The remaining guys flying the flag of the seeds are Shaun Murphy who had to win a decider against Joe Swail, defending champion Ding Junhui, world champion Mark Selby, recent 6 reds champion Stephen Maguire, recent Paul Hunter Classic winner Mark Allen, Stuart Bingham and finally Graeme Dott.
Full Last 32 Results:
Ding Junhui 5-1 Jack Lisowski
Martin Gould 5-4 Joe Perry
Graeme Dott 5-2 Yan Bingtao
Shaun Murphy 5-4 Joe Swail
Stuart Bingham 5-3 Li Hang
Dominic Dale 5-2 Judd Trump
Alan McManus 5-3 Ronnie O'Sullivan
Stephen Maguire 5-1 Jimmy Robertson
Michael White 5-4 Neil Robertson
Ryan Day 5-4 John Higgins
Mark Williams 5-4 Barry Hawkins
Mark Allen 5-3 Andrew Higginson
Zhao Xintong 5-4 Marco Fu
Fergal O'Brien 5-1 Robert Milkins
Michael Holt 5-2 Ricky Walden
Mark Selby 5-2 Ken Doherty
Last 16 Draw: (Picks in Bold)
Ding Junhui Vs Martin Gould - Ding Junhui may be the defending champion here and in my view the best player of last season by miles of anyone else. However, having been out of competitive snooker since June ahead of this week his rustiness certainly showed at the beginning of his match against Jack Lisowski and had his opponent been playing anywhere near his potential he'd have probably beaten the home favourite or at least made it close. Martin Gould though is playing well at the moment and starting to find some form again after a tough couple of years on tour where he has fallen down the rankings quite badly, and I expect Martin to give Ding much more of a test than Lisowski did on Tuesday. However, that opening game did see Ding improve after the interval and possibly after getting that game under his belt he's worked away the cobwebs of his time out of the game since the Yixing Open and could possibly move through the gears this week to an overall tournament victory.Shaun Murphy Vs Graeme Dott - Graeme and Shaun seem to be drawn together a lot, and are often drawn together at big tournaments so there's plenty of games to go in terms of head to head. When it comes to recent meetings Shaun Murphy has won all of the last 5 including a World Open quarter-final, a UK Championship Last 16 tie and a World Championship last 16 encounter so all very important games. Shaun played incredibly well to beat Joe Swail who would've beaten most players in the draw with the performance he gave in that match. That was a good early test for Shaun who is confident and striking the ball well and he'll be confident tomorrow but he also knows he's in for an incredibly tough game. Graeme never rolls over easily and leaves everything out on the table after every game. He was under pressure today against Yan Bingtao when 3-0 became 3-2 but Graeme held on very nicely. The Scot's form isn't great right now but there's no reason why he couldn't beat Shaun tomorrow, but deep down I think that Murphy will just get the job done in a very hard fought match.
Stuart Bingham Vs Dominic Dale - This match is one of the matches I've picked out to go the distance tomorrow simply because of how they've both played in the first round. Dominic Dale finished off with consecutive centuries to see off Judd Trump who was very much in fine form coming into the tournament and Dale brushed him aside easily showing what superb touch he's in right now. Stuart meanwhile had to watch for a great deal of the start of his match against Li hang who was making big breaks to move 3-1 up before Bingham improved to win all of the last 4 but it did show that he's vulnerable to defeat against Dominic who has been very steady in 2014 so far ever since he won the Shoot-out in January which seems to have really boosted his confidence and he's had a lot of good runs since then in events. For me this will be another good victory for Dale as he continues to climb back up the rankings.
Stephen Maguire Vs Alan McManus - I'm going to start off here by talking about Alan McManus who is in very fine form at the moment and has climbed back well inside the top 32 of the rankings after some impressive 2014 form that he's shown, much like Dominic Dale. Alan reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship with plenty of good wins in qualifying and at the Crucible. Over the last year Alan has been very impressive and has shown he can still beat anyone on his day including Stephen Maguire in this match who will have a very tough time on his hands. Stephen's been having a moan this week about the tables and conditions and coming off of the back of a win at the 6 Reds I suddenly thought that he always seems to play his best when he's angry because it keeps him pumped up for a fight and is a sign that he really means business. Sometimes I think if you're a Maguire fan and you can see him starting to get angry it can be as good a sign as it is bad because it means he's up for the fight and knows he can play so much better and wants to play so much better than he is. So maybe is Stephen gets a bee in his bonnet this week it could perhaps work in his favour.
Ryan Day Vs Michael White - Both of these 2 players recorded very impressive deciding frame wins in the Last 32 having to come from behind and reel off a series of frames. Ryan Day played incredibly well against John Higgins showing how his form has turned around in the last year once more and that he is still a very dangerous customer who belongs in the top 16. John had control at 4-2 but Ryan put together 3 very good breaks in the last 3 frames to steal the match. Meanwhile, I wouldn't say that Michael White's form has been great since his 2013 World Championship quarter-final and perhaps the pressure to succeed is a burden on his shoulders but he does have a very good trait of being able to hang on in games without necessarily playing very good snooker. On days like he had today you can get away without playing great for a whole match as long as you hold on at the key points which is what he did in the end but unlike today when he went 3-0 down in good time, he will need to sharpen up on his safety and play well from the very first shot against Ryan because his fellow Welshman is playing good snooker once again.
Mark Allen Vs Mark Williams - This 2nd round clash should be another very tight match between 2 left handers that are pretty evenly matched when they're both on their game. Mark Williams has been working very hard in recent months both on the table with a new cue and off of the table on his health and fitness and I think it will all have a positive effect on his game as he looks to get back into the top 16. These are the types of games he knows he'll have to win to do it though and make his hard work pay off and I think he has a brilliant chance. Mark Allen is coming off of a few good results in Euro Tour events and he'll be desperate to convert that to a big ranking event and with the draw opening up as it is this could certainly be his week.
Zhao Xintong Vs Fergal O'Brien - A lot of people will look at this match and see one thing that will sway their minds to picking a winner and that is an incredible young Chinese player with bags of potential and a host of big wins already under his belt after so few matches competing with the best and at such a young age too. What they may miss is that his opponent Fergal O'Brien is one of the hardest players to beat and with form under his belt too not only will he upset a players rhythm he can keep a player in his seat for very long periods of a match and make him go cold. Fergal in my view these days is very underrated just because of his age and people don't always see the threat that he poses. Making the Gdynia Open final in February was no fluke and neither was picking up convincing victories over Mark Allen at the Australian Open and Robert Milkins on Tuesday in the Last 32. O'Brien is very solid and pretty consistent still which with all his experience added to that should make him the hot favourite for this encounter.
Mark Selby Vs Michael Holt - I think the destination of this match and how the match goes depends really on how Michael Holt can play. If he isn't at his best the likelihood is that he'll get beaten against a Mark Selby who's riding high on the crest of a wave right now, but if Michael can play at his best he can beat anyone including the World Champion who wasn't necessarily at his best today and was ill last week and could start to feel fatigued the further this week goes on if he hasn't recovered 100%. Michael has a very good chance of victory here if he plays well and I expect him to at least make this a close match with good memories of Shanghai from last year in his mind. In my view though Mark just finds a way of winning these types of games however well his opponent is playing, especially with the kind of high he is on at the moment.
To me this looks like an incredibly strong Last 16 line-up even though 9 of the 16 seeds are already which shows how much strength there is outside of the top 16 on the current tour and how many quality players there are that can give the top top players a very good game. I'm incredibly excited to see how the rest of the week pans out because right now I couldn't call a winner of the tournament because I think it's that wide open.
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