European Masters: Tournament Top Ten

Next Monday sees the start of the European Masters in Romania, one of the new ranking events that have been added to the calendar in the 2016/2017 snooker season. Starting the build up to the week is my tournament top ten blog which is certainly a harder one as this is a brand new event. Once again the contenders will be ranked based on some statistics that I have been working on, along with form from the five events this season so far, and the other two things I put into the generator this week were the last two years German Masters (a similar event played in a similar style arena to the one for this week, and over the last two years it too has taken 32 to the venue after the Last 64 and Last 128 rounds were played as qualifying rounds under the flat draw) and how many semi-finals or better a player had reached in the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons on the European Tour.

The statistics used to help develop this were: frames per 50+ break, average break when making 50 or above, close frame win percentage, quarter-finals or better since the start of 2014/2015 and average frame aggregate (calculated by average points scored per frame - average points conceded per frame).

So here's who, based on these factors, "should" be the players to watch next week in Romania.

10 - David Gilbert - David Gilbert sneaks into the tournament top ten this week thanks to his good results in the early season. A quarter-finalist at the World Open, he also reached the Last 16 in Riga and in Shanghai showing how much his game has improved over the last year. On the European Tour last season he reached a semi-final which also helped him onto the list. Statistically, he is fifth in this weeks field for average frame aggregate, demonstrating a decent consistency for average points scored per frame, and his heavy scoring as well as being second in the field this week for average break when making a 50 break or above this season.

9 - John Higgins -  John Higgins just leads Gilbert, with a similar season so far. Higgins too reached the World Open quarter-finals, as well as the Last 16 of the Riga Masters and Shanghai Masters. The difference being that he did not enter the Paul Hunter Classic and Indian Open where Gilbert did and exited early. Higgins did not have the best record on the European Tour over the two most recent seasons, or the last two years German Masters which has a similar format to this week now. In terms of statistics Higgins is third out of this weeks field for the average break when 50+. Higgins is also joint fourth in the field this week for most quarter-finals in ranking events since the start of the 2014/2015 season. However, he will have to up his results to get higher up the list.

8 - Mark Allen - Eighth on the list for this week is Mark Allen, who may not have played too much so far this season, but still reached the Last 16 of the Shanghai Masters and Paul Hunter Classic. Allen was one of the best players in 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 on the European Tour which with the shorter format could see him do well in Romania. His record in the last two years of the German Masters is average, He is also fifth out of this weeks field for average frames per 50 break or above, showing his good frequency of scoring. If he can keep that up this week then he will have a good chance of going far.

7 - Ronnie O'Sullivan - Ronnie O'Sullivan makes the tournament top ten list for Romania. Having not played much this season he did reach the Last 16 of the Shanghai Masters. Reaching the 2015 German Masters quarter-finals also helps his ranking on this list given the similarity between that event and the European Masters this week. O'Sullivan is also a past winner of the German Masters and seems to thrive in front of the big crowds in the big venues that we can expect in Romania.  

6 - Ali Carter - Ali Carter has been one of the form players so far this season, particularly in the Chinese events as the winner of the World Open and a quarter-finalist at the Shanghai Masters. That should stand Carter in good stead for this week, along with the fact that he is a former winner of the German Masters and a winner last season on the European Tour with the familiarity of those two events compared to this. One of the things the tournament top ten does not take into account is the draw, where Carter plays another form man Anthony McGill in the Last 32.

5 - Judd Trump - Making his way into the top half of the list is Judd Trump. Trump reached the quarter-finals in both the 2015 and 2016 German Masters and is a good performer in Europe overall where he reached a semi-final or better on the European Tour twice in the last two seasons before that Tour was scrapped. Starting the season, Trump had a disappointing Last 16 most recently at the Shanghai Masters (losing 5-3 from 3-0 up), but in the first event of the season he reached the Riga Masters quarter-finals. In terms of stats Trump is fourth out of this weeks field for average frame aggregate, with a very high average points scored per frame so far this season. On top of that he also leads the field in ranking quarter-finals since the start of the 2014/2015 season, which should hold him well for this week.

4 - Anthony McGill - Anthony McGill has been one of the most in form players of the season so far. He won his first ranking title at the Indian Open with quarter-finals at the Riga Masters and World Open either side of that victory. McGill has been a semi-finalist on the old European Tour between 2014/2015 and 2015/2016, and if he can get past Ali Carter in round one he should go well. McGill is also second out of this weeks field for average frames per 50+ break so far this season, and this frequency of scoring would also have helped his average frame aggregate which he leads the tour for this season, thanks to his brilliant average points scored per frame. McGill could be a big contender again in Romania.

3 - Neil Robertson - Another player who has been in top form at the start of the season is Neil Robertson. Robertson gets a podium place on the tournament top ten this week thanks to his win at the Riga Masters and a semi-final at the World Open. In the 2015 German Masters he narrowly lost out in the quarter-finals and has also been a semi-finalist at the Tempodrome in an event that could be a key indicator for this week. Statistically, the Australian has been one of the best this season so far too. Robertson is second on the average frame aggregate, while he leads out of the 32 in the field for average frames per 50+, as well as having a good record over the last two years in ranking events being second in this weeks field for making the quarter-finals or better in this period.

2 - Shaun Murphy - Just away from the top spot this week is Shaun Murphy who had a maximum 147 break in the second qualifying round for this event. Murphy has been in the quarter-finals this year at the World Open, and he lost out in the semi-finals at the Indian Open. Again, taking into account the German Masters which I believe to be a good indicator, Murphy was the runner-up there in 2015. He is also the best out of anyone in the field for reaching the semi-finals or better in the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 European Tour events with four semi-finals or better out of 12 events which is a fantastic record. In addition, the Magician is in joint fourth for quarter-finals or better in full ranking events over the same period. Murphy is third in the field for average frame aggregate this season which again has a correlation to the average frames per 50+ statistic where Murphy is fourth out of this weeks field. The maximum break in qualifying shows he is in decent form and could go very far this week.

1 - Mark Selby - It is not at all surprising to see World Champion Mark Selby at the top of this list after his fantastic start to the season. Selby was the runner-up to Ding Junhui at the Shanghai Masters after winning the Paul Hunter Classic. In terms of similar events to this one, it was Selby that beat Murphy in the 2015 German Masters final and he also had two semi-finals or better on the European Tour between 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. Plenty of things point to Selby this week, and he is third out of the field this week for ranking event quarter-finals from 2014/2015 onward. Selby has an extra match to play after having his Last 64 match held over, but that should have no difference this week and according to all of the indicators he should do very well in Romania.


The tournament top ten got off to a good start in Shanghai with number 2 on the list Ding Junhui (not in this weeks event) beating number 5 on the list Mark Selby in the final, so hopefully this bodes well for the rest of the season.

Next up on the blog will be the "Stat Attack" for the event, with my full preview to round things off at the weekend.

Fantasy Snooker: European Masters Update

It's very early on in the Fantasy Snooker season, so we have a quick reminder to get your two picks in before Monday's start of the European Masters. Don't forget that you can only pick the same player three times over the season, although we have a lot of different players in this 32 man field to the 32 man field that played in the Shanghai Masters.

Here's how the table shapes up after the Shanghai Masters:

1^st: Daniela Reich: Ding, Selby 78

1^st: Anthony: Selby, Ding 78

3^rd: Gary: Ding, Bingham 74

4^th: Phil Mudd: Ding, Trump 52

4^th: Isitan Bakar: Bingham, Maguire 52

4^th: Munraj: Ding, Trump 52

7^th: SnookerFollower: Bingham, Carter 45

8^th: Gorkem: O’Sullivan, Selby 38

9^th: Kellie Barker: Selby, Wilson 35

9^th: LTD: Wilson, Selby 35

11^th: Michael Coudray: Carter, Holt 34

12^th: FAM147: Bingham, Perry 29

12^th: TungstenDarts: Perry, Bingham 29

12^th: Kjetil: Wenbo, Bingham 29

12^th: Mark Taylor: Robertson, Bingham 29

12^th: TYIO: Gould, Bingham 29

17^th: Andrew Brooker: Wilson, Maguire 25

18^th: Igor: Murphy, Carter 16

18^th: Matthew Lowson: Murphy, Carter 16

20^th: Ezgi Ulutas: Wilson, Robertson 2 

I have put the players picked into the table for this year because of the change of rules, so you will all know who you have picked and how many times over the season. 

The deadline for picks for the European Masters is before the first matches on the Monday morning, good luck once again and enjoy yourselves. 

Ding and Selby to renew battle in Shanghai final

Mark Selby and Ding Junhui will meet for the first time since the World Championship final after reaching the final in Shanghai.

World Champion Selby took the tough route into the final after a very up and done match against Stuart Bingham. Breaks of 76 and 65 helped him to a nice 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval, but in a similar way to his matches against Ryan Day and Stuart Carrington in the last couple of rounds he failed to kick on. Bingham in fact found his best game in the next four frames with runs 67, a match high of 123, followed by a 72 and 87 to turn the match on it's head and take a 5-3 lead, putting him one away from a second Shanghai final in three years. Determined as ever Selby fought back into it by taking the ninth frame, and he dominated the tenth with breaks of 63 and 68 to force a deciding frame. Bingham did not really have a chance in the eleventh and final frame as Selby completed another trademark comeback and will now attempt to add to his 2011 Shanghai Masters title tomorrow against Ding.

Ding Junhui is of course the 2013 Shanghai Masters champion which means that in the tenth staging of this tournament we will finally have the first two time winner. Stephen Maguire was his semi-final opponent with his own agenda of attempting to make the final and knock Michael Holt out of the fourth and final place on the one-year list reserved for the new China Championship (which will follow the International Championship at the beginning of November and feature the world's top 10 on a two year list, the top four on the money list from the season so far and two Chinese invites). After the opening four frames the pair were all square at 2-2 and then Maguire made a 58 before Ding matched him in the sixth to level the tie up again at 3-3. From there it was all about the home favourite. Despite a chance or two for Maguire, Ding took the next three frames and turn a tight game into a simple enough 6-3 victory without shredding his nerves as much as Selby always seems too.

Final Schedule: 

Sessions at 7am and 12.30pm UK time: 

Mark Selby Vs Ding Junhui

The final steps it up being over the best-of-19 frames and it is over these long formats that Selby seems more comfortable knowing, as he did today against Bingham, that he could lose a few frames in a row and be dominated for a large period of the match and still get over the line. It's hard to compare it to the World final, given that it was Ding's first and the nerves took over as he got off to an awful start and was never quite able to catch up. On this occasion I think the pair will go blow for blow and this could go all the way with neither one being at their very best this week. The key could once more be the scrappy frames where Selby is a cut above the rest.

Following Shanghai is the European Masters qualifying rounds which will see 32 travel to the venue the week after, with the International Championship qualifiers falling in a few days in between.

Numbers 1 and 2 to face off in Shanghai

World number one and World Champion Mark Selby will face 2014 Shanghai champion and second ranked player Stuart Bingham in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters tomorrow.

Meanwhile, 2013 champion and home favourite Ding Junhui will play the form man of the week in Stephen Maguire who has only dropped four frames in winning his wildcard match, and then beating Shaun Murphy, Barry Hawkins and Michael White.

Maguire's win was not as clear cut today in terms of high breaks but he was still on hot form, with both 50+ breaks he made coming in the fifth frame on the way to what was a routine victory. Michael White's only frame of the day was the third frame, as he was unable to replicate the heroics of his 5-3 from 0-3 behind in the Last 16 against Judd Trump. 

Ding Junhui had quite the battle with Michael Holt as both players were in good form once again. Ding opened up with a 52 on the way to taking a 2-0 advantage before Holt, who had already beaten defending champion Kyren Wilson and crowd favourite Ronnie O'Sullivan this week, hit back with runs of 77 and 50 to level the match at 2-2 going into the mid-session interval. The Chinese number one edged ahead again with a run of 103 in the third, only to be pegged back again in the sixth as Holt made a 64 with Ding failing to be ruthless with his earlier chance. Ding edged back in front at 4-3 after shutting the Hitman out of frame seven and Holt blew his chance to clear and force a decider in the eighth missing a black that was not quite as simple as he made it sound in his post-match tweet describing his "shock" at the miss. 

Earlier on in the day, Stuart Bingham won a lacklustre affair with another former winner of this title in Ali Carter. Neither player was quite at their best, but Bingham was a way better than Carter who's only frame of the day came after Bingham went in-off in the black ball third frame. The highlight of the 2015 World champion's 5-1 win was a 91 break in the fifth frame to put him a frame away from victory and really fly away from the Captain in this match. 

Mark Selby was made to work hard in the other quarter-final as he saw off Ryan Day 5-3 in what was also far from a classic battle. Selby took an early 3-1 lead into the interval after winning a tight frame four and making his highest break of the match (52) in the opener, while Day's high came in the third with a 98 that kept him from falling too far behind early on. Frame five also came down to the wire but when Selby put it on the board for a 4-1 advantage it looked all over for the Welshman yet, despite chances in both frames six and seven for Selby, Day took them both and edged back into it at 3-4. Selby did take another scrappy eighth frame though to eventually seal victory. 

Semi-Final Schedule: 

7am UK Time: 

Mark Selby Vs Stuart Bingham 

12.30pm UK Time: 

Ding Junhui Vs Stephen Maguire 

We have an earlier start time for the afternoon session's semi-final as Stuart Bingham and Mark Selby, despite being world numbers one and two, meet for the first time in nearly three years. The record between the two of them is fairly even and there is little to choose between their form this week so far. Selby has been made to work slightly harder in the last couple of rounds with a couple of 5-3 wins from positions where he could have won with a lot less hassle. Bingham may not have looked at his very best against Ali Carter today but he still did enough to get the job done by a comfortable margin and after a very good performance in the first round he has still only dropped three frames in his three matches so far. 

Ding Junhui and Stephen Maguire's match is the one that looks like being the higher quality battle as both have played well and scored well so far this week. Ding may have looked shaky against Scott Donaldson but he has played his way into the event well since then while Maguire has been the player to impress the most so far this week in the opinions of many and he is well overdue a ranking event title given how good a player he is. 

The semi-finals tomorrow move up to the best-of-11 frames as the players compete for a coveted place in the final. 

Hitman Holt smashes O'Sullivan

Michael Holt was the star of the Last 16 in the Shanghai Masters as he defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan for the second time in 2016, by a 5-2 scoreline on this occasion. Holt has been growing in confidence throughout the last year and after beating O'Sullivan 4-3 in the World Grand Prix he would have had the belief to repeat the dosage. After taking the opener he lost the next two to fall 1-2 behind before hitting back with a break of 103 to level the match going into the mid-session. A 57 following the interval helped him back into the lead, and after a simple missed black from the Rocket - seeing him whack his cue on the table - Holt dished up to double his lead. Ronnie started frame seven with a 55 before missing another easy ball, and the Nottingham potter picked up the pieces with a very nice break of 64 to clinch the match and put himself into the quarter-finals.

Home favourite Ding Junhui will face Holt tomorrow after his own 5-2 victory over Mark Allen. It was Allen that took the opener courtesy of a 69 break, but upon levelling the match up Ding then hit his Northern Irish opponent with a barrage of breaks. Runs of 54 and 86 in the next two saw to putting the 2013 Shanghai winner 3-1 ahead at the interval, and that lead stretched to 4-1 after another 50 in the fifth. He was looking good in the sixth but after faltering on 56, Allen made a 64 to keep himself in it. He was not in it for much longer though with a 58 helping Ding along in the seventh before he ultimately finished things off.

There was a big comeback on the day, with Michael White coming from 3-0 behind with five straight frames to beat Judd Trump 5-3. White only scored 28 points as Trump took the three frame lead in very quick fashion helped by runs of 56 and 64. The next five frames did not come without chances for Trump on this non-televised table. He scored at least 27 points or more but could not convert, and the most disappointing frame for Trump would have been the seventh as White came from 56 points adrift with a break of 57 to win the frame by a point and move ahead for the first time, before taking another scrappy frame and sealing a pleasing victory.

Elsewhere on the outside tables in the later session in Shanghai Ali Carter got his second victory of the season against John Higgins. After already beating Higgins 5-0 in China this season, the eventual World Open champion was looking for more of the same and started well by taking a 2-0 lead, which soon extended to 4-1 after the interval. Higgins kept himself in the match for a while, but eventually fell 5-2 after a 67 in the last from Carter.

Stuart Bingham will be his opponent in the quarter-finals after he won 5-2 on the non-televised table earlier on in the day against David Gilbert. It appeared to be a match where both players had chances, and one of the key frames could have been the second as Bingham stole it on the black to take an early 2-0 lead. That lead stretched to 4-1 with Bingham's highest break of the match, a 68, after the mid-session and there was little danger of a Gilbert comeback as he soon completed victory in the seventh.

After thumping Shaun Murphy 5-0 on Wednesday, Stephen Maguire carried on his fine form in this tournament by beating Barry Hawkins 5-3. Technical difficulties in the World Snooker live scoring for this match left everyone scrapping around trying to find out the score, while Maguire was busy putting himself 4-1 ahead. Hawkins did not give up though making breaks of 72 and 66 in reducing his arrears to just one at 4-3. The Scotsman kept his composure and made a 91 (his highest break of the match) to get across the line.

The World Champion did not have things all his own way against Stuart Carrington eventually crossing the line a 5-3 winner. Breaks of 73, 87 and 120 helped him to a 3-1 lead at the mid-session interval and at this stage he looked very comfortable. Carrington made 73 in the fifth to close the gap but Selby opened that gap up again to put himself one away, and had a chance to seal the match in the seventh but his lower ranked opponent took a tight one to stay in it. Carrington had chances again in the eighth but could not take Selby to a decider as he eventually fell over the line.

Selby will now have another test against Ryan Day in the quarter-finals. Day beat the lowest ranked player remaining in Mei Xi Wen 5-2 to clinch his last eight spot in a performance that included two centuries, and three frames in a row after the mid-session break to shrug off his Chinese opponent.

Quarter-Final Line-up: 
7.30am UK Time:

Stuart Bingham Vs Ali Carter
Mark Selby Vs Ryan Day

12.30pm UK Time:

Ding Junhui Vs Michael Holt
Stephen Maguire Vs Michael White


With eight players remaining, there are still four former Shanghai Masters winners in the draw hoping to be the first players to win the title more than once. Three of those are found in one half of the draw, with Bingham and Carter playing each other in what will be there third meeting of the year so far. Carter won the previous two at the World Championships and on the way to winning the World Open. Neither player has yet had a close game, and both look to be in decent form ahead of this one. Mark Selby is the other Shanghai Master in that half, but after struggling to kill off Stuart Carrington today he will hope to be more clinical against Ryan Day if given the chance. Day has a good record in Shanghai himself being a former finalist and he has already seen off Neil Robertson this week so there is no reason why he cannot pull off another big win.

Ding Junhui is the other previous winner of this event, but he plays a man in Michael Holt who has already sent two former winners packing in Ronnie O'Sullivan and defending champion Kyren Wilson. Perhaps, after reaching the final of the Riga Masters in the early season, it is time for Holt to kick on and finally win a full ranking event title. Ding looked in much better form today than in his tight match with Scott Donaldson on Monday though, and on his home patch he is never a push over despite some of his hit and miss form in Chinese events.

Finally, we have a battle between two players who had to come through qualifying to reach this stage. Stephen Maguire has been in fine form already making a maximum this week in the wildcard round and seeing off two seeded players by whitewashing Murphy and beating Hawkins today so he will certainly take some stopping. Michael White has not necessarily been at his best but was able to grind out a couple of results, but if his opponent carries on the way he has been so far he will need to be at his best to get through.


All matches in the quarter-finals are again over the best-of-9 frames.

On fire Maguire whitewashes Murphy

Stephen Maguire put in the performance of the Last 32 on day three of the Shanghai Masters as he smashed Shaun Murphy 5-0. Maguire had made a maximum in his wildcard match on Tuesday amongst a total of three centuries in that match, so Murphy was always in for a tough game but not many would have seen this scoreline coming. Maguire took the opener after a classy 65, but Murphy's best chance of getting a frame on the board came in frame two when he was in first with an 57. Maguire then made 62 but missed frame ball pink, before clinching the frame at the second time of asking. Breaks of 75 and 121 followed from the Scot without conceding a point in those two frames ahead of the interval. Maguire could be forgiven for taking his foot off the gas slightly in frame five, but you could also forgive Murphy for thinking of the journey home and seeing his wife and son, after becoming a father for the first time little over a couple of weeks ago.

Barry Hawkins will be next to face the Maguire barrage after handing out punishment of his own for Robert Milkins in his own 5-0 win. Despite the scoreline Milkins scored at least 20 points in every frame, and Hawkins will need to offer up less opportunities to his in form opponent tomorrow.

Also on the non-televised tables today there were a couple of seeded casualties as Mark Williams and Joe Perry both bowed out. Williams was the most surprising as he fell to new Chinese professional Mei Xi Wen 5-3, having taken a 2-0 lead and sitting well in frame three. Mei joins Ding as the Chinese representatives in the Last 16, finishing off the match with a 117, his highest break of the match. Perry lost out to Stuart Carrington in a strange match that saw Carrington go 2-0 ahead before losing four frames in a row for Perry to lead 4-2 and put himself one away from a routine victory. Carrington had other ideas though as the World Open runner-up from July only scored another seven points in the match, with breaks of 78, 85 and a century in the decider seeing the much lower ranked of the two into the Last 16.

Neil Robertson was the upset of the earlier session on day three, going out 5-2 to Ryan Day in a match that, surprisingly for two heavy scorers, did not feature a single break of 50 or above. Day will not mind the lower quality of the match though as he marches on to face Mei Xi Wen in the Last 16.

There were easy victories for three more seeded players on the day, as Trump and Bingham completed whitewash victories and Ali Carter beat Kurt Maflin 5-1 on one of the non-televised tables, finishing off the Norwegian with a break of 104. Trump benefited from a very poor showing from Ben Woollaston, while Bingham didn't give Jamie Jones much of a look in. The Welshman only scored a total of 36 points in the match while the 2015 World Champion and former Shanghai Master finished with two centuries in frames four and five in a very pleasing performance.


With the Last 32 finally complete, this is how the line-up looks for Thursday's Last 16:

7.30am UK Time: 

Barry Hawkins Vs Stephen Maguire
Stuart Bingham Vs David Gilbert
Ryan Day Vs Mei Xi Wen (Televised Table)
Mark Selby Vs Stuart Carrington (Televised Table)

12.30pm UK Time: 

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Michael Holt (Televised Table)
Mark Allen Vs Ding Junhui (Televised Table)
Judd Trump Vs Michael White
John Higgins Vs Ali Carter


An odd decision to put the Mei Xi Wen match on TV despite the obvious home bias. Former winner Bingham will have a tough test from David Gilbert in a match that should be of high quality based on both making two centuries in their first round wins. Carrington showed today he will be no push over for the World Champion Mark Selby. Stephen Maguire will take serious stopping based on his Last 32 and wildcard round showings, so Barry Hawkins will be well up against it there.

Michael Holt beat Ronnie O'Sullivan the last time they met in March's Grand Prix so the former Shanghai champion cannot afford to be rusty as he was in the first round against Liang Wenbo, especially with Holt showing decent form in beating the defending champion Kyren Wilson. Ding Junhui and Mark Allen has all the makings of a close match with their good records in Shanghai, while Allen was particularly impressive in beating the early season's form man Anthony McGill. Judd Trump picked up the pieces well against a sloppy Ben Woollaston, so Michael White will want to be on fine form rather than the sloppy player that has been seen too much over the last year. Finally, John Higgins and Ali Carter will meet for the fourth time in a year, Carter winning the most recent match 5-0 on the way to the World Open title in July. Prior to that Higgins won two in quick succession at the 2015 Champion of Champions followed by the UK Championship just a week or two afterwards.

All Last 16 matches are once again played over the best-of-9 frames.

Rusty Ronnie sees off Wenbo

Ronnie O'Sullivan may have appeared a little shaky in his first competitive match of the 2016/2017 season, yet he was still able to come back from 4-1 down to see off one of the home favourites Liang Wenbo 5-4. Despite an 86 in the second frame, O'Sullivan was 4-1 down after a series of scrappier frames went the way of his Chinese opponent. Wenbo did not see much of the next two frames, scoring one point across them as his lead was cut to 4-3. A chance came along in frame eight but he could not take it and O'Sullivan capitalised to force the decider. Once more, the former Shanghai Masters champion was dominant in the decisive frame, making a 56 break that helped him over the line and into the Last 16 despite a major scare from Liang.

He will face Michael Holt in Thursday's Last 16 after the Nottingham potter avenged his Last 16 defeat against defending champion Kyren Wilson from Wilson's triumphant 2015 run. The opener was a scrappy one but Holt came out on top and then made a swift 69 to double his advantage. He had led the third frame for much of the lengthy proceedings but Wilson, aided by some good fortune, was able to get his first frame on the board. Tactical frames either side of the interval fell to Holt and put him 4-1 ahead and one away from victory. Wilson was going to fight hard as always though, and a 101 break in the sixth kept him in it, yet Holt shined through with a 101 of his own to seal an impressive 5-2 victory.

Stephen Maguire was on fire during his wildcard round match today, making a maximum break in the third frame on the way to a 5-0 victory. This was the Scot's third 147 in professional competition, and was one of three centuries on the day, the perfect warm-up for his Last 32 match with Shaun Murphy tomorrow. Kurt Maflin, Ryan Day and Stuart Carrington each came through 5-1 in their wildcard matches on day two in Shanghai. Maflin will now play Ali Carter tomorrow in the Last 32, while Day will take on Neil Robertson and Carrington faces up to Joe Perry.

Indian Open champion Anthony McGill was whitewashed in the Last 32 by Mark Allen, the Northern Irishman hoping to better loses in the semi-final and final in the last two years at the Shanghai Masters, and getting off to the best possible start with high breaks of 53 and 55.

In the fourth Last 32 match of the day, World Champion Mark Selby saw off 16 year old wildcard Yuan Sijun, who beat Martin Gould 5-0 yesterday, by a 5-1 scoreline. Selby's performance featured high breaks of 52 and 76, while Yuan made a century in the single frame that he won on the day.

Wednesday will see the completion of the Last 32 with the eight remaining games, with all eight Last 16 games being played on Thursday.

Yuan for the future shines in Shanghai

Yuan Sijun was once again a major surprise on the opening day of the Shanghai Masters as he whitewashed Martin Gould for the second time in 2016 in the wildcard round. The first of those 5-0 victories came in the Last 64 of the China Open at the back end of March and was a massive shock to a large majority of people, with Gould having only just won his maiden ranking title at the German Masters the month before and he came into the tournament as the 14th seed. This time around Gould was the 17th seed but there was no let up from Yuan, who only had his 16th birthday in May between these two meetings.

Despite his young age it has been nearly four years since his debut in professional competition as a 12 year old in an Asian Tour event where he lost out 4-0 to Barry Hawkins. A year later he was taking four frames off of Jimmy White in the International Championship wildcard round, but featuring in all of the Asian Tour events and wildcard rounds of Chinese ranking events of the 2013/2014 season he was picking up more valuable experience. Less of Yuan was seen the following season, but it was in 2015/2016 when he started to pick up some attention. First he featured in the 6 Reds tournament, and secured 1 win in the group stage against John Higgins. March's China Open was the scene of his first two victories in professional competition, beating Andrew Higginson in the wildcard round before whitewashing Gould for the first time. Now fresh from a Last 16 appearance in the 6 Reds featuring victories over Mark Williams and a 6-0 defeat of James Wattana in the first knockout round he is clearly still building in confidence and proving a handful.

Today's victory against Gould saw him open up with breaks of 111 and 65, and as more valuable experience he will feature tomorrow on one of the two televised tables against the World Champion Mark Selby. Yuan Sijun is name we will surely hear a lot more of in snookers future.


Elsewhere today Anthony McGill, Michael Holt and Liang Wenbo avoided shock defeats of their own by winning their respective matches. Hu Hao offered a test for Liang ahead of a much bigger one that faces him tomorrow against Ronnie O'Sullivan, while Michael Holt will now play defending champion Kyren Wilson in their third Shanghai Masters meeting. Indian Open champion Anthony McGill will face former Shanghai finalist Mark Allen in the other Last 32 match that will feature in Tuesday's play, while the remaining four wildcard round matches featuring Kurt Maflin, Stuart Carrington, Ryan Day and Stephen Maguire will also take place.

Today's four first round matches saw three deciding frames and two victories for the lower ranked players. Michael White played out a close match with Ricky Walden, despite getting up an early lead of 3-1 courtesy of a pre-interval century break of 113. Following that break Walden made contributions of 53 and a trademark "something out of nothing" 62 that he always seems to pop up with, on the way to levelling the contest at 3-3. White edged ahead again thanks to his second century, but Walden hit back once more with a mis-cue on 98 denying him a century but doing enough to force the deciding frame. The Welshman took the lead early, only for his higher ranked opponent to hit back before a vital error allowed White to leave Walden requiring three snookers. That was nowhere near the end of contest as a comedy of errors followed. First a failed escape left Walden a free ball from which he could clear and win, only to miss the black from said free ball. Another much more elementary miss out of a snooker gave him a second go but after taking two pinks, he missed the final red and that was the last critical mistake that he would have a chance to make, as the only thing left for Ricky Walden is an early flight home.

In the other early session match David Gilbert made a superb comeback from 3-0 and 4-2 down to beat send Marco Fu out in the first round of the Shanghai Masters for the third year in succession. Fu had a century and a further break of 79 on the way to making it 3-0, before Gilbert made centuries either side of the interval to get back in the match at 2-3, Fu edged further clear but had to watch Gilbert clear the colours to take a vital frame seven keeping the Englishman in the hunt. Another frame followed to make it 4-4, but Fu would not score another point as Gilbert made breaks of 47 and 50 in the decider to seal victory.

Later on in the day, John Higgins and Ding Junhui both overturned 3-1 interval deficits to forge their paths into the Last 16. Higgins made a couple of trademark clearances in his victory over Matt Selt who had enough chances to win but saw the opportunity slip through his fingers as four frames in a row that included a century from Higgins made sure it was he that crossed the line a 5-3 winner.

Long time home favourite Ding had his troubles facing the lowest ranked player to make the venue stages in Shanghai in Scott Donaldson. Donaldson saw his 3-1 lead vanish with Ding levelling at 3-3 quickly after the mid-session break. The Scotsman did hit back by taking a close seventh frame to regain his lead at 4-3, Chances came and went in the last couple of frames, with a missed black in the final frame that will haunt him on his long flight home and Ding was able to pick the pieces and make his way into the Last 16 a 5-4 winner.

Shanghai Masters Preview

Monday morning sees the return of big time snooker to the TV with the start of the Shanghai Masters, one of the longer running and best supported tournaments on the calendar these days. It marks the beginning of a period on the calendar that sees a lot of snooker coming between now and the Christmas break.

Still under the old contract this is now one of the rare events that sees the top 16 seeds enter the draw at the Last 32 stage after everyone else has played in the qualifying stages. 11 of the 16 qualifiers that came through were ranked between 17 and 32, meaning they only had to play one qualifying match, whilst the likes of Kurt Maflin, Jamie Jones and Stuart Carrington had to play three qualifiers and Scott Donaldson and Mei Xi Wen came through four games. 

One of the downsides to the old system however is the addition to the draw of eight Chinese wildcard players, instead of the four wildcards that we have become accustomed to for the other Chinese events on the calendar. It all seems very strange that large amounts of wildcards are required to boost one of the strongest fields we will see all season but that's the way the contract works. 

Looking at the Eurosport TV schedules, it looks like they are going to screen all of this event on the TV. There have been teething problems with the new Eurosport deal that oddly saw the Paul Hunter Classic confined to the Eurosport Player. Meanwhile, in previous years Eurosport have showed the first six days of the tournament and then neglected to show the final leaving many dissatisfied fans in their wake. 

The good news for this event is that Ronnie O'Sullivan has decided to enter and start his season slightly earlier than we would all have expected. You have to say that the event will get more coverage than it would have done as a result. He could certainly have some interesting games if he is to go far in a star-studded draw. 

Quarter 1 

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold) 

Kyren Wilson Vs Michael Holt/Xu Si

Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Liang Wenbo/Hu Hao

Ding Junhui Vs Scott Donaldson

Mark Allen Vs Anthony McGill/Chen Zifan 

This has to be the toughest quarter in what is a very tough draw from top to bottom. Defending champion Kyren Wilson had a good start to the season by making the Indian Open final and ranked third in my "Tournament Top Ten" list (link at bottom of post) which would suggest he could be a major contender this week. If Michael Holt, Liang Wenbo and Anthony McGill come through their respective wildcard round matches then each could be very dangerous dark horses in this section. Holt made the semi-finals here in 2013, and saw off a seed to make the Last 16 in the two years since then. On top of that Holt has started the season by reaching the final of the Riga Masters showing the improvements in his game over the last year. Meanwhile, you will struggle to find many players who have started the season as well as McGill. A victory at the Indian Open was sandwiched in between good finishes at the World Open and Riga Masters and he is starting to show what he's made of more consistently.

Mark Allen has only played one tournament this season, losing a tight Last 16 match to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh at the Paul Hunter Classic, but a semi-final and runner-up finishes in the last two Shanghai Masters show how dangerous he could be if he gets past a tough first round match. Of course Ronnie O'Sullivan is yet to play a tournament since the World Championship but has certainly been keeping himself warm with the exhibition series that he has been doing with Judd Trump. It is still to be expected that O'Sullivan will not be at his peak best from the start and take a tournament or two to reach his highest heights. The quarter choice here is Ding Junhui the 2013 Shanghai Masters champion. Ding is very hit and miss when it comes to the Chinese tournaments but this does appear to be one he performs very well in. Following the success of three years ago he has followed up with a semi-final loss to eventual winner Stuart Bingham and last year he lost a very close quarter-final on the black to eventual winner Kyren Wilson. After a good run at the end of last season that included making a first Crucible final, so he should be full of confidence. 

Quarter Choice: Ding Junhui

Quarter 2

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold) 

Judd Trump Vs Ben Woollaston

Ricky Walden Vs Michael White 

Barry Hawkins Vs Robert Milkins

Shaun Murphy Vs Stephen Maguire/Wildcard TBA

The second quarter of the draw is where we find new father Shaun Murphy who has the big life adjustment that players like Mark Selby and Ricky Walden have made in the last couple of seasons and both struggled for form in the couple of months following that. In the long term though, Selby won two ranking events later on in the season that he became a father and Walden made back to back ranking finals. Murphy does have a tough draw this week but he will still have high hopes of performing well after a strong start to the season in the World and Indian Open's and took a lot of confidence thanks to a Grand Prix victory and Players Championship semi-final at the back end of last season when he felt he was back to his best. Speaking of Ricky Walden he is a former champion in Shanghai and someone that the eye is always drawn to in the draw for a Chinese event such is the fact that his record seems to be so much better in Asia than in the UK and the rest of Europe. Barry Hawkins has been struggling for a while in all honesty and steadily been dropping the rankings without much of a signal that he could stem the tide. Of the qualifiers Stephen Maguire is the one to look to for a dark horse, because it still does not seem right that he has fallen out of the top 16 in the world rankings because he is a much better player than that suggests.

The second quarter choice though is a twice Shanghai Masters runner-up Judd Trump. Trump has been keeping his eye in over the summer with the six best-of-11 match exhibition series against Ronnie O'Sullivan, three of which it is worth pointing out have been in the last two weeks. The Ace could easily have won either of his Shanghai finals against Kyren Wilson last year (losing 10-9) or against John Higgins in another tight 2012 final. Trump is another who seems to perform very well in China, winning his second China Open earlier this year in Beijing as well as winning the inaugural International Championship. He has reached more full ranking event quarter-finals than anyone else since the start of the 2014/2015 season, so it is about time that Trump became the winning machine that most expected him to become by now.   

Quarter Choice: Judd Trump

Quarter 3 

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold) 

Stuart Bingham Vs Jamie Jones 

Marco Fu Vs David Gilbert 

Ali Carter Vs Kurt Maflin/Guan Zhen 

John Higgins Vs Matt Selt

The third quarter sees another three former Shanghai Masters champions. Ali Carter added to his ranking event tally in July with another victory on Chinese soil over at the World Open, getting him back up into the top 16 where he belongs. It is obviously a big ask for Carter to win again so soon afterwards but there is no reason why he cannot go far this week. Stuart Bingham took the crown here in 2014 in the same season as he won the World Championship, however he has not won another title in the 16 months since then. When you are slightly overdue a tournament victory it must be nice to go back to somewhere where you have performed well and besides his 2014 victory he put up a valiant 2015 defence making the the semi-finals. With Marco Fu only getting past the first round in Shanghai once since 2009 the heavily improved David Gilbert becomes someone that is to be watched even more closely as a dark horse. When looking at and working on some of my own numbers for the "Stat Attack" (see link at the bottom of the post) Gilbert came out very close to the top 5 for the early season in average contribution when making a break of 50+ and in close frames win percentage. Gilbert has always been a heavy scorer but not always someone who had the confidence to grind out results when that scoring was not turned on, but he seems to have grown greatly in confidence since Last October when he made the International Championship final, and has started the season with a quarter-final in the World Open (both played in China of course). Gilbert is not just one to watch for the possibility of a big performance not just this week but throughout the season as well. 

Having said all of that, the selection in this quarter is 2012 Shanghai Master John Higgins. Higgins seems to be flourishing into his 40's as a snooker player. After winning this event in September 2012 it took him until February 2015 and the Welsh Open to win another ranking event but in the months that followed he won two more in Australia and then the International Championships last October. His recent record in big events is a very good one. In China, other than his International win he has had a semi-final at the China Open and a quarter-final at the World Open in July. Add to that quarter-finals in the most recent World and UK Championships and you get an incredible player who has been in fine form for a year now and well capable of winning plenty more events.

Quarter Choice: John Higgins 

Quarter 4

Last 32 Draw: (Picks in Bold) 

Neil Robertson Vs Ryan Day/Ma Bing

Mark Williams Vs Mei Xi Wen

Joe Perry Vs Stuart Carrington/Niu Zhuang

Mark Selby Vs Martin Gould/Yuan Sijun

The very final quarter is where we find the World Champion and 2011 Shanghai Master Mark Selby. Selby has a pretty good record in Shanghai, but there are not many places where he does not. It was not a long wait for his first title as a two time Crucible winner when he took the top prize at the Paul Hunter Classic at the end of August but his draw this week is not an easy one, as much as you can never, ever write off Selby. The interesting question for Martin Gould, Selby's potential first round opponent, is if can he get through the wildcard match? Normally with a player of Gould's class you would not give the wildcard the time of day, but something must stick in your mind when you lost 5-0 to the same player just a few months ago. Yuan Sijun does indeed look like the most talented of the wildcards on display this week. Joe Perry was the runner-up at the season's opening Chinese ranking tournament, and his confidence is only going in one direction after another good year on the baize. The weight and frequency with which he scored in the latter stages of the World Open was sublime and if he could repeat that this week he would be right up there again, yet that is a very big ask. Of the qualifiers in this section Ryan Day has to be a big dark horse if he can find his best form, but that is something the Welshman has done nowhere near often enough for the talents he possesses.

The final quarter choice though is Day's Last 32 opponent Neil Robertson. Robertson has started the season in fine style by winning the Riga Masters and reaching the semi-finals of the World Open, which are the only two events that he has entered so far. He is by far the heaviest and most frequent scorer on tour in my opinion and when all of the players currently in the game are at their very best he is one of, if not the very best there is. The Shanghai Masters has not been an event he has actually excelled in over the years but there is no real reason for this because he now has a decent record in the other Chinese events. He won the old Wuxi Classic back to back in 2013 and 2014 as well as winning the 2013 China Open and then reaching the final the next year as defending champion. The sense from the start he has had that this could be a very big season for the Australian, which will continue here. 

Quarter Choice: Neil Robertson

Winner Selection: Judd Trump

That completes the analysis ahead of the Shanghai Masters and it's time to let the players do the talking in looks like being a week of quality snooker. 

If you have missed anything, here are some of the links to other posts on the Shanghai Masters. 

Starting off on Wednesday with a new feature the "Tournament Top Ten" with stats, spreadsheets and a subtle points system that led to the ranking of this weeks leading contenders and who would win if the whole thing was just played on paper: 

http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/shanghai-masters-annisons-analysis.html 

Next up was the return of the "Stat Attack" which went into more detail with some of the statistics used in the tournament top ten and focused more on some niche stats and head to heads before the coming week: 

http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/shanghai-masters-stat-attack.html 

Finally, the entries are already flooding in but do not forget to enter my Fantasy Snooker competition for the 2016/2017 season, with all the details and a rules change for this system explained in the post: 

http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/20152016-fantasy-snooker-league.html 

The blog will be updated in the coming week with all the news, results and major performances from Shanghai, of which there should be plenty. 

Shanghai Masters: STAT ATTACK

As the season really gets going it's time for the return of a feature that debuted for this event last year - the "Stat Attack".

Once again most of the statistics you will see in this blog come from the fantastic CueTracker.net and Snooker.org resources and we cannot really thank them enough for the hard work they put into their websites.

On top of that we have a few statistics that you will have seen mentioned in my "Tournament Top Ten" blog that I have been collating and working on for use in these types of blogs. All statistics that will be used in these blogs have relevance in telling you how players perform in the key aspects of the game of snooker, how they perform in this event or how they shape up against their early round opponents. 

HEAD TO HEAD 

- When Ricky Walden meets Michael White in round one, White will be hoping to get only his second victory against Walden, with his only one to date being in the final of the Indian Open in 2015

- Barry Hawkins and Robert Milkins who also meet in the Last 32 stages will play only their second competitive match outside of the Championship League since 2003. The most recent meeting since then was in the Players Championship finals in March which Hawkins won 4-3.

- Surprisingly the match between Jamie Jones and Stuart Bingham will see them meet for the first time outside of the Snooker Shoot-Out (which produced meetings in 2012 and 2015).

- One match catches the eye in the Wildcard Round as Martin Gould was drawn to play Yuan Sijun. In one previous meeting, Yuan beat Gould 5-0 in the 2016 China Open.

- If Michael Holt gets through his wildcard match he will face Kyren Wilson for the third time in Shanghai. Wilson saw off Holt 5-1 in the Last 16 on the way to taking the title a year ago, while Holt was the victor when they met in the quarter-finals in 2013.

- Interestingly, if Stephen Maguire comes through the wildcard he will meet Shaun Murphy which may provide a good omen for Murphy if he comes out the winner. The last three times he has beaten Maguire he has gone on to win the tournament (2015 Masters, 2014 Bulgarian Open, 2014 Gdynia Open) and he has also done this on two further occasions in the past (2008 UK Championship, 2008 Malta Cup). 

SHANGHAI MASTERS STATS

- The 2016 Shanghai Masters is the tenth staging of this event, with the nine previous editions providing nine different winners of the title. Only 2007 champion Dominic Dale of those nine has not qualified last year so there is a chance that could come to an end. 

- Stuart Bingham has won more money from the Shanghai Masters than any other player, whilst Mark Selby, Ding Junhui and John Higgins follow closely behind him.

- Mark Williams has collected the most prize money in Shanghai Masters history of the players never to have actually won the title, falling seventh on the overall list. Judd Trump's two runner-up showings have earned him the second most in this regard, putting him ninth on the overall list. 

- Ryan Day has the highest win percentage of players never to have won the Shanghai Masters (though this does take into account his qualifying round victories also)

- With 13 deciders played in Shanghai Masters history, Shaun Murphy has played in more Shanghai deciders than any other player, having played in at least one in every tournament since 2010. 

PLAYER PERFORMANCES: KEY ASPECTS 

- In an odd statistic, out of the four ranking events so far this season, Stuart Bingham has already lost to the winner in two of them, losing to Anthony McGill in the Indian Open Last 16 and Ali Carter in the Last 32 of the World Open.

- A number of statistics on the 32 players in the field this week should be able to tell how they have been going this season so far in the key aspects of the game. Starting with 50+ breaks, Neil Robertson leads the field for average frames per 50 break or above averaging just 1.88 for each of his so far this season. Anthony McGill comes in a close second after his good early season form, while Trump lies third with an average of 2.38 frames per 50+ while Mark Allen follows closely in fourth despite having only played in the Paul Hunter Classic, while Shaun Murphy completes the top 5 in this statistic. Of the top 16 seeds, Stuart Bingham ranks lowest in this regard with an average of 3.77 frames per 50+ break in the early season (excluding the non-ranking 6 Reds Championship - given also it's different rules for play).

- The next statistic that I have been working on and looking at closely is the average contribution when a player makes a 50+ break. As only 50+ breaks a released with the frame scores this is the closest thing we can get to an average scoring visit statistic. In Liang Wenbo's performances across the Paul Hunter Classic and World Open (all statistics for key aspects do not include the qualifying stages for this tournament nor the 6 Reds) he climbed to the top with an average of 88.82 that will surely level off a bit as the season goes by. John Higgins comes in second with an average contribution of 83.32 when he makes a break of 50+, while David Gilbert follows closely in third which aligns well with how much he appears to be improving as a player. Joe Perry's excellent scoring during the World Open helps him into fourth, while Matthew Selt somewhat surprisingly makes up the top five. Ricky Walden has the lowest average this season so far of the top 16 seeds this week, and the fourth lowest overall (excluding Ronnie O'Sullivan who is the only player yet to play a tournament this year) with an average break of 69 when he makes a contribution of 50 or above, while Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins also have lower averages by comparison.

- When it comes to a close frames win percentage it is first important to put a number on what a close frame can be classed as (when you only have frame scores to go on in most cases, and when the need with statistics is to be very strict or rigid) so the number I have put on it is when 20 points or less was in the frame. When all players were ranked for their performances in the first four full ranking events (6 Reds and Shanghai Masters qualifying again excluded for reasons previously given) it was again Liang Wenbo that topped the charts with a win percentage of 83.33. Marco Fu follows closely in second, before there is very little to separate the next three of Anthony McGill in third, Kyren Wilson in fourth and Mark Selby making up the top five (percentages of 78.57, 77.78 and 76.29 respectively). A gap of nearly ten percent is the difference between Selby and the next best in a big group in joint sixth place that includes David Gilbert, Neil Robertson and Ding Junhui. Michael White is bottom of the pile having only won only 11.11% of these close frames where the points difference was 20 or less.

- With scoring weight, scoring frequency, ability to win the closer, more tactical frames all dealt with there is also a place for looking at who has the bottle when it comes to winning the close matches that end up in deciding frames. John Higgins has a 100% decider hit rate with three wins from three played this season, Michael Holt meanwhile has a hit rate of 80% from the opening four ranking events with four wins out of 5 (the solitary decider defeat coming against Higgins). A number of other players have a 100% hit rate in deciders but at this early stage in the season have only played 1 or 2 such as Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Liang Wenbo, Kyren Wilson, David Gilbert, Joe Perry and Shaun Murphy have done.

- Neil Robertson has the highest win percentage of those in the field this week, having only played two tournaments and won one of those. His overall percentage is 92.31 with 12 wins from 13 matches. Anthony McGill has a record of 16 wins from 19 matches (excluding his win in qualifying for this event) giving him a percentage of 84.21, whilst Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy and Ali Carter all also have win percentages of above 80 at this early stage of the season.

The key thing this should all have provided is a big insight in to the upcoming Shanghai Masters, particularly in how players rank in what can be viewed as the key aspects of winning snooker matches and tournaments, as well as showing how the season has gone so far and what we can expect in the upcoming times. 

Tomorrow will see my full tournament preview round all of the statistics and analysis of the last two days blogs up and provide you with my choice to win in Shanghai next week. 

Don't forget it is not too late to view my "Tournament Top Ten" blog where analysis, spreadsheets and a points scoring system provided the ten players that "should" do well in Shanghai and this can all be viewed here: 

http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/shanghai-masters-annisons-analysis.html 

It is also not too late to sign up for this season's Fantasy Snooker competition with a set of re-vamped rules, and all the information on that is in this blog: 

http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/20152016-fantasy-snooker-league.html 

Shanghai Masters: Annison's Analysis - Tournament Top Ten

As promised, the "tournament top ten" is a completely new feature for the blog in the lead up to the Shanghai Masters starting on Monday.

The Tournament Top Ten is my ranking of the top contenders for the title next week based on results of the four most recent Shanghai Masters tournaments, form from the season so far, as well as a number of statistics I have been collating and working on to hopefully enhance the insight and analysis that I can provide. These statistics include, average frames per 50+ break, average contribution when a player makes a break of 50 or above, percentage of close frames won and average frame aggregates and are calculated from the start of the season to now, which may only be a small sample size but as the season goes on these statistics could reveal a lot. Whilst I have also been listing the amount of full ranking event quarter-finals that a player has been involved in since the start of the 2014/2015 season (this excludes event on the old European and Asian Tours) 

Some of that may seem a little complex or just strange but more will be explained in my upcoming "Stat Attack" blog which will deal with more of these statistics in detail. 

Remember, this is not my individual opinion on who the best players will be in Shanghai, but players ranked on an average points per category basis. (The categories being those of previous tournament finishes, recent form, and the selected statistics). The points system I derived is one that is fair and rewards those that sit well statistically and in the case of previous tournaments is weighted from tournament winner down to Last 16 appearances. 

Now that's all explained it's time to countdown the Top Ten statistically ranked players for the Shanghai Masters:

10 - Anthony McGill - Anthony McGill starts the list as the number ten player, and is mainly here thanks to his win at the Indian Open in early July. As well as this he made the quarter-finals of the Riga Masters and the World Open either side of that victory. Those results do a lot of making up for the fact that McGill has failed to qualify for the Shanghai Masters from 2012-2015, and with better showings he would surely be at the very top of this list. Statistically, McGill ranks third in the field in close frame win percentage (looking at frames where there was less than 20 points difference between the two players in the frame scores), and second in average frames per 50+ break made. If McGill keeps those numbers up the two combined is surely a recipe for success and explains why he has had such a good start to the 2016/2017 campaign. 

9 - Mark Allen - Ninth on this list we have Mark Allen who may have only played one tournament so far in the season at the Paul Hunter Classic, but as the list is calculated on a "points average" the number of tournaments you play should not have as great an effect, as long as you have played enough, which Allen surely has by featuring in the Shanghai Masters from 2012-2015. Allen gets on to the list with runs to the final in Shanghai in 2014, and the semi-finals in 2015. His season got offer to reasonable start with a run to the Last 16 of the Paul Hunter Classic, and that one week's display still got him onto the season statistics list as the fourth best in this weeks 32 man field for frames per 50+ break. If that good scoring continues, his most recent Shanghai efforts suggest he could be one of the leaders this week. 

8 - Stuart Bingham - It was fairly tight in the middle of the top ten which sees Bingham in eighth position. The Essex potter obviously features on this list thanks to his victory in Shanghai back in 2014, whilst he came back last year and put up a valiant defence by reaching the semi-finals. If you go back as far as 2012 Bingham was a quarter-finalist in Shanghai so his event specific record is a good one. He would be much higher on the list had he have put in a big performance at the start of the season, rather than a couple of Last 16 finishes in India and Latvia. The one statistic in that sat well for him was the amount of full ranking quarter-finals or better he has reached since the start of the 2014/2015, where he is in joint second position with nine quarter-finals reached. The quarter-finals and beyond are clearly not out of reach for Bingham once more it would seem. 

7 - Judd Trump - Fifth, sixth and seventh positions were where it got really tight and there was very little to split the runners and riders in these places. Trump features thanks mostly to his appearances in the Shanghai Masters final in 2012 and 2015 losing out very narrowly on those two occasions. Unfortunately for him, the Ace does blow very hot and cold in Shanghai with first round exits in 2013 and 2014 stopping him from being at the very top of this top ten list. The season has had one brighter spark to start things off and that was a quarter-final appearance in Latvia, and things heat up Trump could be right there again. He ranks first on tour in the quarter-finals or better since the start of 2014/2015 stat, and he's third in the field for average frames per 50+ break so far this season which highlights one of Trump's main strengths. If those things continue in China next week Trump will be right there again.

6 - Neil Robertson - Finishing off the first half of the list is Neil Robertson who has had a very good start to the season so far. He won the first event of the season over in Latvia, whilst the first Chinese tournament of the year at the World Open saw him making the semi-finals. Two first round exits in Shanghai in the last two years prevent him from featuring higher on the list for sure with his recent Shanghai best being a 2013 quarter-final. It is in the quarter-finals or better since the beginning of 2014/2015 where the Australian appears in joint second place, whilst he leads the 32 man field for this week in frames per 50+ break, being the only player with an average of less than 2 frames per 50 break or above. Such stand out efforts could be a key factor again here.

5 - Mark Selby - The current World Champion appears at five in the countdown, thanks greatly to his win at the Paul Hunter Classic in August. He would be higher but for disappointing showings at the World Open and the Riga Masters, but his Shanghai record on the whole is a good one. He took the title five years ago, and after withdrawing from the 2015 edition his most recent finishes are a semi-final in 2014 and a quarter-final in 2013. Selby is fifth in the field for close frames win percentage this season so far and he also features in a large tie for fourth place for most quarter-finals in the last two and a bit seasons. Plenty of things shape up well coming into this event for Selby.

4 - Shaun Murphy - Shaun Murphy finds himself in fourth position in the list with a decent start to the season himself. In the two events he has entered he has made a semi-final (Indian Open) and a quarter-final (World Open) which gives him plenty to build on for the next heavy stage in the campaign. His Shanghai record is neither good or bad with three Last 16 exits in the last three years since reaching the 2012 semi-finals, again giving him something to build on. He features in the aforementioned tie for fourth for most quarter-final or better in ranking events within the last two and a bit years. On top of that he is fifth in the field for average frames per 50+ break which highlights one of the great strengths of Murphy's game, which he will hope to make count in Shanghai.

3 - Kyren Wilson - After the whirlwind year that Wilson has had it is no surprise to see him featuring so highly on this list. It was his Shanghai Masters win of 2015 that saw him breakthrough but that is not his only good showing in this event with another quarter-final under his belt in 2013 edition. His 2016/2017 campaign has also started off brightly showing his class again in India in July where he reached the final. Some people compare Wilson to a young Selby-like player and that shows in the close frame win percentage statistic where he lies one spot ahead of Selby, putting him fourth in this weeks field in close frame wins for the season so far. Statistics do not take into account how tough defending a title for the first time is, but they do suggest no reason why he should not do it well.

2 - Ding Junhui - The runners-up spot according to my tournament top ten analysis is where Ding Junhui features, He has only featured once so far this season in the World Open, where an early Last 32 exit did not help his cause on the list, but the bulk of his points come from his previous Shanghai showings. In 2013 the Shanghai Masters was his first of 5 ranking event titles that season. The following year he put up a valiant defence by reaching the semi-finals and losing to eventual winner Bingham, and he lost to the eventual winner again in 2015 when he exited in a black ball quarter-final with Kyren Wilson, all boasting a very strong record in this event. People say Ding's form over the last two years has not been as but he still ties for fourth place in the field for quarter-finals or better made in ranking events since the start of the 2014/2015 with eight in total. On the whole, the analysis certainly suggests that Ding will be a major player in Shanghai.

1 - John Higgins - The number one player coming into this years Shanghai Masters is John Higgins. Plenty of past finishes, statistics and the like point to Higgins being the man next week. In past stagings of the event Higgins boasts a win from 2012, while this season so far he has another Chinese quarter-final (World Open) as well as reaching the last 16 of the opening event in Latvia. Statistically the Scotsman is in the big tie for fourth place with eight quarter-finals or better since the start of 2014/2015 in major ranking events. On top of that he sits second in the field for average break when he makes a break of 50+ (with an awesome average of 83.32 for this statistic) as well as leading the field for average frame aggregate this season so far (a combination of average frame winning margin against average frame losing margin). So when the points system took all of these factors into account it was Higgins that came out on top.


This does not mean Higgins will win and that the other 31 professionals involved need not bother with the long trip to China next week, but I will be keeping tabs on the accuracy of this feature over the course of the season to see where the winner of each event finished in the top ten, and that is if they featured at all with a number of quality contenders falling short of the top ten this week.


Next up on the blog is the return of my "Stat Attack" feature tomorrow, before my full preview rounds off my Shanghai Masters build-up when that is published on Friday.

Do not forget to check out the launch of Fantasy Snooker for 2016/2017 which was posted yesterday and can be found here: http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/20152016-fantasy-snooker-league.html

It should be fun so why not enter and see if you can beat all the other fans as the top snooker predictor this year!!! 

2016/2017 Fantasy Snooker League

Ahead of the Shanghai Masters it's time for the first in a week of new look blog posts and launch time for the 2016/2017 season's Cue Action Blog Fantasy Snooker.

Certain changes have been made to the format which you will quickly spot as you read through the rules below. One thing that has not changed is that Fantasy Snooker is still FREE for ANYONE to enter. 

One thing that I have picked out at the start of this season is that the Shanghai Masters is the start of the heavy period of snooker in this season and picking out the tournaments that are most important is the inspiration for this year's Fantasy Snooker. 

These are the season's Featured Fantasy Snooker Events:

Featured Tournaments: 

Shanghai Masters
European Championship
English Open
International Championship
Champion of Champions
Irish Open
UK Championship (DOUBLE POINTS)
Scottish Open
Masters (DOUBLE POINTS)
German Masters
World Grand Prix
Welsh Open
Players Championship
China Open
World Championship (DOUBLE POINTS)

Next up is the change of rules for this year which will no longer see the "save your money" system which I felt meant very little last year so instead, spotting the main trend of people picking their favourite player continuously in major tournaments, the amount of times you can pick an individual player is being limited as is explained below.

Rules: 

1) Participants pick two players for each event, before the specified deadline.
2) Participants can only pick the same player a MAXIMUM OF THREE TIMES over the course of the season. (Encouraging much more strategic play).

Points Scoring: 

Points scoring on the whole is the same except for a "Round Winner" bonus which encourages picking the strongest team for each event.

Match Win = 5 points

Match Win a margin of three frames or more = 2 bonus points

Player Century = 2 points

147 break by Player = 5 bonus points

Player reaching semi-final = 2 points

Player reaching final = 5 points

Player winning tournament = 10 points

Participant with the highest score in a tournament = 3 bonus points (unless there is a joint winner)


I hope this new system is clear to understand, but if you have any of you out there have any queries feel free to comment on the post or tweet me @CueActionBlog


The first event, the Shanghai Masters starts on Monday September 19th and the deadline for all picks will be on this day at 7.30am UK time before the first matches begin. Again to enter you can either comment below or tweet me, and if you are on Twitter you will also become a part of a Twitter Group Chat which will provide updates and reminders to make picks in addition to what is posted on the blog.

You might not want to make your selections yet though as I have three more new look features in the coming days which will analyse the tournament, which include my usual tournament preview, the return of the "Stat Attack" which debuted at this time last year, and a new "Tournament Top Ten" analysis which looks at who the leading players of the week should be based on previous tournament finishes, recent form and certain season statistics which I am collating and tracking.