2017 Masters (Day 1) - O'Sullivan survives Wenbo

The 2017 edition of the Masters kicked off yesterday and we were so close to see the defending champion, Ronnie O'Sullivan losing the right to retain his crown, as he barely moved pass China's Liang Wenbo 6-5.

The Chinese fans were however "revenged" by Ding Junhui performance who beat Englishman Kyren Wilson by 6-3.

The man of the moment, the player that many snooker fans are rooting for this Masters' edition, "The Rocket" didn't seem to be at his best, despite the fact that he managed to rip off the first two frames, with a top break of 55.

By the mid-session interval though, Wenbo was catching up with his opponent thanks to solid contributions of 109, 48 and 39 to make the scoreline go two apiece.

But the mini-break seemed to do wonders for O'Sullivan who stormed in with runs of 89 and 80 to restore the two-frame advantage, only to see Wenbo doing the same and hitting with a 65 and an 83 to draw level at 4-4.


The pattern was soon to be broken, as the Chinese player was also adding a 50 break to take the lead for the first time in the match and situate himself strategically one away from victory.

Ironically enough though, frame 10 saw him missing the final black, O'Sullivan potting it to force the decider in which he typically made a 121 clearance to land in the second round.

After the match Ronnie openly admitted that he "didn't deserve to win" and that he "didn't play very, very well", to which he added that he "feels really tired and just wanted the match to be over."


In the evening session a more energised Ding Junhui managed to open the match with a 3-0 lead, thanks to breaks of 120 (which was initially a 147 attempt) and 65, to which his opponent managed to top by winning the next two frames.

Frame six and seven were easily cashed by Ding with runs of 73 and 65, Wilson's ton of 106 coming a bit too late in order to make a difference, as the Chinese player closed the deal with a half century to win 6-3.

The cue action continues today with the following matches:

1pm
John Higgins v Mark Allen

7pm
Stuart Bingham v Joe Perry

*all hours are UK time

Photos credit: World Snooker