Shanghai Masters 2012 - Day 2

Defending champ, Selby is out

Surprise, surprise after just two days since this year's Shanghai Masters tournament has kicked off, the defending champion Mark Selby suffering an early and terrible 5-1 defeat in front of Jamie Cope, while the local hero Ding Junhui missed yet another chance to impress his home crowd after losing 5-4 to Mark King.

And if yesterday the qualifiers took care of not giving any chance to more and one wild-card, today things went quite differently, Fergal O'Brien and Jimmy Robertson being in the position of having to come back home after losing 5-2 to Chen Feilong and 5-4 to Jin Long, respectively.

Defending champion Mark Selby didn't quite manage to settle in, in the match he had to play against Jamie Cope and that was easily to see from the very first start of their cues battle.

Cope was the one who broke the ice and took the first frame, Selby responding with just a 49 break to draw level. But that was about it from the world number one, for scrappiness took over the match and Selby didn't manage to find a way of getting back on track.

Although Jamie's game was far from being exquisite, it was the perfect recipe to give him a great 3-1 advantage at the interval but also enough confidence and energy to return and take the next two frames with a top break of 71 for a 5-1 scoreline.

Just a few meters away an epic match was underway, Stephen Maguire having to face the man who crushed his China Open dream a few months ago, Peter Ebdon.

As usual Ebdon got to be the player holding the advantage as he flew all the way to 3-2, but this time Maguire was keen to take his revenge so he used a series of 73 and 58 not only to draw level, but also to take the lead.

King rules out Ding

The last frame lasted more than an hour in a desperate attempt of Peter to try and keep himself in the match, but unfortunately for him the miracle didn't happen (he was in the position of needing a snooker and potted the pink by mistake), the snooker encounter ending in the Scotsman's favour at 5-3.

Maybe the second biggest surprise of the day came from the local star Ding Junhui who lost 5-4 to Mark King although the start wasn't a particularly bad one.

Ding took a 3-0 lead, although no miraculous breaks were involved in the equation, but King found his way back into the game and levelled at 3-3.

The match continued with shared frames and logically ended on a decider, decider that Mark took full control off to finish the snooker dispute victoriously.

Also finishing their matches on a 5-4 scoreline were Ali Carter, who had to face Robert Milkins and Shaun Murphy, who saw off Dominic Dale.

Amongst those with a guaranteed place in the next round is also Mark Allen, who suspended Lu Haotian’s Shanghai Masters dream for now, with a 5-2 final result.

Tomorrow more cue action is coming our way, as it follows:

7.30am
21) Stephen Lee v Marcus Campbell
20) Neil Robertson v Chen Feilong
10) Stuart Bingham v Tom Ford
18) Ricky Walden v Steve Davis

12.30pm
13) John Higgins v Jamie Jones
24) Judd Trump v Barry Hawkins
22) Graeme Dott v Jin Long
14) Martin Gould v Ryan Day
*all hours are UK time

TV coverage:
07:30 - 11:30 British EuroSport
07:30 - 10:30 British EuroSport 2
12:30 - 13:30 British EuroSport 
12:30 - 13:30 British EuroSport 2
19:00 - 22:00 British EuroSport 2