Defending a title is something of a new entity to Martin Gould, but the Pinner potter insists former champions are inspiring him to not be a one-tournament wonder.

Gould secured a first ranking tournament victory in the F66.com German Masters last year, and ensured his title defence would not end early by beating Jamie Jones 5-0 on Wednesday afternoon in their round one clash.

In a result as clinical as the scoreline suggests, breaks of 61 and 126 proved the early difference, Gould then making 66 to secure a place in the last-16.

And for Gould, the performance was arguably as important as the result, looking to take advantage of a rare favourites tag in the competition with the 35-year-old seeded as No.1 in Berlin’s Tempodrom.

“I’m completely new to being the holder, but when you get that you look at what other players have done over their careers,” said the world No.19.

“You need to learn how to become a good champion and stamp your authority, we’ve seen how many times Stephen Hendry has won a tournament and then made a big impact in the next game.

“That was my main aim, to go out there and show what I can do. I don’t want to be going home yet.

“But it feels normal; I keep practicing, keep chilling out at the hotel and treat it as any tournament. It just so happened that my name is on the trophy so people are out there to beat me.”

Victory was a 12th in 15 meetings for Gould against Welshman Jones, a run which included nine straight successes prior to September’s European Masters.

But with a far from perfect season to date, the 35-year-old knows he must keep his foot on the throttle in Berlin, set to face Ricky Walden or John Astley for a place in the quarter-finals on Thursday.

“The season has been a mix of good, bad, very bad and ugly,” Gould admitted.

“Perhaps Berlin agrees with me, who knows! It must be something to do with the German fans, they’ve always been very polite.

“Jamie missed a couple of balls early doors and I was able to punish him for every mistake and hit the ground running.

“We’ve had quite a few battles over the years, and usually one of us has a blitz, but it’s not something to complain about – it’s nice to win 5-0 sometimes.”

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