Defending champion Mark Allen has been defeated in the first round of the Masters, but Ronnie O'Sullivan has progressed to the quarter-finals after the completion of the first four matches in London.
Allen was a strong favourite to defeat Belgian Luca Brecel, who is 37th on the provisional one-season ranking list compared to Allen who has led the way this season, but it was Brecel that found his form and came through 6-5.
Breaks of 75 and 50 featured from Brecel in the opening four frames as he took a 3-1 lead into the mid-session interval, but the scoring really hit another level after the break. Allen came storming back with a break of 96 followed by a 136 total clearance to level the scores at 3-3. Brecel then made the highest break of the match and set a very good early tournament high break target with a stunning 140 to move back ahead.
A run of 83 from Allen put him back level, but he could not steer ahead as the former China Champion moved 5-4 ahead aided by an 88 contribution. Allen fell one short of a second century, with a 99 break to force the final frame shoot-out. An excellent long pot started Brecel's early break of 58 but Allen had the chance to counter later in the frame, before going in-off on a thin cut on the brown and Brecel would eventually get over the line.
Masters specialist Ronnie O'Sullivan had no such problems as he defeated Stuart Bingham with ease 6-2. Bingham took a scrappy opener but never looked likely from that point on and did not perform to the level required to test O'Sullivan. The run of 96 that put O'Sullivan 2-1 was the moment the reigning UK champion found his form, following that with centuries either side of the interval. Those runs of 134 and 111 take him up to 988 career centuries, before a 60 break aided him in moving within a frame of victory at 5-1. Bingham kept O'Sullivan at bay with a run of 71 to get a second on the board and he looked like extending the match further before falling short on 62 in the ninth. That sparked a 66 counter clearance for O'Sullivan to force a re-spotted black, which he went on to win in order to seal victory.
Another former Masters champion was not so fortunate though as John Higgins fell in a final frame decider to Ryan Day. After losing a tight opener and another tight fourth frame in which he had chances to draw level, Day found himself 3-1 down at the interval. From there though, Higgins would only score another 10 points in the next three frames as Day found his scoring boots. A break of 52 was enough to secure the fifth frame, before following it up with a sublime 111 and a further 83 to move 4-3 up. Higgins drew level at 4-4, but only before Day would win a crucial frame nine after excellent pots on pink and black after a long battle on the colours. Higgins was not to be discouraged though, forcing a decider by comfortably taking the tenth. He did not get a match winning chance as Day was at his clinical best in the eleventh. A sensational long pot got him in first and left him perfect on the black and he would go from strength to strength, finishing with a sublime 128 break to move into the quarter-finals.
The first half of the opening round came to a close as Ding Junhui defeated Masters debutant Jack Lisowski 6-1, but the scoreline alone does not tell you the full story. Lisowski had clear cut chances in almost every frame that Ding won. Starting in the opener, Lisowski missed a straightforward black to leave Ding in and he took advantage of what Lisowski left with a break of 66 to take the opener. Then in the second, Lisowski missed the final red into the middle and paved the way for Ding to lead 2-0. Frame three came down to the pink and black, with Lisowski only needing the pink to take the frame. The left-hander narrowly missed out on three long attempts on the pink but the frame would go to Ding after an excellent long pot of his own followed by a fine cut on the black.
The fourth frame was another bad one for Lisowski as he took a commanding early lead before Ding got away with misses late on in the frame, before eventually taking that one on the black as well to lead 4-0. The one bright spark from either player came in frame five when Ding made the match high break of 123 to move 5-0 up. Lisowski did show the battling qualities to avoid a whitewash with a run of 60 helping him in taking frame six and he could have extended the match further, but for a casual miss when in amongst the balls in frame seven, leaving everything on for Ding. The Chinese number one made enough to leave Lisowski needing a snooker, completing a 6-1 win that could have been very different.
So already in the quarter-finals, we have two former champions taking on two slightly less established winners at this level.
Quarter-Final draw (Top half):
Ding Junhui Vs Luca Brecel (Thursday 17 January - 7pm)
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Ryan Day (Thursday 17 January - 1pm)
In all likelihood now, most will be expecting an O'Sullivan Vs Ding semi-final but Day and Brecel will certainly have something to say about that. Brecel performed to a much higher level than Ding did in the opening round and while his form this season may not suggest a big run in this event, the Belgian is a very streaky player that could now be about to get on a very hot run. Ding looked far from convincing and had it not been for the potential nerves of Masters debutant Lisowski who missed a boat-load of chances, the 2011 champion could be on his way home again. That match was only the second Ding has won since lifting the trophy in 2011 (the year before the event moved to its current home) so he clearly has a vulnerability at Ally Pally and Brecel can exploit that if he scores as well as he did against Allen.
As for O'Sullivan and Day, the Welshman showed a lot of bottle in the deciding frame century he made against a star player in John Higgins and that is just the confidence boost a player needs before taking on the most daunting task on the planet. Playing O'Sullivan is tough enough at the best of times, but doing so in front of such a big crowd of which 99% will be supporting O'Sullivan is almost an impossible mission. O'Sullivan looked very solid in round one, without having to be spectacular against Bingham and you would not think he would need to go through too many gears in order to see off Day, unless the former Riga Masters champion is in flawless form.
There are still four first round matches to enjoy on Tuesday and Wednesday in the bottom half of the draw, and to see my thoughts on those take a look at quarters 3 and 4 in my initial Masters preview here
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