The 2025 Shanghai Masters starts tomorrow. this being an invitational event involving only 32 players, it seems that there was an opening ceremony, but no red carpet ceremony.

Here after some images of the venue and some players…

David Hendon, on substack, shared some views as the new season is about to start

Back to Business – How will Ronnie O’Sullivan fare this season?

David Hendon – Jul 27, 2025

There have been 18 professional tournaments staged in Shanghai and Ronnie O’Sullivan has won six of them, including five Shanghai Masters titles. So what better place to launch a reset after a forgettable 2024/25 season?

The seven-time world champion had appeared in just one ranking event semi-final before infamously smashing up his cue at the Championship League in January, which precipitated a long lay off until the World Championship.

At the Crucible, he showed flashes of his best but was not seriously challenged until Zhao Xintong beat him with a session to spare in the semi-finals. Changing his ferrule – and changing it back – could be interpreted as evidence he was not confident with his cue or just classic self-sabotage. Either way, it was a heavy defeat to end a barren campaign.

In sport, the spotlight will always find someone else and snooker now has a new champion creating excitement and chatter.

O’Sullivan surely looks at Zhao with admiration, for his talent, his poise and his ability to perform under pressure. He possesses similar charisma and star power. He plays the game in that same eye-catching way, in which it appears to be the easiest thing in the world.

Zhao has clearly been inspired by him but perhaps O’Sullivan can also take inspiration from the young Chinese, who has become the latest contender for the mantle of snooker’s top dog.

Ronnie has had to adapt to playing Hendry, Selby, Robertson, Trump and sundry others throughout a long career. Now, a new challenger has emerged, one with the capacity to rival O’Sullivan’s own box office pulling power.

Ludicrously, they are playing on the same session in Shanghai on Wednesday night, creating a needless dilemma for broadcasters which could have easily been avoided. If ever there was a time for double-screening, this is it.

What can we expect from The Rocket this season?

O’Sullivan’s considerable powers have waned to a degree. His long game does not seem as strong as it once was. In the balls, he can still score heavily, but he is more reliant on mistakes from opponents.

This is just the natural reality of getting older. Even Ronnie O’Sullivan cannot defeat time itself.

But this does not mean he can’t adapt to the challenges of younger opponents and the odd deficiency in his own game.

O’Sullivan has nothing to prove but continues to prove it anyway. It’s only two years ago that he won five titles, including record extending eighth triumphs in the UK Championship and Masters.

Away from the public glare, he has always put the work in, never content to settle for doing things the same old way. He’s consulted with myriad coaches over the years, always looking for new information, a different insight, something else he can build into his game.

Turning 50 in December, it’s easy to characterise this as a make-or-break season, but this conveniently ignores the fact that he made it 33 years ago and hasn’t departed from the top level since.

Even so, in the provisional standings for seedings at the Crucible, O’Sullivan is currently positioned 17^th. This is factoring in all the points which will come off his tally. We don’t yet know how many will be added.

It raises the prospect of the Greatest of All Time being required to rock up at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield for Judgement Day if he is to appear once again at the Crucible.

The season ahead could be complicated by his reported move to Dubai. If he remains based in the Middle East, will he want to travel constantly to the UK for tournaments there outside of the established majors?

If he doesn’t, he may struggle to qualify for the Players Series events and this could seriously imperil his ranking. This is why he needs a deep run – possibly a victory – in a ranking tournament to steady the ship.

The Shanghai Masters does not carry ranking points but presents an early opportunity this season to test his game against the other top players.

Younger men – Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson – sit at the top of the rankings, but O’Sullivan occupies the top five with his celebrated contemporaries Mark Williams and John Higgins.

Maybe O’Sullivan’s greatest weapon is that, more than three decades after exploding on to the scene, he remains unpredictable.

Write him off at your peril, but to expect him to still be dazzling like no one else into his sixth decade is also dangerous.

This season, the challenge surely is to find a consistent level with which to keep pace with the other top players, to enjoy this challenge and to accept that there will be bad days.

Ronnie O’Sullivan fans hope – in fact they know – that there will also be good days. Maybe being back in Shanghai, where he has experienced many highs, is the perfect way to get the ball rolling.

Personally, I have no expectations for the future regarding Ronnie. I just want to see him happy. If wins and titles come, happy days. If not … life goes on and health and happiness are far more important than trophies.