Snooker Shoot-Out Preview

This weekend it's time for the players to let their hair down as the Snooker Shoot-out rolls into town. This year the event has moved from the Blackpool Tower to the Hexagon Theatre in Reading, which has plenty of history with the game of snooker but of course the Snooker Shoot-out is not snooker as we know it.

There is another change this year as ITV4 take over the broadcasting rights from Sky Sports so the usual team of Clive Everton and Neal Foulds will join presenter Jill Douglas to front the coverage and I am sure that they will get more guys like Alan McManus in the commentary box if and when they are knocked out of the competition.

It's always tough each year to remember the rules as they are so different so here's a reminder of some of the key ones:

- Each match will be played over one frame, which will last no longer than 10 minutes.
- Any fouls result in a "ball in hand" where the opposing player can place the ball anywhere on the table for his next shot.
- It will also be deemed a foul if a shot is played where either a ball does not enter a pocket or touch a cushion. (This stops players rolling up for snookers behind baulk colours and other negative safety play)
- A shot clock of 15 seconds will be employed for the first five minutes of the frame, and this will then shorten to give players 10 seconds a shot for the second half of the frame.
- If the scores are level after the 10 minutes are up, the result will then be decided by a sudden death 'blue ball shoot-out'.


I actually enjoy the Shoot-out which is contrary to the opinions of many. It's exciting and is a good opportunity for the people at home to see more of the players that are not usually on their screens. On top of this it is also a good opportunity for the players to let their hair down and have a bit of laugh like an exhibition event, which is always nice in the middle of a busy period of serious ranking events either side of this taking place.

Even the Snooker Smurf mascot and his owners will be making the journey (a little further than they would like) to watch this weekend so hopefully we'll see the recognisable stuffed toy on our screens once more.

This is how the draw shapes up then for the event:

Friday evening matches (6.30pm start) (*Speculative* picks in bold)

Michael White Vs Mark King
Mark Davis Vs Gary Wilson
Zhou Yuelong Vs Michael Georgiou (Georgiou replaces Aditya Mehta who has withdrawn)
Ken Doherty Vs Tom Ford
Ali Carter Vs Liam Highfield
Graeme Dott Vs Ben Woollaston
Cao Yupeng Vs Joe Perry
Mark Joyce Vs David Gilbert
David Grace Vs Jimmy Robertson
Mark Allen Vs Yu De Lu
David Morris Vs Alan McManus
Stuart Bingham Vs Ricky Walden
Mike Dunn Vs Luca Brecel
Michael Holt Vs Ryan Day
Sam Baird Vs Jack Lisowski
Dominic Dale Vs Shaun Murphy

Saturday Afternoon Matches (12.30pm start) (More attempted picks in bold)

John Higgins Vs Andrew Higginson
Peter Lines Vs Kurt Maflin
Robert Milkins Vs Marco Fu
Mark Williams Vs Rory McLeod
Tian Pengfei Vs Joe Swail
Jamie Jones Vs Martin Gould
Liang Wenbo Vs Anthony McGill
Robin Hull Vs Craig Steadman
Rod Lawler Vs Dechawat Poomjaeng
Kyren Wilson Vs Li Hang
Anthony Hamilton Vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Stuart Carrington Vs Matthew Stevens
Barry Hawkins Vs Peter Ebdon
Xiao Guodong Vs Matt Selt
Oliver Lines Vs Ian Burns
Judd Trump Vs Gerard Greene


As far as the schedule goes thereafter the Last 32 will take place on Saturday evening from 6.30pm, before the Last 16 takes place on Sunday afternoon from 1.30pm, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final taking place on Sunday evening.

The draw for each of the following rounds will take place at random as part of the live coverage.

The Shoot-out is always something of a lottery with the one frame matches and a random draw but that will not stop me from trying to pick out some of the CONTENDERS:


There is certainly a category that winners of this event usually fit into. The five previous winners are Nigel Bond, Barry Hawkins, Martin Gould, Dominic Dale and Michael White. Those five have never been notoriously big winners, and while all of them have now won ranking events, Hawkins, Gould and White all won theirs after winning this fun invitational event. They were also outside of the top 16 when they won but certainly not too low down the rankings either, and are all quite attacking players. So using that formula and looking back at previous shoot-outs here are some of my 'ones to watch'.

Michael Holt and Ryan Day face off in round one this year and both of these two guys have good records in the shoot-out, are two of the best players left without ranking titles and are in and around the mid-twenties in the world rankings. Both are attacking players and heavy scorers and seem to thrive on the atmosphere at this event and if you're willing to wait, the winner out of these two has a great chance of taking the £32,000 top prize home with them.

Kurt Maflin is another big hitting attacking player who has what it takes to go all the way this weekend. He scores heavily and is more than capable of blitzing anyone over a single frame (but most of the players are). He has had a run at the event and it is good to have that experience of playing with the rules and shot clock which is why you would not fancy many of the debutants to play well this weekend. As a non-ranking winner who just needs that bit of confidence to go on and get the title that his talent warrants, maybe he can do what the likes of Hawkins and Michael White have and use this as a springboard to bigger things.

When you think of quick players who will have no trouble with the shot clock Robert Milkins is the name that sticks out. He was the runner-up to Bond in the very first shoot-out and is not afraid to attack, score heavily and get the job done in a flash. Once again he is a man that just needs that springboard to go on and achieve bigger things, and the shot clock in play will help him to stay in the fantastic rhythm he gets into.

No player has ever won the snooker shoot-out twice, but in my opinion there is one man that has come a lot closer than others and that is Barry Hawkins. As well as winning the shoot-out he has also reached a further semi-final and seems to thrive when these three days in the calendar come around.

Out of all of the debutants there is a certain man from Finland that I would love to see win this event. Robin Hull is a heavy scorer and certainly capable of beating anyone over any format. He should not have too much trouble with the shot clock as he's experienced enough to know how to deal with anything by now. There's a big difference between qualifying for the Crucible two years in a row (which Hull has done in the two years he has been back on tour) and winning the shoot-out but Robin certainly has what it takes.

Kyren Wilson deserves a special mention here too. We all know that he is a very attacking player, a heavy scorer and incredibly confident after collecting his first ranking title this season. He loves the shoot-out and as a semi-finalist last year you would not rule him out of going all the way if he plays as fluently as he did in his record breaking qualifier for the China Open. Wilson made four centuries (and a 68) whilst Anthony Hamilton had two of his own to set the record for the most centuries in a best-of-9 with six in total.

Finally, another player who fits the shoes made for a shoot-out winner is Tom Ford. Tom has a pretty decent record in the event and has always played with a very quick, attacking style and is no stranger to heavy scoring either. Odds of 100/1 being offered in some places could be a very unhealthy move come Sunday evening.


The list does not end there with guys like Jamie Jones, Shaun Murphy, Jimmy Robertson and plenty more having that all-out attacking style and quick heavy scoring that usually gets the job done in the shoot-out.

Straight after the event it is across to the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff for the Welsh Open with all 128 players involved playing at some point on Monday so there's no rest for the guys.

China Open Qualifiers Preview

Tomorrow sees the of the China Open qualifiers and the continuation of a very busy period in the snooker calendar. World Snooker though only released the draw for this today, and after a very busy day myself that's why the blog for this is not too far in advance of the first set of matches at 10am on Tuesday.

Most players have entered the China Open, which of course when the final stages take place at the end of March, will be the last event before the seedings cut off for the World Championships. There are couple of absentees though, unsurprisingly Ronnie O'Sullivan is one and the other main one is that of Aditya Mehta. I do not want to speculate too much but something wider may be behind this as Mehta has withdrawn from the Shoot-out, the Gdynia Open and not entered the Welsh Open.

It is also an important time in the race to make it into to the top 64 in the rankings at the end of the season and stay on the tour. £4,000 is on offer for a first round win this week which is big money in that race for spots.

Four matches in the Last 128 matches being played over the course of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are being held over under the agreement that matches of the defending champion (Mark Selby), World champion and top two Chinese players will all be held over to the venue.

That means that:

Mark Selby Vs Darryl Hill
Ding Junhui Vs Lee Walker
Liang Wenbo Vs Peter Lines
Stuart Bingham Vs Cao Yupeng

will be played on the opening day of the event in Beijing.

The matches being played this week are as follows: (Predicted winners feature in bold).

Tuesday 9th February 10am:

Jamie Jones Vs Lu Chenwei
Robbie Williams Vs Alfie Burden
Mike Dunn Vs Ashley Hugill
Anthony McGill Vs Jake Nicholson
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Vs Adam Duffy
Andrew Higginson Vs Liam Highfield (Highfield is 68th on the provisional end of season seedings list, sitting around £2,800 below Craig Steadman who is in 64th, a deficit he could make up with victory here)
Gerard Greene Vs Oliver Brown (Gerard Greene is currently 66th on the provisional EOS seedings list, just over £1,300 short of Craig Steadman, with £4,000 on offer for victory here)
Robin Hull Vs Eden Sharav

Tuesday 9th February 2.30pm:

Dominic Dale Vs Hatem Yassen
Gary Wilson Vs Paul Davison
Mark Davis Vs Steven Hallworth
Jamie Burnett Vs Ross Muir
Matt Selt Vs Jamie Cope
David Gilbert Vs Duane Jones
Xiao Guodong Vs Nigel Bond
Tom Ford Vs Michael Wild

Tuesday 9th February 7pm:

Michael White Vs Craig Steadman (Craig is currently the "bubble boy" 64th on the provisional end of season rankings).
Jack Lisowski Vs Zhang Yong
Jimmy Robertson Vs Itaro Santos
Robert Milkins Vs Daniel Wells
Matthew Stevens Vs Chris Melling
Ricky Walden Vs Barry Pinches
Rod Lawler Vs Hammad Miah
Peter Ebdon Vs Michael Georgiou

Wednesday 10th February 10am:

David Morris Vs James Wattana (David Morris is 65th on the Provisional end of season seedings. However, he is only £766 behind with £4,000 for a first round win)
Marco Fu Vs Gareth Allen
Yu De Lu Vs Vinnie Calabrese
David Grace Vs Jason Weston
Mark Joyce Vs Sean O'Sullivan
Zhou Yuelong Vs Jordan Brown
Sam Baird Vs Allan Taylor

Wednesday 10th February 2.30pm:

Stephen Maguire Vs Andy Hicks
Alan McManus Vs Sydney Wilson
Mark King Vs Hamza Akbar
Ali Carter Vs Alex Taubman
Shaun Murphy Vs Zak Surety
Ben Woollaston Vs Zhao Xintong
Graeme Dott Vs Jimmy White
Michael Holt Vs Matthew Day

Wednesday 10th February 7pm:

Joe Perry Vs Fraser Patrick
Mark Allen Vs Mitchell Mann
Neil Robertson Vs Hossein Vafei Ayouri
Martin Gould Vs Scott Donaldson
Luca Brecel Vs Zhang Anda (Zhang is currently 69th on the EOS list £3,800 behind 64th placed Steadman as it stands)
Barry Hawkins Vs Sanderson Lam
Ryan Day Vs Brett Miller
Kyren Wilson Vs Anthony Hamilton (Hamilton still has some small hope, he may be £10,000 adrift and in 73rd position on the EOS list but a player of his class could make that up but he needs a win here against Wilson)

Thursday 11th February 10am:

Rory McLeod Vs James Cahill
Stuart Carrington Vs Lu Ning (Stuart Carrington is currently sitting in 63rd on the Provisional EOS list £1,200 clear of Morris who is 65th)
Kurt Maflin Vs Chris Wakelin
Joe Swail Vs Ian Glover
Li Hang Vs Thor Chuan Leong
Tian Pengfei Vs Leo Fernandez
Dechawat Poomjaeng Vs Michael Leslie
Fergal O'Brien Vs Ian Burns (Burns is in 67th on the EOS list, roughly £1,650 adrift of 64th placed Steadman for now)

Thursday 11th February 2.30pm:

Ken Doherty Vs Rhys Clark
Judd Trump Vs Joel Walker
Mark Williams Vs Martin O'Donnell
Oliver Lines Vs Noppon Saengkham
John Higgins Vs Michael Wasley


That's the schedule for the China Open qualifying, an odd one really with only a handful of games on the Thursday by comparison to the other two days, and a few notes on how players in immediate threat around the 64 spot sit coming into the week. After this event we of course have the Snooker Shoot-out from Friday until Sunday with the Welsh Open starting on Monday. These qualifiers offer immediate importance but also a chance for those who have not had a competitive match since before Christmas, to play themselves in ahead of all 128 players appearing at the venue in Cardiff for the Welsh Open.

Martin Gould and Luca Brecel set for Tempodrome Tussle

Martin Gould and Luca Brecel are through to contest the German Masters final tomorrow after winning what looked like two tense battles on paper, and proved to be exactly that.

First off, in the afternoon Martin Gould may have beaten Graeme Dott by a comfortable score line but it was a very tense affair. Graeme could not get going on the day and despite plenty of chances and not a large amount of heavy scoring from Gould it was he that took a 4-0 lead into the interval to leave the Scot struggling. In frame five, the 2006 world champion was able to get his first frame on the board and even when the pinner potter went 5-1 in front that was a small feeling of 'we've been here before' about the match. That of course comes after Gould relinquished 5-1 leads in both, last years Grand Prix semi-final against Trump and the UK quarter-final to David Grace. That may well have been in Martin's mind as Dott got a frame back to 2-5 after chances for Martin came and went, and Dott was still far from the form that saw him beat Maguire and Hawkins in the two previous rounds. In all it seemed a struggle for him to get used to the table and in a very nervy frame eight Dott missed the green needing only it, the brown and blue to force another frame and Martin was able to clear down to the pink to end what was a poor quality affair and put himself into the Berlin finale.

In the evening conditions were very tough as Belgian Brecel beat Kyren Wilson. The first frame was very nervy with both players having chances, though Wilson had the best of them and was made to pay for his misses on the colours when Luca cleared pink and black to take it. The next two followed with a high break of 48 to put him 3-0 in front. He did squander an early opportunity in the fourth however, looking to go into the break 4-0 in front but the Shanghai Masters champion was able to scrap away and see that it was only 1-3. Another frame was grinded out by Wilson to make it 2-3, but Brecel hit back with a 67 in the sixth (the highest break in the match) to give himself some more breathing space at 4-2. The Warrior continued to fight as the 20 year old missed a chance to steal frame seven, but in frame eight a cool 63 made up for it to put him one frame away. Wilson had a massive chance in frame nine to continue the match, and he did in fact make his highest break in the match (51) before a few kicks meant he eventually lost position on the green and had a wild swing at it, leaving it on for the Belgium who duly cleared to the pink to put himself into his first ever ranking event final.


Semi-Final Results:

Martin Gould 6-2 Graeme Dott
Luca Brecel 6-3 Kyren Wilson

Final Preview:

Martin Gould Vs Luca Brecel - This is going to be a very interesting final. Neither player has ever won a ranking event. For Martin this is his third time in a final, the most recent coming in Australia earlier this season which he lost in a decider to John Higgins. Luca has never been in a final, but at the age of 20 you would not expect him to have been either in fairness so this is a great opportunity for him. Who's the pressure on more? Well, Martin is 34 which means that time is running out for him a little bit and of course he comes into this final as a favourite, something he wasn't in either of the previous two. Luca meanwhile is so talented that he is sure to become a ranking winner at some point, and most likely a multiple winner given the time he has left in his career. Money and ranking wise, by getting to the final the players are guaranteed £26,250 with £60,000 going to the winner. Brecel is already up to a career high ranking of 28 but will go up even further to 20 if he can take the title. Gould meanwhile is provisionally to 18 but will go inside the top 16 to 15th in the world with victory over the young Belgium.

In getting this far you would say the pinner potter has had the hardest route by far. Mark Williams was seen off in round one 5-4, before he beat Murphy's conqueror Ben Woollaston 5-0 in round two. The quarter-finals saw him edge Judd Trump 5-4 in a tense one before Dott was far from his best in the semi's today either. Luca meanwhile took on another talented youngster in Zhao Xintong on the TV table in round one beating him 5-2, he then had to see off Kurt Maflin who was playing very well in a tight one 5-3. The quarters saw him come from 4-2 down to beat Mark Joyce who came into that one having just played he self-proclaimed "game of his life", while in the semi's against Kyren I think a mixture of Kyren's own poor play and the horrific conditions saw to a nervy performance. I think Luca will relax more in the final and that could be the key as Gould got very tense in his semi-final and the back end of his quarter-final with Trump. The crowd are very fair in Berlin but you get the sense that with a continental European in the final in Luca Brecel he will get their support, as it would be a great story for this well supported tournament if the main continental European contender could go on to win it. Luca also seems very level headed for a man of his age. His Dad's support may be part of the reason behind that and in victory today (the biggest of his career) there was no celebration and he talked down the part that the conditions had to play in his performance and just put it down to what he did wrong. Nothing seems to faze him and he doesn't have some of the mental scar tissue that Gould may have. Overall, I would be very surprised if anyone player ran away with it and it may just be a case of who holds his nerve and doesn't make as many silly mistakes. Both players have been scoring well and some of the Belgium's safety was impressive particularly in the tactical opening frame, as that is the main weakness of his game.


Prediction: Luca Brecel to take a nervy battle 9-7

Overall, it has been another entertaining few days for the German fans in Berlin and hopefully the final tomorrow will live up to that and be a suitable end to the week with some more quality snooker.

No rest for the wicked from here, Monday sees the draw for China Open qualifiers that run from the Tuesday to Thursday along with the Welsh Open which starts on the following Monday, while the Snooker Shoot-out takes place in Reading on the Friday to Sunday between those two. Snooker all the way.

Surprise semi line-up awaits in Berlin

Graeme Dott, Martin Gould, Luca Brecel and Kyren Wilson make up a rather surprising line-up for the semi-finals of the German Masters particularly with no-one out of the four currently being ranked in the top 16. Having said, only Judd Trump from the world's top 16 was left in the event going into the quarters, whilst if either Dott, Gould or Wilson win the event they will go up to 15 in the world rankings, which with only five events left after this with any ranking influence ahead of the cut off for the World Championships, it is all set to be a huge weekend at the Tempodrome.

After the performances of Maguire and Trump on Thursday night you'd have been forgiven for thinking that they would make it through to the last 4 but Dott and Gould had other ideas. Dott in fact won five frames on the trot to beat Stephen Maguire after Maguire won the opener. A break of 65 took Dott into the lead at 3-1, but his highest break of the match was a 71 clearance in frame six to win the match after Maguire had made a break of 61 in the frame and was looking to get back into it.

Graeme will now play Martin Gould in the last four after Gould fell over the line in the deciding frame against Judd Trump. This match was on the TV table, and the pinner potter started well with a century to lead 1-0, and after falling 2-1 adrift he made a cool 69 to go into the interval level at 2-2. A 73 from Trump edged him ahead again but he kept giving chances to his opponent who took the next two to lead 4-3. Gould then had chances in the eighth but could not kill off the match and was only just able to survive a counter in the decider, when from a fluked snooker on the final red he took his chance to win.

In the bottom half of the draw we had a couple of comebacks. First was Luca Brecel who despite breaks of 80 and 59 in the opening six frames, while Mark Joyce had only weighed in with one break of 50+, found himself 4-2 behind. From there though he quickly won the seventh frame with a run of 79 to ramp up the pressure on Joyce. The eighth was the key as both players had chances, but the Belgian was able to clear from the last red to force the evenings second decider. In that decider Brecel was able to take the very first chance he had, killing off the match in one visit with a break of 102 which is a magnificent break under pressure to reach his second ranking event semi-final, a year on from his first.

The final match of the evening gave a win for Shanghai Masters champion Kyren Wilson over Ryan Day, again from 4-2 behind. It was quite a scrappy match with both players having chances as most of the frames went down to the colours. After three tight frames to start Day was ahead at 2-1, despite Wilson having a break of 56 in losing frame two. The Welshman consolidated with a 57 on the way to dominating frame four and moving into the interval 3-1 in front. Frame five was certainly a key one as Day countered after an early 57 from Wilson (his highest break of the match) but an in-off on the final pink as he went around the table for black ball position saw him miss his opening and the young man eventually potted the pink to get the score back to 2-3. Despite that disappointment the three times ranking event runner-up took the next to lead 4-2 as the match turned nervy. Wilson cleared to pinch frame seven on the black and then cleared again in frame eight to force the nights third deciding frame (still unable to beat the clean sweep of deciders in last years quarter-finals). The final frame was pretty low scoring after Wilson's early 31 and Day was unable to get on colours from the reds he was potting at the back end of the frame. Eventually, after potting the final red with no colour the 2014 Berlin semi-finalist was left needing snookers and Wilson got over the line.

Quarter-Final Results:

Graeme Dott 5-1 Stephen Maguire
Martin Gould 5-4 Judd Trump
Luca Brecel 5-4 Mark Joyce
Kyren Wilson 5-4 Ryan Day

Semi-Final Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Martin Gould Vs Graeme Dott - The first best-of-11 frame semi-final in the afternoon sees two experienced heads facing off. Martin Gould has obviously been going brilliantly this week with the bottle he has shown to beat both Mark Williams and Judd Trump in deciders and Ben Woollaston easily in round two. Graeme Dott meanwhile has very much been going under the radar but he has only dropped five frames on the way to the semi's which in wins against Tian Pengfei, Masters runner-up Barry Hawkins and Selby's conqueror Stephen Maguire is a fantastic effort. Both players have been scoring well and it is obviously a big game for both. Dotty doesn't get to the latter stages of events often, which means that when he does you know he has really found something in his game. Martin as I continue to say looks a lot more solid this season than he has for a long time and you have to say that he is not far away from winning a ranking title. On the other side of the coin, Gould will now see the draw and sense a real opportunity to do exactly that as he is probably the favourite of the four remaining players. That means though that he will be under the pressure of the expectations upon him, while Graeme can continue to play his own solid game as the underdog once more.

Kyren Wilson Vs Luca Brecel - Then in the evening it is all about the young guns. Kyren Wilson of course is the more experienced as the ranking event winner from back in September at the Shanghai Masters and this week for him has been all about grinding away and showing a cool head to come through three deciding frames in his three matches with a best break in the tournament so far of only 61 and only other four breaks of 50+ in total so far in the tournament. By contrast Luca has been scoring beautifully in his wins over Zhao Xintong, Kurt Maflin and Mark Joyce. Against Joyce he showed great courage to win his decider with a 102 break and had four breaks of 50+ in that single match, to go with three against Maflin, and another four against Xintong. It seems as though he is having another one of his hot streaks this week the likes of which have seen him to the Welsh Open semi's a year ago and of course to the UK quarter-finals in 2012 and despite all of this he is still only 20. Tomorrow is all about big game nerves, though he will still be seen as the underdog against Wilson, who himself wore that tag throughout his run to the Shanghai title, and it will be interesting to see how he goes in the big match in the big arena. You have to say though last year Luca took a big step in reaching the Welsh Open semi's and if he can win this one it will be another big step. It would also be a massive moment for this event and European snooker if he, as the representative for mainland Europe, could somehow go on and win the title this week. Expect it, like Brecel's semi in Cardiff last year against Higgins, to be another close one.


A very exciting line-up then with two players in Brecel and Gould who have never won ranking titles, someone in Graeme Dott who is after his first ranking title since the 2007 China Open, while Kyren Wilson is going for his second ranking title just five months on from his first in Shanghai. All set to be a nerve wracking and entertaining end to the week as we go down to the one table set up at the Tempodrome.

Top Trump shines while Selby, Allen and Fu are knocked out.

After the first of the days of two halves at the Tempodrome in Berlin we have the eight names from the bottom half of the draw that will come back on Friday afternoon for the last 16, while this evening yielded the four names already into Friday evenings quarter-finals.

Starting the day off we saw two more top 16 players exit the competition. First off it was Marco Fu who was beaten (in one of the predictions I was successful in making) by Kurt Maflin with both players making centuries in the match. Then Mark Allen was beaten by his bogey player and overall nemesis (particularly if you follow The Pistol on Twitter) Mark Joyce for the second time this season, 5-2 on this occasion. Elsewhere, on the televised table, Luca Brecel beat young Zhao Xintong in a match that was littered with both big breaks and some easy misses.

The afternoon session was the afternoon of the decider, with three of the five games going to the ninth and final frame. Before all of that, Ryan Day was able to avenge his quarter-final defeat to Liang Wenbo from a year ago by winning their first round match 5-3. On the TV table world champion Stuart Bingham won the last two frames of the match on the black to win what was a much tighter match than the score suggests at 5-2. The first decider came in the match with Michael Holt and Ian Burns. Holt had led 2-0 before being pegged back to 2-2, but then Holt went back ahead 4-2 before Burns pegged him back again to 4-4. Luckily for the Hitman though he dominated the decider to book his place in round two. He will now play Kyren Wilson who came back to beat Rory McLeod. McLeod was in a strong position at 4-1 but once again he failed to close out the match (as has become a theme at times for the cloud this season) and Kyren comfortably took the final four frames for a 5-4 win. Finally, Stuart Carrington also surrendered a heavy lead losing four frames in a row from 3-0 ahead to trail Mark King 4-3. Somehow Carrington managed to recover and force a deciding frame, but after chances for both players it was King who sealed victory.

Bottom half Last 32 Results:

Luca Brecel 5-2 Zhao Xintong
Kurt Maflin 5-1 Marco Fu
Mark Joyce 5-2 Mark Allen
Mark King 5-4 Stuart Carrington
Michael Holt 5-4 Ian Burns
Kyren Wilson 5-4 Rory McLeod
Ryan Day 5-3 Liang Wenbo
Stuart Bingham 5-2 Fergal O'Brien

This evening we saw the top half of the draw battle out their last 16 matches and once more a couple of high seeded players fell. First off though Judd Trump made three centuries in the final three frames of his match with Zhang Anda, the last of which was a 120 on a maximum attempt before he snookered himself on the yellow. Trump will now play Martin Gould who was a much comfortable winner compared to his 5-4 win against Mark Williams on Wednesday night, as Ben Woollaston failed to reproduce the goods that saw him beat Shaun Murphy in round one.

In the top quarter it was a different story with Graeme Dott first beating Masters runner-up Barry Hawkins 5-3 in what was a quality contest, while on the TV table defending champion Mark Selby was beaten by another Scot in Stephen Maguire by the same scoreline after having a golden chance to make it 3-1 at the interval which he failed to take.

Bottom Half Last 16 Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Luca Brecel Vs Kurt Maflin - This half of the draw is a massive opportunity for someone to breakthrough, but particularly in this quarter with one of Brecel, Maflin, King or Joyce going through to the semi-finals at the end of tomorrow. Starting with Maflin, he seemed to play well against an under par Fu. Making reference back to something I said in my pre-tournament preview, Maflin always seems to have one strong spell a season and that this could be it. Well, after today there is no reason that that should not be a possibility. Luca Brecel played very well in patches against Zhao Xintong on the TV table but the good breaks were followed by a few elementary mistakes and that still seems to be a part of the Belgian's game. If he doesn't improve tomorrow then I think Kurt will seize the opportunities presented to him, though this match could go all the way.

Mark King Vs Mark Joyce - With how much is at stake in this match I expect it to be quite a tactical and tense affair throughout. Joyce has obviously had a massive issue of bottle this season against Poomjaeng at the UK's, while King lacks nothing in the nerve department. His performance against Carrington today was very gritty and determined and that is what he'll need more of here. Joyce meanwhile seemed to have Allen on the rack before a ball was struck because the Northern Irishman appears to have something with Joyce that causes him to struggle against him so much. All in all I think this too could go the full nine frames but I fancy King to steal it.

Kyren Wilson Vs Michael Holt - This is yet another tough match to call as both players fell over the line in round one. Wilson is lucky just to be here after finding himself 4-1 down to McLeod and to be fair neither player scored that well so you have to wonder how McLeod got that far in front only to throw it all away. Michael Holt meanwhile has been knocking on the door all year with his regular last 16 appearances and it is about time that he kicked on. He usually does well too in Germany so this could be a massive opportunity for him if he can get the better of Wilson. But as we've seen from Kyren and his form this season that won't be easy and if he can find his heavy scoring it will be an uphill task for the Nottingham Potter.

Stuart Bingham Vs Ryan Day - The final last 16 match is set to be as close as the other three tomorrow. Bingham could've been pulled in a lot closer by Fergal if he had taken his chances after Bingham missed quite a lot of balls in the same way which could be a minor technical issue that needs working on. He wasn't quite at his best and is well aware of how good Day is on his day and once again all of the pressure is on the world champion to produce on TV again. The Welshman meanwhile scored a nice revenge win against Liang Wenbo who beat him in the quarter's here a year ago. In fact, Day has a nice record here in Germany with a semi-final appearance two years ago also, while Stuart has never been past this stage so this could be a big chance for Ryan to go on.


That's the afternoon session at 1pm, while in the evening at 7pm we have the four quarter-finals.

Obviously at this point we only know the two in the top half but I will try to update the post after the afternoon matches to preview the other two quarter-finals

EDIT: An interesting afternoon has been completed at the Tempodrome in Berlin and one in which the world champion Stuart Bingham has been sent packing. After going 2-0 in front again and looking pretty comfortable Ryan Day was able to stick in there as Bingham went off the boil. He pegged it back to 2-2 at the interval and made it 3-3 after Stuart won the first after the break, and at that stage the Welshman's highest break was only 38. However, two good breaks in the last two frames saw him over the line for a 5-3 victory.

Meanwhile on the outside tables, Luca Brecel won a fluent affair with Kurt Maflin. The Norwegian had runs of 90, 75 and 55 in the first four frames but Luca battled hard in frame four to make sure it was only 2-2 at the break. 60+ breaks were swapped in the next two frames to make it 3-3 but the key frame was the seventh, by far the longest of the match and when that fell to the Belgian he was able to follow that with a 72 break to secure victory.

Luca will now play Mark Joyce, who made two centuries in his victory over Mark King. King won a tight opener but runs of 64 and 59 gave Joyce the next two before an 83 from King squared the match at the break. After that though Allen's conqueror was ruthless as King only scored another 28 points in the match with Joyce having runs of 104 and 105.

In the final match of the afternoon, Michael Holt and Kyren Wilson played out an incredibly lengthy affair. Kyren Wilson eventually went on to win it in a deciding frame needing three chances in that frame to do so and having plenty of luck along the way. The eighth frame was certainly an interesting one after Wilson twice needed snookers and got them on both occasions but still ended up losing the frame, but Holt was unlucky in the decider when his chance game and it is the Shanghai Masters champion who rolls on.

Bottom Half Last 16 Results:

Luca Brecel 5-3 Kurt Maflin
Mark Joyce 5-2 Mark King
Kyren Wilson 5-4 Michael Holt
Ryan Day 5-3 Stuart Bingham

Quarter-Finals Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Stephen Maguire Vs Graeme Dott - Stephen Maguire was superb tonight against Mark Selby and was continuing to cue well after his showings last week at the Championship League and his temperament and patience were particularly good as those are two key aspects of the game that need to be in a good place against Selby, as they will against Dott. The two players know each other well and of course Dott has found some form in the last week as he knocked in some good breaks against Hawkins as he did in round one against Pengfei. The way the week has gone though you have to make Stephen the favourite in what could be another close match.

Judd Trump Vs Martin Gould - Judd Trump is absolutely flying this week. Three centuries against Zhang Anda demonstrated that he is at the top of his game once again but he will need to keep that going and show some consistency against Martin Gould as he could be tested. Martin has gone along nicely by beating Mark Williams and then thrashing Ben Woollaston who beat Murphy in round one, scoring nicely along the way. Gould has had a much more consistent year after reach the semi-finals of the Grand Prix (losing from 5-1 up against Trump) and then getting to the final in Australia and his obvious incentive is how close he is getting to making the top 16 for the world championships at the end of the season. At times though when he has sensed an opportunity like in the Grand Prix last March or December's UK quarter-final against David Grace, big leads have been thrown away and that is why you have to make the form man Trump favourite here.

Luca Brecel Vs Mark Joyce - With Bingham exiting this afternoon this is now a huge half of the draw. Neither Brecel or Joyce has ever been to a ranking final but by winning this match they will be through to the best-of-11 semi-finals tomorrow with an opportunity to do that. Both guys were class this afternoon and they didn't waste much time in getting through which bodes well for these matches. Mark has played well this week but it will be interesting to see if he can keep that up with so much at stake as this is more unknown territory for him in a tournament despite what the age difference might suggest. Luca though has been knocking on the door for sometime after qualifying for the Crucible and making the UK quarter-finals in 2012 and it's nearly a year since he made the semi-finals of the Welsh Open. As I said in my preview I believe he has developed a little more consistency into his game over the last year and I would fancy him to hold his nerve more than Joyce if this one goes close. This match may just come down to some of the silly mistakes that Luca tends to make at times, because if he can limit that tonight then he has a massive opportunity.

Ryan Day Vs Kyren Wilson - Both players in this match have not had long between games to re-charge the batteries and get ready for an assault on this quarter-final, but Day has certainly had the most time out of the two. His victory over Stuart Bingham was workmanlike as he managed to hold on in the opening half to the point where at 3-3 he was yet to make a break of more than 38. In the last two frames when the opportunity came though he showed once more what he is made of, and the opportunity has certainly knocked in this half of the draw. The Welshman is one of the players who probably should have had a ranking title to his name given his opportunities and the talent we know he possesses. He is more than adept at playing in the Tempodrome arena as he has now made at least the quarter-finals in all of the last three German Masters, with his best being a deciding frame loss in the 2014 semi-final to eventual champion Ding Junhui. Kyren Wilson meanwhile only has around an hour and a half between matches here after a huge battle with Michael Holt which went all the way down to the final frame. There weren't many big breaks from Kyren, just like his first round match with Rory McLeod which went to a decider also. It must have taken a lot out of Kyren but with the element of youth on his side he'll still be giving it his best shot in this match, but if it does run close you do have to wonder how many more matches and frames Wilson can grind out.

Trump and Selby breeze through on opening day in Berlin

Judd Trump and Mark Selby were easy winners on the opening day of the German Masters on a day featuring plenty of one-sided matches. Selby was up first in the afternoon against huge underdog Steven Hallworth, and his outsider status and inexperience was demonstrated as he left really no mark on the match as Selby dominated in a 5-0 whitewash victory. Also in the afternoon, Graeme Dott won yet another frame on a re-spotted black (after two in two days of Championship League action) on the way to a crushing 5-0 win of his own against Tian Pengfei, while fellow Scot Stephen Maguire beat 1997 world champion Ken Doherty 5-1.

Judd Trump was the TV match in the evening session as he took on The Captain Ali Carter, in a match many including myself expected to be close and gave Carter a good chance of winning. On the night though Ali didn't take the half chances on offer early and Judd kicked into top gear with some heavy scoring to record a 5-0 victory. He will now play his stable mate Zhang Anda in the last 16 after he crushed Alfie Burden 5-0, winning the final frame from 66-0 down to rub salt into the Londoner's wounds.

Elsewhere, Masters runner-up Barry Hawkins carried on from the Ally Pally with a decent 5-2 win against Scotsman Alan McManus to set up a tie with a fellow Scot Graeme Dott. The tale of the match from Hawkins seemed to be getting in first in most frames and building a commanding lead before Angles was given a chance.

The final two matches of the evening then went to deciders with Martin Gould recovering after squandering an early 2-0 lead as he made a big break in the final frame against Mark Williams who didn't have a chance. Finally, Ben Woollaston recovered from a 2-0 deficit early in the match and won the fourth frame after Murphy missed the final black. Shaun still went on to lead 3-2 and 4-3 but two good breaks from the Leicester cueist in the final two frames saw him come back to win 5-4.

Day 1 Results:

Mark Selby 5-0 Steven Hallworth
Stephen Maguire 5-1 Ken Doherty
Graeme Dott 5-0 Tian Pengfei
Barry Hawkins 5-2 Alan McManus
Judd Trump 5-0 Ali Carter
Zhang Anda 5-0 Alfie Burden
Martin Gould 5-4 Mark Williams
Ben Woollaston 5-4 Shaun Murphy

The bottom half of the draw kick off their bids for a Tempodrome Triumph tomorrow, with three more matches in the morning and the remaining five in the afternoon. Then in the evening the four second round matches from the top half of the draw will be played out with the same best-of-9 frames format.

You can read what I make of the bottom half of the draw this week in my pre-tournament preview here: http://cueactionsnookerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/german-masters-preview.html

Meanwhile, here is a quick preview of the four Last 16 matches that will be played out tomorrow evening.

Last 16 Top Half Preview: (Picks in Bold)

Mark Selby Vs Stephen Maguire - The top match in the draw here in a repeat of last years semi-final is certainly going to be a tough one to call. Both players had easy wins in their opening games although their respective opponents were both under par and could've put them under some pressure. You could see a little bit in the match with Selby and Hallworth that the Jester knew he wasn't going to be punished for his mistakes and after the first couple of frames he my have taken his foot off of the gas, but that only leads me to think that when put under pressure by Maguire that he will be fresh and primed to push on. Coming into the event both players were playing well in the Championship League and even showed glimpses in the Masters that they were striking the ball sweetly so it will be a tight contest. Often for the Scotsman in round one against Doherty (following the match from live scores) Maguire was often picking up the pieces with clearances after the Irishman had had his opportunities. Selby would be liable to make a lot more from those than the 1997 world champion and that could possibly be a deciding factor with the defending champions game being the tighter of the two.

Barry Hawkins Vs Graeme Dott - Another England Vs Scotland clash follows here with Hawkins and Dott. The Hawk comes into this event with the good form of his run to the Masters final and that continued in the most part in round one against McManus. Some patches of that match though were closely fought and he can expect a similar deal against another gritty player like the 2006 world champion. Dott made five breaks of 50+ in his win against Tian Pengfei, and took another frame on a re-spotted black, and he appears to have been battle hardened after finding something in his couple of days at Crondon Park last week. This could be an incredibly tight match as well, and you wouldn't be surprised to see a deciding frame one bit. Unfortunately for Dott he doesn't get as many big matches these days compared to Hawkins and this could well be a deciding factor in a match that could turn on one pivotal moment.

Judd Trump Vs Zhang Anda - A battle of the Grove Snooker stable mates is unleashed on the draw once again here, so once again manager Django will most likely be watching from behind a sofa somewhere!! Both players had comfortable matches but Judd was certainly dominant in his win against Ali Carter. The scoring was good from Judd and the tough pressure shots were all going in. Zhang's match with Alfie appeared to be more scrappy in the early stages, but after winning the first couple of frames he didn't look back and he can pose a challenge to Judd here. The important thing for the Bristolian in this contest will be consistency of performance. We saw in the Masters after one of the matches of his life against Neil which was followed by an unexpected loss to Barry Hawkins. He recognised in his post match interview after beating Ali that he knew this was a big event for him with Robertson and O'Sullivan failing to qualify and that is already heaping a lot of pressure on himself at an early stage of the event. Zhang will of course be a big underdog with the bookies and he's on a bit of a hiding to nothing in this one so don't be surprised if he pushes the former world Uk champion all the way.

Martin Gould Vs Ben Woollaston - Both of these guys had tough battles to get through and will just be relieved to be here despite both also playing very well. Gould had to hold on and win the last two frames after leading 2-0 earlier in the match. Gould has been a very solid player over the last year or so and I think this may be another opportunity to kick on. Ben Woollaston also seemed to be impressive against Shaun Murphy. Murphy had also led 2-0 and missed the black to go 3-1 ahead. He still managed to go 4-3 up and at this stage he'd also made breaks of 70, 71 and 90 but 68 from Ben in the decider was key to getting over the line. I'd expect this to be another close match after their tight battles in round one and there's not too much to choose between them. They've already shown great bottle this week, but something clearly has to give here and i'm inclined to lean towards Martin with the more consistent year he is having.


Some quality matches coming up tomorrow then, with Brecel Vs Xintong in the first round on Eurosport in the morning followed by world champion Stuart Bingham Vs Fergal O'Brien in the afternoon, while the evening sessions TV match is yet to be announced though the likelihood is that defending champion Mark Selby's match with Stephen Maguire will be the front runner.

STAT ATTACK: German Masters

Having published my full preview of the German Masters, there's always room for more and that is what we have here with the Stat Attack. From head to heads to who has played in the most matches at the German Masters it's all here to add an extra insight...

When Stephen Maguire and Ken Doherty meet in round one it will be the first time the pair have met in any kind of ranking tournament since the 2011 Australian Open, when Doherty was a 5-2 winner.

Meanwhile, Judd Trump and Ali Carter have not met in a ranking event since the Last 16 of the 2012 World Championships when Carter came back to win 13-12. However, the pair have met six times in the Championship League since that match.

Alfie Burden and Zhang Anda have met four times in their careers, with Alfie winning on each occasion. However, the last of these matches was in qualifying for the 2012 International Championship.

Shaun Murphy has a similar record against Ben Woollaston, having never lost to Ben in four meetings, including the 2013 German Masters and most recently at this season’s UK Championship.

Amazingly enough, Martin Gould and Mark Williams have never met in the final stages of a major ranking event, so their meeting in round one will be the first of that kind.

Mark Joyce meanwhile comes into his first round match with Mark Allen having beaten Allen in three of their four previous matches, including this seasons Australian Open.

The first round meeting of Liang Wenbo and Ryan Day will be the pairs first since their quarter-final in this event a year ago, which Wenbo won in a deciding frame.

Meanwhile Fergal O’Brien and Stuart Bingham will meet in round one for the third time this season alone, Fergal winning the last three frames of both of the previous matches to win 5-4 in Australia and 4-3 in the Ruhr Open.

In the five stagings of the German Masters from 2011 to 2015 there has never been a repeat winner, with two of the previous winners in Ding and O’Sullivan failing to qualify for the venue this year.

 

Watch out for a decider in the final stages. There were 9 in the 2015 edition from the Last 32 stages onwards at the venue, with all four quarter-finals finishing 5-4.

Last years finalists Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy have both played in the exact same amount of matches in their German Masters history (23), with Selby winning 19 and Murphy 18 after Shaun lost to Mark in that final.

 

Shaun Murphy is also the highest money winner out of anyone never to have won the event.

Michael Holt could be a man to watch this week in Berlin, having on 4 occasions already this season fallen to the eventual tournament winner.

 

Looking further into the event, not only did Wenbo beat his first round opponent in the 2015 edition, but there is potential that he could meet Stuart Bingham in the last 16 for the second year running after Liang beat Stuart 5-4 in that round a year ago.

 

Interesting statistics to chew over then before defending champion Mark Selby gets the event underway, while it has also been announced that Neil Robertson will join the Eurosport punditry team for the event after failing to qualify.