It should be an incredibly good event with all of the games top stars lining up in Shanghai including Ronnie O'Sullivan who of course picks and chooses his events these days, Ding Junhui who missed both of the European Tour events and the Australian Open, while Mark Selby pulled out of the 6 Reds through illness so it's good to see that he's well enough to compete. The Shanghai Masters for me signifies a key point in the calendar where the events start to come thick and fast between now and through the early stages of autumn and winter right up until the UK Championships.
Now it's time for me to look ahead at the draw and the guys that I think will come through it to reach the latter stages:
Quarter 1
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in bold)Ding Junhui Vs Jack Lisowski
Joe Perry Vs Martin Gould
Graeme Dott Vs Liang Wenbo/Yan Bingtao
Shaun Murphy Vs Joe Swail
For me this quarter is all about the big gun players of Ding Junhui, Shaun Murphy and Joe Perry in terms of finding our player who will make the last 4. Firstly, Ding Junhui hasn't played any snooker of any kind on the tour since his win at the Yixing Open AT1 which (to put things in perspective) ended with him winning the title on 21st June nearly 3 months ago. Having missed out on qualification for the Wuxi Classic he then didn't enter or participate in any of the Australian Open, or both ET's in Latvia and Germany as well as last weeks 6 Reds in Thailand. He may be defending champion and he may have had a very long rest at home presumably with his family but it's incredibly tough to tell how he'll play after such a long break from snooker and how much of that time would've been spent practising after his statement prior to the Masters earlier in the year that he'd put in next to no practice over the Christmas break and you have to wonder whether he's learnt from that here or not.
Shaun Murphy on the other hand seems to play in every event, simply because he loves the game and loves all of the travelling that comes with being a snooker player in the modern age. His recent displays have been mixed not making it past the Last 32 in either of the ET events and exiting Australia at the Last 16 stage as well which of course, was only his 2nd match. However, his record in Asia this season has been decent making the quarter-finals in Wuxi and more recently last week at the 6 Reds. Shaun always seems to be striking the ball well, and his confidence has been high since he won a couple of titles earlier in 2014. He won't mind me saying (on second thoughts he might but as we're here) that he has a niggling neck problem at the moment which he is working hard to try and get under control right now and things are improving with it which I think makes him more of a contender than I made him for the Paul Hunter Classic, because Shaun is never very far away from his best and it all depends on how things go on the week with Murphy.
Joe Perry also has to be a contender if he finds his form which he hasn't been able to do since making the final of the Wuxi Classic and losing out in a decider to his good friend Neil Robertson. I wondered at the time how long Perry would need to get over that and find his best again and it's proving to be a reasonable amount of time and he has quite a tough draw in this quarter to get through again this week if he's not quite at his very best.
Quarter Winner: Shaun Murphy
Quarter 2
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in bold)Judd Trump Vs Dominic Dale
Stuart Bingham Vs Li Hang/Chen Zifan
Stephen Maguire Vs Jimmy Robertson
Ronnie O'Sullivan Vs Alan McManus
This quarter is another immensely tough one to call with all of Judd Trump, Stuart Bingham, Stephen Maguire and Ronnie O'Sullivan being well capable of taking the title next Sunday but only one of them can go on and make the last 4. Starting with Judd Trump, he has yet another tough first round game against Dominic Dale (who he always seems to be drawn against) but Trump really has rediscovered his game in recent times matching a win in Australia with a an appearance in the final of the Paul Hunter Classic, playing some very good stuff there up until the final and when he's on top form Judd's a very daunting player to come up against and someone incredibly tough to stop and it will take someone very good to stop Trump from winning both the quarter and the whole event again this coming week.
Stephen Maguire is a very strong contender for this quarter. It may have only been the 6 Reds but that shouldn't de-value the fact that Maguire did play well last week and unlike players that seem to play consistently well across a season without always being totally sparkling, when Maguire's on form he's a hot prospect on the table and someone who plays with a very easy style and can make breaks with ease. He was also playing well going back to the Paul Hunter Classic and was unlucky to run into Judd Trump in the Last 16 but he has a very good record against Judd and wouldn't be too surprised if he gets his revenge out in Shanghai given the opportunity.
Ronnie O'Sullivan made his first appearance of the season in Furth last month, but this is his first appearance in China to play an event since last November and I'm still of the opinion that he doesn't enjoy travelling to China to play competitive events regardless of what he says. He quite possibly has the toughest of the first round draws against Alan McManus who really has been playing some excellent snooker over the last year and has steadily been climbing back up the rankings boosted by good runs in a lot of events. There's no doubt in my mind that Alan has a very good chance of beating Ronnie and I have a gut feeling that he will do.
Quarter Winner: Stephen Maguire
Quarter 3
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in bold)Neil Robertson Vs Michael White/ Niu Zhuang
John Higgins Vs Ryan Day/ Xu Si
Mark Allen Vs Andrew Higginson
Barry Hawkins Vs Mark Williams/Zhang Yong
The focus of this quarter in my opinion is all about Neil Robertson and Mark Allen as Barry Hawkins early season form has been mixed and doesn't really convince me that he'll have a strong run this week either, while John Higgins is becoming ever more unpredictable and his form this season hasn't been much better than his form of last year which was also inconsistent and really quite poor throughout with the odd flourish.
Neil's form this season has been very impressive of course winning the Wuxi Classic and making the final of his home tournament the Australian Open although his best in the Euro Tour events so far this season is only a Last 16 which is a little more uncharacteristic of Robertson who has been very consistent now for a few seasons. With such consistency you almost expect Robertson to make the latter stages of events even when he's not at his best, but in the last year (as he showed by making a century of centuries last season) he has always been very close to his best and never very far away from his next fantastic run whether it be to the quarter's of an event or beyond to another possible tournament victory. Neil has certainly become the complete player now.
Mark Allen meanwhile is playing well at the moment in smaller events as he showed in winning the Paul Hunter Classic, which is his 3rd Euro Tour event in around a year which is impressive going. Slightly more disappointingly though his form in the ranking events just doesn't seem to match. He has won 2 ranking titles which were both in China and both the Haikou World Open but in my opinion he doesn't challenge enough for these big ranking titles and I'd love him to prove me wrong and win another big title this week out in Shanghai but for some reason he can't recreate the magic of the ET's over a full week in the full ranking events as much as he should do, but that's just my view on things.
Quarter Winner: Neil Robertson
Quarter 4
Last 32 Draw: (Picks in bold)Marco Fu Vs Matt Selt/ Zhao Xintong
Robert Milkins Vs Fergal O'Brien
Ricky Walden Vs Michael Holt/ Yuan Sijun
Mark Selby Vs Ken Doherty/ Huang Jiahao
Finally, the bottom quarter of the draw features World Champion and world number 1 Mark Selby who is riding high on the crest of a wave at the moment, while Ricky Walden's record in Asia always makes him a better contender here than in the UK and he can contend for the quarter win this week showing form like he did to become the runner-up of the 6 Reds last week. Marco Fu will also be a big time contender for the title and the quarter this week as his record in Asia is also a lot better than in the UK and over the last year or so he has been working very hard to become a much more consistent snooker player.
Starting with Ricky Walden, he did play well to get to the final of the 6 reds last week but that's not quite got the same feel to it of a full ranking event which is where he needs to step up again to have a chance of contending for a spot in the last 4. Ricky is in good form at the moment having made the semi-finals of the Paul Hunter Classic and the quarter-finals before the summer break in the Australian Open where on both occasions it took a very much in form Judd Trump to stop him. He did overcome Mark Selby in the quarter-finals in Furth last month and given the chance this week there's no reason why he couldn't do the same again to make the quarter-finals in Shanghai.
Moving on to Mark Selby, he has been in incredible form since winning the World Championship in May and there's really a simple reason for that. Winning the World Championships is every snooker players lifelong dream, so to achieve it puts you on top of the world (literally) and that takes a lot of pressure off of a player to finally prove that they are at the top level of their sport and with Mark that has filled him with confidence and plenty of self-belief to go on and win a lot more titles. The thing for Mark this week will be how fully he has recovered from the illness that stopped him travelling to Thailand last week, because it's tough to go and play in an event in China when you're health is not 100% as Neil Robertson found out when he pulled off a miracle with a bad virus to make the China open final in April, but stuff like that really is rare but Selby is that kind of guy who always battles on.
Marco Fu however has been reasonably consistent with his start to the season without really drawing much attention to his performances or producing anything special which is why I get the feeling that he's due something fairly big this week in Shanghai. Marco did make the quarter-finals in Riga and was unlucky not to go on further there and he's become a much more consistent player who like Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan and to a certain extent at the start of this season Mark Selby, is picking when and where he plays more wisely. To take 2 examples he missed both the Australian Open and last weeks 6 Reds and I think that is simply to make more of an effort to peak for the bigger events at the business periods of the season.
Quarter Winner: Marco Fu
Tournament Runner-Up: Shaun Murphy
Tournament Winner: Marco Fu
It should be another very good week of snooker this week and I am really looking forward to seeing how it all shapes up as it's a very tough tournament to call in my opinion as the draw does shape up incredibly well and there are a lot of big names who are in title winning form this week so it will be something special that goes on to win the title next Sunday. I'll be back when I can throughout the week for updates on how the tournament is going.
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