Shanghai Masters - Day 1 (the wildcards` day)

The wildcards` day

Very joyful and eager to please all the snooker fans, the Shanghai Masters tournament started yesterday. As I was telling you the day before, this was the wildcards` day (8 wildcard, to be more precise); this is indeed a very fragile subject for many players and officials have shown their disagreement when the governing body decision of choosing such a high number of players. The main issue here is that these players (although very gifted, no doubt about that) do not worry about ranking points and so on, but our players do. But, what can one do? The dices were thrown some time ago.


The day started with Jamie Burnett’s match against one of the most important and and "dangerous" wildcards chose by the organisators, the Chinese Tian Pengfei. And although, the crowd was cheering Tian, Jamie beat him with a beautiful 5-2 score and so he reaches the last 16, for his next opponent Ronnie O`Sullivan withdrew from the tournament.

Jamie Burnett reached the last 16

Andrew Higginson ended his match against Rouzzi Maimaiti, by the same score (5-2) and Ken Doherty made an incredible match with the Pakistani Mohamad Saijan. Ken was being lead 4-2, when the made a remarkable comeback (this is becoming a pattern :P) and establish the score at 5-4 in his favor, moreover hitting an 109 break. :)


Another interesting match was the won between Martin Gould and Li Hang. Started with 1-1, Martin was leading 3-1, when the little Chinese boy rushed to make a draw (3-3); still, in the end Martin was the one who ended 5-3 this match and so qualifying for the next round where he’ll meet the Scott Stephen Hendry.
Joe Delaney met a Li also, but "his" Li was Li Yan, whom he crashed 5-1.

The strategist Dave Harold in action

By the same scoreline (5-1) ended the match against Dave Harold and the Thai Passahorn Suwanawat. The Thai is indeed a very talented player and he performed some splendid shots when no one was giving him a chance, but still he has some problems with the basic shots. On the other hand, Dave was calculated and very thoughtful as usual, watching very carefully every move and thinking every shot strategically (almost like Cliff Thorburn :P).


The unlucky boys, the ones who will have to head home to the UK, are Mike Dunn who was defeated 5-1 by the Chinese Mei Xiwen and Robert Milkins who lost 5-3 to Jin Long.


Yesterday wasn’t filled with many century breaks, but I can’t just let the ones hit unmentioned: Mei Xiwen (100), Joe Delaney (106), Ken Doherty (109), Tian Pengfei (130) and Jamie Burnett (131).


Today we shall see:


Liang Wenbo v. Matthew Stevens
Stephen Maguire v. Judd Trump
Graeme Dott v. Ken Doherty
Mark Allen v. Stuart Bingham


Marco Fu v. Mark Davis
Mark Williams v. Ricky Walden
Ryan Day v. Andrew Higginson


Enjoy this wonderful tournament and see you tomorrow for the latest insights. :)