The Shanghai Masters 2018 starts tomorrow …

Monique Professional snooker tournament, Snooker

Here is what I was able to gather from weibo (mainly) and twitter…

The draw is now complete with all wildcards known

Shanghai Masters 2018 - Draw

Ronnie and Mark Williams were due to coach some of the wilcards.

Here are images of Ronnie coaching Pu Qingsong

Apparently the coaching session also included a mini exhibition match between Willo and Ronnie, Willo won 2-1.

I managed to find this short video, but not really sure if it was part of it.

The opening ceremony was held on the roof of the hotel, dominating the river and Bund. Mark Williams was in great spirit, teasing the WPBSA chairman, Jason Ferguson…

And that’s the entrance of the venue…

Shanghai Masters 2018 - 09.09.2018 -Venue.jpg

Plus a nice video on Worldsnooker official youtube channel

4 thoughts on “The Shanghai Masters 2018 starts tomorrow …”

  1. I agree. It doesn’t do anyone any good to give Ronnie such a tough first round opponent.

    Ronnie skipped all of the season up until now, then will probably lose in an early round in Shanghai, and then won’t play again until mid-October at the earliest.

    I guess he feels like he accomplished enough last season that he can afford to take most of this season off…

  2. Hello,
    on twitter Nickolay posted the following Info and link:

    Nikolay
    ‏ @Nick007J
    17 Min.Vor 17 Minuten
    Antwort an @snookerfollower @jimnohare @clusterofreds1

    It is him, yes. Btw, today’s exhibition involving wildcards (and Ronnie+MJW) is available here:

    [video src="http://1251971334.vod2.myqcloud.com/5417eb6bvodtransgzp1251971334/2acac8d15285890781709361148/v.f20.mp4" /]

    Enjoy!

  3. Yes I’m sure it’s nice for Pu Qing Song and Guo Hua to get their ‘golden ticket’. But to put them up against top-16 players tomorrow? These two are not academy kids, nor established players on the Chinese tour (Chinese call them ‘professional’, even though not on the World Professional tour). They are ordinary working Chinese who have made it through a club level tournament. Participating in such a strong event is way over the top. It would have been much more sensible to give them ordinary wildcards (e.g. China Open), and for Shanghai to include development players. Chang Bingyu is an excellent candidate – he will be a Pro next year. Fan Zhengyi might be better off putting in some hours at Victoria’s Academy. Players like Yuan Sijun and Xu Si would have been good choices, as this is a crucial year for their careers.

    Part of the knock-on effect of the 24-player structure is that Neil Robertson will probably annihilate Guo 6-0, with a couple of centuries, and then be in perfect condition to beat a rusty Ronnie in the Q-finals. Is that really what the organisers envisaged?

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