Judd Trump was thrashed by Michael Holt 5-1 in the first round of the Shanghai Masters. Elsewhere Peter Lines beat Matthew Stevens 5-4 and their were also wins for Mark Davis, Marco Fu, Barry Hawkins and Neil Robertson on the second day, while Shaun Murphy and John Higgins made it through to the last 16 on the opening day in China.
Trump was well below par in his match against Holt, as his poor form continued, while Michael played really well to take out last seasons runner-up. Holt dominated the opening frame, before Trump equalised at 1-1. An excellent 115 from Holt meant that he regained the advantage, and he doubled his lead by taking the next to lead 3-1 at the interval. Michael didn't let up after the break, with a good break of 97 to put himself 1 frame away from the last 16, and a 60 in the next sealed the deal and the 5-1 win, to cap off an excellent win for Michael Holt and a thoroughly deserved win.
Meanwhile, Peter Lines pulled off a magnificent comeback to beat Matthew Stevens, whose inconsistent season continued. After Lines won the opening frame with a break of 61, before Stevens won the next four with a top break of 50. Peter fought back though taking a tight 6th frame and dominating the 7th, before winning a lower scoring 8th to take the match in to the decider. Both players had chances in the decider, but it was Lines who held his nerve, grabbing his spot in the 2nd round with a 5-4 win.
On the opening day, Shaun Murphy battled through 5-4 against Yu De Lu after being heavily tested by the Chinaman. The standard was very high throughout the match, but particularly at the start as Murphy took a 2-0 lead with breaks of 116 and 77. However, De Lu showed that he could do the same levelling at the interval with breaks of 80 and 72. Murphy won a tight 5th frame before De Lu levelled at 3-3 with a break of 55. Murphy regained the lead once more, before a break of 54 by De Lu forced the decider. The decider was a fairly tense affair, but a break of 60 from Murphy ensured that he didn't suffer an early exit and is through to the next round.
Also on day 1, John Higgins made top breaks of 100 and 107 in his 5-1 win over Mike Dunn, who had his chances, but failed to take them as the class of Higgins was too much for Dunn.
Mark Davis beat Ali Carter 5-2 earlier today to keep his superb running going. He made 2 centuries, a 122 and a 102 on the way to an early 3-0 advantage. Carter fought back though with breaks of 67 and 65 to reduce the deficit to just 3-2. Davis went 4-2 ahead in the next and took a tight seventh frame and booked his 2nd round spot against John Higgins with a 5-2 win.
Marco Fu whitewashed Cao Yupeng 5-0, and was on fine form with top breaks of 72, 74, 78 and 78 on the way to a very comfortable win. He is certainly one to watch again this week, as I said in my preview.
Barry Hawkins also had a whitewash of his own, thumping David Grace 5-0 with top breaks of 55, 70 and 107 to ensure that Grace's first ranking venue appearance wasn't a dream one.
Finally, Neil Robertson beat wildcard Wang Yuchen, who overcame Joe Perry in the wildcard round, 5-1 dominating the majority of the match, with highs of 122 and 73 to ensure his last 16 berth.
That's all from the first 2 days of the Shanghai Masters, with the 8 remaining first round matches being played tomorrow. (See my preview to view the opening round draw).
It's been a decent tournament so far, but has been overshadowed by, firstly Stephen Lee's guilty verdict in his match fixing case, being found guilty of fixing matches or part of 7 matches in total. I will blog on the whole case and decision after the Shanghai Masters has completed.
Meanwhile, the snooker world has also stopped today to hear Ronnie O'Sullivan steal the limelight by tweeting that many other players are involved in fixing, but refusing to name who. He later backtracked, but it was all too late by then, after World Snooker announced they would be investigating O'Sullivan's tweets.
Not a classic couple of days of Snooker, but hopefully action on the table can do the talking as the Shanghai Masters continues throughout the week. Hoping for some more quality snooker as in the rest of the event now. I'll be back tomorrow looking ahead to the Last 16.
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