In my efforts to spice up the blog and bring you a different angle on some of the best snooker events there are, i'm launching a new feature that I would like to call the "Stat Attack". Here I look ahead to, and will also look back on, upcoming and recent tournaments to give all of you statistical fans something to read over. There are all sorts of statistics that you can find on wonderful websites such as Cue Tracker and Snooker.Org but it's incredibly, that it's actually tough to pick out the ones that are going to be relevant to an upcoming tournament, and can either give you that extra insight ahead of an event or that small edge on the punting front.
With the Shanghai Masters, the first full ranking event since the beginning of July, starting on Monday here's some interesting facts and stats that I've picked out from those that can be found on the previously mentioned websites.
With the 8 wildcard matches to be played of course, only 8 last 32 matches are known in full, so that doesn't give me many head to head comparisons to look at.
One Last 32 that will take place on Monday sees John Higgins play Liang Wenbo. The pair have played 6 times previously, the last of which was at the 2015 Welsh Open, a tournament won by Higgins, and John has won every single won of their previous outings. The closest Wenbo has come to beating Higgins was at the 2012 World Championship when Higgins edged him out 10-9.
Another interesting head to head to look at is one between Ryan Day and Graeme Dott. The pair have met 8 times previously between 2004 and just last month at the Riga Open, a match won 4-0 by Dott. The 8 matches have been shared though 4-4, with Ryan's most notable win being in the 2007 Shanghai Masters when he overcame the Scot 6-2 to reach the final.
One head to head that may surprise a few people is that of the one between Mark Davis and Michael White. Despite Michael being the slightly higher ranked player, he's never beaten Mark in 7 professional meetings, something that the Welshman will be looking to put right on Wednesday.
When it comes to the actual tournament itself, the Shanghai Masters has been staged 8 times, with 8 different players winning it, while 3 of those 8 previous winners (Dale, Carter and O'Sullivan) are not in this weeks field.
Mark Selby has the strongest record in those 8 Shanghai Masters having added 4 semi-final losses to his 2011 title, whilst also being knocked out in the first round on two occasions. He's also won the most amount of prize money in the staging's of the Shanghai Masters winning £144,640, while John Higgins comes second with £133,775 and Stuart Bingham in third place with £130,795.
If you follow the statistic that no-one has won the Shanghai Masters twice, then you may be interested in knowing who's won the most money in the event without winning the title. Mark Williams leads this field with £81,070, followed by Ryan Day with £73,750 and Shaun Murphy with £73,625.
Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy has an interesting statistic to look out for, having played in 8 deciding frames at the final stages of the Shanghai Masters, and 12 in total if you include qualifiers, which is the most out of anyone in the events history.
When it comes to whitewashes, Shaun is also up there on that list strangely enough having whitewashed 4 opponents, which only Mark Selby can better having whitewashed 5 of his previous opponents.
Selby is up there once again when it comes to highest match win percentage in the Shanghai Masters where his is 73.08% from 26 played.
If you want an idea of how a player has been playing so far in a stop start season (because results don't tell you everything) here are a few niche stats about certain players.
After reaching the Paul Hunter Classic final, Shaun Murphy has made 14 breaks of between 70 and 79 this season, averaging 1 in every 5 frames he plays, showing that he's certainly picking up from his 2014/2015 form when it comes to heavy scoring.
It's not the same story for Stuart Bingham however, who in 6 knockout matches (excludes round robin matches of the 6 Red World Championships) has only won two of those, both of which came in the Riga Open. Something that the World Champion will be desperate to put right in the coming week.
Despite the quarter-finals being his best finish in an event so far at both the Paul Hunter Classic and Australian Open, Judd Trump has already made 9 century breaks at an average of 7.6 frames per century (excluding the 6 Reds where obviously a century is not possible.
1. That is the number of matches that Neil Robertson has played so far this season in ranking play after his Last 32 exit at his home event in July, meaning he hasn't played on the tour for 2 months.
Ding Junhui may have played in the 6 Reds this week, but in terms of tournaments counting towards his ranking, this of course is Ding's first of the season, so once again it'll be interesting to see how he goes.
Barry Hawkins has played in two European Tour events in his season so far, winning the Riga Open at the start of August. Along the way he's made 12 breaks of between 50 and 69 averaging one of those in every four frames he plays, showing that his scoring form is looking very nice indeed.
Tom Ford starts this week in the wildcard round, but he'll be buoyed by the fact that if that match, or any matches he goes on to play go down to the wire, he has a 100% win ratio in deciders this season so far, having won 4 out of 4.
Once again excluding the 6 reds from the count up, Matt Selt is putting more fuel in the tank of people calling him the "most improved player on the circuit" with runs to the last 8 in both Australia and Latvia leaving him with 10 wins from 13 matches played. Matt starts out this week against Ricky Walden.
Martin Gould will also be a dangerous opponent this week if he gets going like he did in Australia, having so far won 8 of his 10 matches played in the 2015/2016, averaging a break of 50+ in every 2.21 frames played, which is a rather impressive haul.
Michael Holt could well be a dangerous opponent for Stephen Maguire in round one. 9 match wins from 12 is his record in events counting to the money list so far this season. Don't be surprised if Holty matches his run of the 2013 Shanghai semi-finals.
Ricky Walden's form may be deceiving this season. So far he's only won 3 games out of 6 played, but all three of those losses were in final frame deciders, and baring that in mind, he's also made three breaks of 130 or above. The former Shanghai Master could have a big say in this weeks proceedings also.
Has your brain been overloaded yet? Good. In that case i'll be back with some more facts and figures specific to what we've seen, once the event has finished next Sunday. Otherwise, I've still got my main preview to come in the next day or two, and I hope you've all enjoyed my first running of the STAT ATTACK.
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