Ronnie booked his place in the last 32 in the Shanghai Masters 2017 this morning (China time, middle of the night here), beating Gary Wilson by 5-2. He played quite well, his long potting in particular was very good. He also did set up a serious target for the tournament’s highest break with a great 144. The reaction of the crowd when Ronnie, who until there had taken only blacks with reds, decided to go for the pink, was amazing and amusing. Taking the pink was totally the right shot BTW, and the sign that Ronnie wanted to win ahead of entertaining. He will play Joe Perry this evening (early afternoon in Europe)

Thanks to Tai Chengzhe for the action pictures. 

Here the full match:

… and before  …

At the time of writing this the first round at the Main event, played at the Grand Stage in Shanghai, is about to conclude: only one match is still in progress, between Mei Xiwen and Adam Duffy, and one match, Ronnie vs Gary Wilson has been pushed to tomorrow morning, for obvious reasons.

Before looking at the results, let’s have a look at what happened before that stage.

There wasn’t a red carpet ceremony apparently, which is unusual in China, nor was there a grand launch dinner as no picture of this appeared on weibo. There was however some kind of ceremony involving former winners, in the Bund area judging by the images, a players meeting with the fans, and an opening ceremony before the last session of yesterday. Here are a few images shared on social media, mainly weibo:

Other than that, the main news, a bad news for the promoters, is that Ding Junhui withdrew. Going by what transpired on social media he is suffering from viral conjunctivitis and can’t see properly.

Over the last two days, the schedule was very busy: there was a pre-qualifying round, the held-over matches round and the last 64 round all played to a conclusion except for the Ronnie vs Gary Wilson match. And there weren’t any upsets… except, maybe, Ryan Day being beaten by Yu Delu, but then Yu is always a dangerous player and the match went to a decider anyway. There were a few surprising scorelines though: Mark Allen beating Yan Bingtao by 5-1, for instance, or Luca Brecel beating Matthew Stevens by 5-0.

In Luca’s case it’s not just the scoreline, it’s the circumstances too: his cue, lost in Daqing, didn’t reappear, so he’s playing with a new cue, and, he’s also playing in borrowed cloths and shoes … He picked the wrong luggage at the airport, a bag looking exactly like his own with, quite extraordinarily, the same code on the lock, and only discovered his error when opening it at his hotel hours later. So he was wearing Martin Clark’s and other players shoes, shirt, waistcoat and trousers. Luca’s manager said they were Michael White’s, but going by the green back of the waistcoat, it looks more like Mark Allen’s to me. Whatever, it clearly didn’t affect Luca’s game, but maybe, it did affect his opponent concentration. Indeed, the waistcoat was obviously oversized and, with the belt tightened, looked more like a pinafore on him than like a regular waistcoat.

here is what Luca’s manager tweeted

Thanks to Martin Clark and some of his cloths and some from Michael White and shoes from a stranger Luca made it to his match

So the only match still to be played in the round is Ronnie vs Gary Wilson and it could well be an upset. Gary is a good player and he’s been in China for a few days already. Ronnie probably only arrived today (China time), having played a best of 19 final in Coventry late on Sunday evening, so he’s more likely to be affected by tiredness and jet-lag than his opponent. The match is scheduled at 9:30 am in China, that’s 1:30 am in UK and probably on Ronnie’s body clock too. He said it in his postmatch in Coventry, he doesn’t have big expectations, he will try his best and will try to enjoy it and see what happens. He also said that he’s due to do some promo work for his sponsor. Apparently that involved some kind of “snooker & boxing” exhibition with Zou Shiming, China’s most prominent boxer. Don’t ask …

Of course we know that Ronnie loves his boxing and that his uncles were boxers. Just hope he doesn’t sprain a wrist to go with the sprained ankle.

All detailed results on Cuetracker

Congratulations to Shaun!

Ronnie was the favourite going into the Final, based on their previous head to head, but Shaun had other ideas. He beat Ronnie by 10-8, having been the strongest player on the day. Shaun managed to win the close frames and his potting from distance was scary; those were two big factors in the match. Ronnie looked edgy and couldn’t reproduce the form he showed in earlier rounds, he didn’t have the best of run either, but he had no complaints. Shaun totally deserved the win. One thing though to Ronnie’s credit is the attitude he showed, the way he fought back especially from 9-5 down. He was clearly frustrated with his own mistakes but, again and again, refocused, tried his hardest and battled to the very end, which earned his appreciative comments from both Stephen Hendry and Clive Everton.

Here is the report on the Champion of Champions website:

Magic Murphy is 188BET Champion of Champions

THE FINAL
Shaun Murphy 8-10 Ronnie O’Sullivan
31-103 (O’Sullivan 97), 27-98 (O’Sullivan 98), 66-63, 70-1 (Murphy 70), 92-27 (Murphy 85), 82-7 (Murphy 53), 0-134 (O’Sullivan 65, 61), 32-105 (O’Sullivan 72), 57-54, 92-39 (Murphy 86), 83-37, 134-0 (Murphy 56, 74), 46-83, 83-17 (Murphy 71), 31-76 (O’Sullivan 54), 0-132 (O’Sullivan 108), 1-106 (68, 38), 74-71

Shaun Murphy survived an almighty Ronnie O’Sullivan fightback to win the 188BET Champion of Champions at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.

Murphy had led the best of 19 final 9-5 before an O’Sullivan surge took the score to 9-8, and he looked set to level until he missed the green, allowing Murphy to finally complete his victory, and claim the title and £100,000 winner’s prize.

O’Sullivan led early in the match at 0-2 but four consecutive frames saw Murphy gain a two-frame advantage. The Rocket fought back but, with the scores tied at 4-4, the final frame of the afternoon session saw a dramatic conclusion.

Murphy, four points behind, missed the black to the bottom right pocket, seemingly setting up the five-time World Champion to take a lead into the evening session. But he also missed to the same pocket allowing Murphy to make a long but straight-forward pocket to lead 5-4.

The Magician then came out firing in the evening, taking the first three frames for a commanding 8-4 advantage and he looked set to move to within one of the title before he went in off with just the colours remaining. O’Sullivan made no mistake in punishing the Gibraltar Masters champion.

Murphy moved a step closer to the title with a 71 clearance for 9-5, but then O’Sullivan mounted his comeback. First, he took a scrappy 15th frame 31-76 and then the final’s only century, a 108, put The Rocket just two behind Murphy. An outrageous fluke helped O’Sullivan to 9-8, but the fluked red aside he was now playing much more confident snooker.

O’Sullivan looked set to force the decider until be missed the green at, allowing Murphy to the table to finish the match.

“These are the moments you live for as a snooker player,” said Murphy. “Ronnie is the best player of all time, the best player we have seen and the ultimate test. To play him in a big, big final and get to ten first – because I very nearly didn’t – is an amazing feeling.

“We call it dead-man syndrome – people play like they have got nothing to lose and he started going for shots which we all know he can get, and they started going in.

“I don’t feel that I did a great deal wrong to be honest and had the match gone to a deciding frame I wouldn’t have been banging my head against a wall. But against somebody like Ronnie it can happen and the match can turn like that. Fortunately, he missed the green at the end and I was able to clear up.”

O’Sullivan, who takes home £50,000 as runner-up, said: “He deserved the victory, he played better than me all day. I am off to Shanghai tomorrow and I will go out there, try my best and enjoy it.”

Murphy becomes the first player to qualify for the next Champion of Champions, which will be staged at Ricoh Arena, Coventry from November 5-11 2018 with tickets on sale Monday, November 13.

Videos of interest:

The Final:

CoC 2017 – the Final preview

2017 CoC: Ronnie O’Sullivan – Shaun Murphy match (Session1)

2017 CoC: MSI of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Shaun Murphy match (Session1)

2017 CoC: review of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Shaun Murphy match (Session1)

2017 CoC: Preview of Ronnie O’Sullivan – Shaun Murphy match (Session2)

2017 CoC: Ronnie O’Sullivan – Shaun Murphy match (Session2)

2017 CoC: MSI of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Shaun Murphy match (Session2)

2017 CoC: Ronnie O’Sullivan – Shaun Murphy match – Trophy Ceremony

The Final – review

The Shanghai Masters has already begun. Ronnie is traveling there today. His first match has been pushed to Wednesday morning, which will be around 3:30 am UK time and still the middle of the night according to his body clock. And, should he win, he will probably have to play again on the same day… if he wins just one match, he’ll do well. I’m not too hopeful.

Ronnie reached the final of the Champion of Champion for the fourth time, in four participations, by beating Anthony Hamilton by 6-2, from 2-0 down. He also made his 900th competitive century in frame 5 of the match. The match was played in very good spirit. When Anthony made a bizarre foul whilst breaking off, Ronnie very sportively offered him the opportunity to break off again, both were all smiles during the incident. And when Ronnie knocked in century n° 900, Anthony came to him to congratulate him. Ronnie admitted afterward that he felt tense at the start of the match. They know each other, practice together and that doesn’t make it easier, especially for Ronnie who had all the weight of expectations on his shoulders.

Ronnie had prepared seriously for the match … lauding the food on twitter as well!

Here is the report on the Champion of Champions website:

O’SULLIVAN REACHES FOURTH 188BET CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS FINAL

SEMI-FINAL
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6–2 Anthony Hamilton
69-71 (O’Sullivan 57), 52-68, 128-0 (O’Sullivan 124), 88-0 (O’Sullivan 74), 109-5 (O’Sullivan 109), 102-6 (O’Sullivan 52), 75-37 (O’Sullivan 68), 78-16 (O’Sullivan 78)

 

Ronnie O’Sullivan recorded his 900th career century break en-route to reaching the 188BET Champion of Champions final for a fourth time with a 6-2 semi-final success over Anthony Hamilton at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

The only time O’Sullivan hasn’t made the final of this tournament was in 2015, when he did not participate, and his only defeat here was in last season’s showpiece against John Higgins.

Having beaten Neil Robertson and Higgins in the group stage, O’Sullivan found himself 2-0 down in the early stages of his semi-final as Hamilton twice took advantage of ‘The Rocket’ accidentally knocking in a colour. O’Sullivan hit back in the third with a 124, his 899th career century and drew level in time for the mid-session interval with a 74.

When the players returned O’Sullivan marked his latest career milestone with a 109 break to take the lead for the first time in the match, and he didn’t look back from there. A 68 break in the seventh put him one frame from the final, and

“It will be my fourth final in four visits, two wins and one loss last year,” said O’Sullivan. “Of course it would be nice to win, but I just want to enjoy it. I think I play best when I am relaxed and sometimes you get a bit tense and tight out there and you lose the flow, so the more relaxed you are the stronger your flow.

“To reach 900 centuries is a big milestone and the crowd enjoyed it. I will be trying to get to the 1,000 as quickly as possible.

“Luca and Shaun Murphy are both fantastic players and I would pay to watch that game tomorrow because they are both great, attacking players.

“I will go home tonight, have a day at home, come back tomorrow night and on Sunday go out and have faith in my own game and hopefully come in and have spells where I have spells where I am strong in the match and try and dominate, and when I am not so strong try and limit the damage.”

O’Sullivan will face either Shaun Murphy or Luca Brecel in Sunday’s best-of-19 final, with his opponent to be determined on Saturday evening.

Broadcast on ITV4 in the UK and on networks around the world, the 188BET Champion of Champions carries a £370,000 prize fund with the winner taking home £100,000.

Videos of interest:

Ronnie vs Anthony Hamilton SF preview (including part 2 of Ronnie’s interview with Stephen Hendry

Ronnie vs Anthony SF – the match

2017 CoC: MSI of the Ronnie O’Sullivan – Anthony Hamilton match

Ronnie vs Anthony Hamilton SF review with Ronnie in the studio

There was also an announcement by Worldsnooker regarding the future of the Champion of Champions:

Friday 10 Nov 2017 04:22PM

Matchroom Multi Sport are delighted to announce a new three-year agreement which will see snooker’s prestigious Champion of Champions remain at Ricoh Arena, Coventry until 2020 with tickets for 2018 on sale on Monday, November 13 2017.

Since its inaugural running in 2013, the Champion of Champions has gone from strength to strength with players and fans united in seeing the tournament as one of the highlights of the snooker calendar.

Broadcast live on ITV4 and on networks around the world, the Champion of Champions brings together 16 players, all World Snooker Tour winners over the previous 12 months, and has been won  by some of the sport’s biggest names – Ronnie O’Sullivan (2013, 2014), Neil Robertson (2015) and John Higgins (2016).

The 2018 Champion of Champions will be staged from Monday, November 5 until Sunday, November 11.

Matchroom Sport Chairman Barry Hearn commented: “The Ricoh Arena is a great venue for snooker and I am thrilled that our excellent relationship with the venue will continue for at least a further three years.

“Since the first Champion of Champions in 2013 we have seen a year-on-year rise in attendance as the tournament has cemented itself as one of the major events of the snooker calendar. The people of Coventry come out in force to support snooker’s best players every November and we’re pleased they will be able to continue to do so.

“With record crowds, record TV numbers and 16 of the very best players in the world, I have no doubt that the Champion of Champions will continue to be a must-see. It’s a tournament all players are desperate to compete in and we look forward to seeing the best of the best at the Ricoh Arena for a further three years.”

Stuart Cain, commercial director for Wasps and the Ricoh Arena, added: “The growing success of Champion of Champions is testament to the Ricoh Arena’s ability of being able to host world-class sporting events, and we are delighted to have secured the tournament for the next three years.

“To have 16 of the world’s best snooker players performing on our doorstep is something both the Ricoh Arena and the wider region should be proud of.”

Tickets for the 2018 Champion of Champions will go on sale this Monday, November 13 from www.championofchampionssnooker.co.uk