Yesterday saw all the quarter finals matches completed in Shanghai and this time there were little surprise.

In the afternoon, Stuart Bingham had little trouble dispatching of Ali Carter by 5-1. Mark Selby had to work a bit harder against Ryan Day: after being 4-1 down, Ryan battled back to 4-3 before Mark concluded. So, it’s the n°1 vs the n°2 this afternoon in China, meaning morning in Europe.

In the evening, Ding Junhui beat Michael Holt by 5-3 in a very good match, and Stephen Maguire got the better of Michael White by 5-1. So the man in form in this tournament, Stephen Maguire will face the home favourite Ding Junhui.

It should be a very interesting day of snooker. Semi finals are best of 11, so plenty of time for twists and turns!

It was a bit of a strange day in Shanghai, especially the evening session where all four highest seeds lost to their lower ranked opponents, including Ronnie who was beaten 5-2 by Michael Holt.

Here is Matt Huart report and QF preview on the WPBSA website

Shanghai Set for Quarter-Finals

• Matt Huart 22nd September 2016

Four days have been completed at the tenth staging of the Shanghai Masters and of the 40 players who started the week, just eight remain with their eyes on the prize.

• View the updated provisional seedings
• View the live race to Guangzhou
• View the results so far from Shanghai

It has been a memorable week already in Shanghai, with a maximum break from Stephen Maguire early on, as well as no fewer than five matches going to a deciding frame during the opening round. Despite exits for a number of high-profile players however, there remains a high quality field to contest the final three days of the tournament.

At the top of the draw, Michael Holt will face home favourite Ding Junhui in the first quarter-final, after the pair emerged victorious against Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Allen respectively this evening.

Holt, who reached his first-career semi-final in Shanghai back in 2013, had already impressed earlier in the week to defeat wildcard Xu Si and defending champion Kyren Wilson, before claiming the scalp of 2009 champion O’Sullivan. Although O’Sullivan was clearly not at his best this week, competing in his first tournament of the season, he could not be faulted for his application and tried until the final ball to turn the match around as he had done from 4-1 down against Liang Wenbo in the previous round.

It was Holt however who was the heavier scorer and following a missed black on 55 from O’Sullivan during the sixth frame, it was the world number 28 who cleared decisively to the pink to secure a deserved victory against the crowd favourite.

Perhaps the experience of playing against the crowd will help Holt in the next round as he prepares to face 2013 champion Ding Junhui, a winner against Scott Donaldson and now Mark Allen so far this week. Unusually for Ding, he is yet to record a century break this week in Shanghai but with breaks over 50+ during each of the final five frames against Allen, looks to be gaining momentum as the week progresses.

With his run to the last eight, Ding has also made sure of his place at the recently announced China Championship in Guangzhou (see my race to Guangzhou blog).

In the same half, Michael White will face the in-form Stephen Maguire after their respective victories today.

For White, it has been a strong week so far after he initially edged out world number eight Ricky Walden in a deciding frame, before today coming back from 3-0 down to stun former Shanghai finalist Judd Trump. White had a tricky run of results towards the end of last season and admitted to dealing with depression following his opening round defeat at the World Championship, but on the table at least has shown real signs of having turned a corner with his results in recent weeks.

The same can be said for Stephen Maguire, who has tumbled down the rankings in recent months and has a significant amount of prize money to defend between now and the end of the calendar year. Having made four century breaks, including a third career 147 maximum during his opening two matches against wildcard Yi Chen Xu and old rival Shaun Murphy, today he withstood greater pressure against Barry Hawkins to come through a 5-3 winner.

Both White and Maguire can also still qualify for the China Championship, but require at least a run to the final this week in Shanghai.

In the bottom half of the draw Stuart Bingham will face Ali Carter for the third time in 2016, Carter looking to make it a hat-trick of wins against his old Essex rival. Defending a maximum £85,000 from his victory in 2014, Bingham has made smooth progress so far in defeating Jamie Jones and David Gilbert, while Carter too has dropped just three frames in defeating John Higgins and Kurt Maflin.

Interestingly for Carter, his path somewhat mirrors that of his World Open winning run earlier in the season, where he also defeated Higgins and Bingham en route to the title. Can Bingham turn the tables this time?

Awaiting the winner will be either 2011 champion Mark Selby, or Welshman Ryan Day, who were both among the more high-scoring players during today’s last 16 matches. Little needs to be said about Selby, who is looking to win his second ranking event in a row following his success at the Paul Hunter Classic last month. Day meanwhile, runner-up at the first ever Shanghai Masters back in 2007, has already seen off both Neil Robertson and surprise package Mei Xiwen to reach the last eight and is another player looking to qualify for the China Championship with a deep run this week.

The action resumes on Friday with the quarter-finals as we move closer to learning who the winner of this historic tenth staging of the Shanghai Masters will be.

And here is Ronnie’s last 16 match, if you missed it or want to watch it again

No doubt, Michael Holt was by far the better player on the day, and fully deserved the win. Ronnie looked very annoyed with himself, he almost snapped his cue at a point,  but continued to play the right shots and apply himself. He also looked very tired, especially after the MSI. He was clearly  disappointed at the end of the match.

Ronnie certainly wanted to stay in Shanghai a bit more if this picture and post on Weibo by Windy Xu are to be trusted: according to Windy, this is Ronnie learning Chinese whilst waiting for his dinner before the match …

Maybe though there is a silver lining to this cloud … as he now will have a few days to rest and prepare for the qualifying stages of the European Masters and the International Championship next week.

And here a few pictures by Windy Xu (on weibo) and Tai Chengzhe.

Big thanks to both once again!

All detailed results are on Cuetracker as usual

Ramona Dragomir, who was at the press conference in Bucharest yesterday,  gives us all the latest news about the next snooker event, the European Masters 2016.

European Masters – getting ready for a genuine snooker show

12:23:00 Ramona Dragomir 

21st of September marked the date for the first press conference dedicated to Romanian’s biggest snooker event of all times – the European Masters – due to take place in Bucharest, at the Circus Arena between 3rd and 9th of October 2016.

The organisers, McCann & Thiess Events, which have also been involved into no less than three editions of Snooker Titans Trophy (a series of exhibition matches that introduced the Romanian public to top snooker players) were happy to announce the latest details about the coming European Masters.

The event will be held at the Circus Arena from Bucharest (the same location that was used for two of the Snooker Titans Trophy editions) between 3-9 October and will see no less than 32 snooker players.

The organisers promised one hell of a show with the guarantee that at least eight of the Top 16 players will be present in Bucharest and five world champions will also delight the Romanian audience.

The European Masters will be fully covered by EuroSport and EuroSport 2, which is actually a premiere for such a huge sport event held in our country.

The matches will start from 10am and the “match of the day” (as the organisers call it) is scheduled to start from 7.30pm.

Matches will be played on “the best of 9” rule up until the semis which will be played on “best of 11” and the final will get to see “best of 17” frames.

The semis are scheduled to take place on Saturday from 1pm and 7pm, while the final will be disputed the next day, on Sunday in two sessions, at the same hours.

The full match schedule will be released shortly, after the qualifying stages will be completed.

Mr Bogdan Enoiu (McCann World Group Romania’s General Manager) said:

“Ronnie O’Sullivan means to snooker what Roger Federer means to tennis because he has such a distinct way of playing the game.

The sport itself has many resemblances with chess because one must think up to six moves ahead.

It’s such a great honour to have eight out of the Top 10 snooker players playing here, because the fans will be spoiled for seven days with outstanding matches.”

McCann & Thiess Events has signed a three-year contract with World Snooker for staging this event in Romania, but the organisers are waiting to see how the first edition will go and how the Romanian audience will respond in order to raise the bar and also hold the qualifying stages here (at the moment, due to lack of a suitable venue they will be held in Preston, UK).

Mr Cosmin Hodor, the man behind the European Masters organisational team added:

“The European Masters is the second most prestigious ranking event held outside the UK borders so we are delighted with this opportunity.

The prize money reaches 350.000 euros, while the organisational costs up to 500.000 euros.

The venue is perfect for snooker and the audience will have the chance to see four matches per day and at least one Top 10 player evolving at the table for decent prices.”

Asked about the name of the referees in change, the organisers promised that the Romanian public will see Alex Crisan on duty, but they are still waiting for the disclosure of the full list of referees from World Snooker.

The tickets are still available on eventim.ro prices starting with 55 RON per day, so be sure to check the website and book your snooker experience.

This is the real deal! You just can’t miss it! 😉

Just a small caution word though: there are two qualification rounds to be played next week in Preston, so there is no way the organisers can guarantee the presence of anyone, although Mark Selby and Ronnie will have their second round match held over to Bucharest, provided they win their first round one.

Day 3 in Shanghai saw the conclusion of the last 32 round and it yielded some very surprising results.

Stephen Maguire beat Shaun Murphy by 5-0, and, although it was plain for all to see in the wilcard round that Stephen is on form, the score is still surprising. Of course Shaun has just become a father and maybe that explains it.

Mei Xiwen reached a last 16 round for the first time in his career by beating Mark Williams, who has an excellent record in China, by the score of 5-3. He is the lowest ranked player still in the tournament.

Ryan Day sent Neil Robertson home, beating him by 5-2. Neil later tweeted that he had problems with his tip and that the conditions were very tough. The twitter post contained an image suggesting that the conditions were very sticky, which isn’t surprising as the weather is very humid and hot in Shanghai at this time of the year … still !!!

Finally, Stuart Carrington beat Joe Perry in a deciding frame, coming back from 4-2 down.

There were also expected wins from Judd Trump, Stuart Bingham, Barry Hawkins and Mark Allen … but that they all won by 5-0 certainly wasn’t expected.

Overall the unseeded players who had to play a wildcard ,and won, did  well: 7 out of 16 seeded players lost their last 32 match and 4 of them fell to one of the 8 unseeded players who had to play a wildcard. And Ronnie really had it hard against Liang Wenbo too. There are always a lot of complaints about those matches and how “unfair” they are, but, personally, I think that getting the opportunity to play a match against a young amateur gives those players a good opportunity to get used to the rather alien conditions before facing a seed who comes at the table cold and under pressure to win a match that is actually a first round for them under the tiered system. And, remember, they get the same money losing to the wilcard as they would losing to the seed.

All detailed results are on Cuetracker.

All those results mean that the top 10 is now known ahead of the invitational event in Guangzhou early November as Matt Huart explains on his blog. This means that both Ronnie and Ding are now certain to get an invite.

Ronnie came back from 4-1 down to beat Liang Wenbo by 5-4 in the last 32 of the Shanghai Masters 2016. This was his first competitive match of the season, and he looked vulnerable at the start of the match, especially when things got scrappy. But he got stronger as the match progressed whilst this opponent was increasingly feeling the pressure. The crowd was extremely excited and raucous and mainly supporting Ronnie rather than his Chinese opponent.

Here is the match report on Worldsnooker, with Ronnie’s quotes.

Tuesday 20 Sep 2016 05:11PM

O’Sullivan is making his first appearance of 2016/17

Ronnie O’Sullivan recovered from 4-1 down to beat Liang Wenbo at the Shanghai Masters on the Rocket’s first appearance of 2016/17.

After Liang claimed a scrappy opener, O’Sullivan got his first frame on the board with a run of 84.

However, Liang continued to feed off mistakes from a rusty O’Sullivan. The Chinese potter opened up a 4-1 lead.

Five-time World Champion O’Sullivan countered with a break of 65 in the sixth frame to keep his chances alive and the pressure began to take its toll on Liang. He missed several opportunities to clinch the match and as the Rocket grew in confidence, he began to punish Liang’s mistakes. Visits of 42 and 56 were enough to seal a 5-4 comeback win.

“Being 4-1 down wasn’t an ideal situation, but I thought that I just had to try my best and see what happens. I won a couple of frames and the match turned around,” said O’Sullivan. “I need to start putting more time in now. If I want to compete with the best players in the world I need to play more. I think I have four or five very good years left in my career.”

As Matt Huart explained in his blog, this win is important for Ronnie as it places him inside the top 10, who automatically get an invite to the very lucrative new event to be held in Guangzhou, early November.

Here is the match if you missed it, or couldn’t watch … or want to watch it again

2016 Shanghai Masters: Ronnie O’Sullivan – Liang Wenbo

And here are pictures by Tai Chengzhe and Windy Xu. Thanks to both!

Elsewhere, all pros involved in wilcard round matches, won today; Stephen Maguire made a 147 in frame 3 of his. You can read all about it on Worldsnooker.

The defending Champion Kyren Wilson was beaten by Michael Holt who will be Ronnie’s next opponent, and a very tough one! Here is the account of this match on Worldsnooker. Mark Selby and Mark Allen were the two other seeds playing their last 32 matches today and both won easily.

All detailed results are on Cuetracker.

Today saw the start of the Shanghai Masters 2016 main event but Ronnie wasn’t playing today. However, Windy Xu shared a number of pictures on social media, giving us a rather good idea of what the day was made of for him. Thanks Windy!

More pictures from yesterday’s PR Lunch

Ronnie relaxing at the hotel

Practising

But not everyone had a day off today, 8 matches were played,  and we got some surprises already.

From the 4 top 16 players involved, both Ricky Walden and Marco Fu lost their last 32 match, whilst both Ding Junhui and John Higgins were 3-1 down at the MSI and looked in danger, but they recovered and won.

There were also 4 wilcard round matches played today. Michael Holt and Anthony McGill won easily, Liang Wenbo, who will be Ronnie’s opponent tomorrow in a rematch of the 2009 final, won also, only by 5-3, and, surprisingly, Martin Gould got whitewashed by his young opponent Yuan Sijun.

All detailed results are available on Cuetracker