's not exactly been the best preparation for the Masters but there's not been a lot I could do about it."
