Watch out for Hendry

Steve Davis BBC Sport

2003 Benson and Hedges Masters
2-9 February
BBC TV, Radio and BBC Sport's website FORM FAVOURITES

You have to go with the players in form, and at the minute that's Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams.

With his superb victory over Mark at the Regal Welsh, Stephen showed he still has the resilience and mental strength to challenge at the top.

Hendry looks to be back in top form

He believes in his ability and has come to terms with the fact that there are a lot of very good players out there.

Obviously he's not winning as many tournaments as he used to, but the fact that he beat Mark, who is top of the provisional rankings, shows he may still have another big championship in him.

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ONES TO WATCH

You wouldn't put it past Paul Hunter either - he's the defending champion and a great player under pressure.

He likes it at Wembley because he's won there two years on the trot with a couple of great comebacks.

But it's so difficult to pick a winner. Everybody's got a chance.

There are players that are looking to do well at some stage in the season.

You have to say that Peter Ebdon would like to do better and consolidate his status as world champion with a tournament win.

But that's not a failing on Peter's part - the overall standards are just so high.

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MY CHANCES

I've been invited along as the wild card pick, which was nice because it was the last one.

I don't really think about my own chances much. I just get on with it and enjoy every game as it comes.

I've won it three times before - not as high a strike rate as some other tournaments but it's a tough one to win.

I start against Joe Swail in the first round and he's always a tough opponent.

But no matter how big a tournament it is, I'm not practicing on 30 January.

I'm going to see my favourite band - Magma - play at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. They're a French band who don't come here that often and I'm putting my cue down for the day.

Their music is impossible to categorise but they're one of the most exciting live bands around.

(Jazz-rock fusion fans: a quick internet search reveals that Magma are the product of Christian Vander and 50 other musicians.

The music depicts the mythic, sometimes violent struggle between the occupants of Earth and a group of ex-Earthlings inhabiting the fictional planet Kobaia.

The lyrics are sometimes sung in an invented Kobaian language - so there you have it).