Monday 21 September 2015

Stat Attack: Shanghai Masters Review

After Kyren Wilson's fantastic victory in the Shanghai Masters, beating Judd Trump 10-9 in the final to win his first ever ranking event, it's time for me to look back on some of the weeks snooker with some well selected statistics.


One of the first interesting statistics that I've picked out, looks at unlucky Michael Holt. In the 4 main tournaments this season, Holt has lost to either the eventual tournament winner, or losing finalist. In the Riga Open and Australian he lost to the runners up in Tom Ford and Martin Gould. That was before losing to Ali Carter in the Paul Hunter Classic semi-finals and this week in Shanghai he lost to Kyren Wilson in the Last 16. So clearly, Michael Holt isn't playing badly at all this season and ending up unlucky with the draw.

In terms of a century count this week, I think the final tally's may reflect the overall usual Chinese conditions. 11 centuries were made in the 14 Last 32 matches, 4  centuries in the Last 16 games, just 1 in the quarter-finals, 2 in the best-of-11 semi-finals and 1 made by Judd Trump in the final. That totals up at 19 centuries for the final stages of the event.

Kyren was the 53rd seed for this years Shanghai Masters. That meant he had to play 9 matches in all, 7 of which were against players seeded higher than him. In all he played Vinnie Calabrese (5-0), Mark King (5-3) and Anthony McGill (5-4) in the qualifying stages to make it to Shanghai, before playing wildcard Wildcard Wang Yuchen (5-1) on arrival. Wins against Perry (5-2) , Holt (5-1)  and Ding Junhui (5-4) to make it down to the one-table set-up where he then overcame Mark Allen 6-1 and finally Judd Trump (10-9).

This years final was also the 3rd in the last 5 Shanghai Masters to go to a decider, two of which have seen Judd Trump as the loser after this year, the other being his 10-9 loss to John Higgins in 2012.

A decider is something that Neil Robertson isn't enjoying at the moment. He lost 5-4 to Jamie Cope in round one, now meaning that in the last 7 matches he's lost, spanning back to the German Masters, he's lost 5 of those games in a final frame shoot-out. Although, in the interest of fairness to Neil, he's also won 5 deciders in that period, 3 of which came in his win at the Gdynia Open.

Kyren Wilson's week sees him as the big ranking mover, up 32 places to a new ranking of 22 in the world, and No.18 on the provisional end of season rankings, although there is plenty of time for that to change.

The big loser in the world rankings post Shanghai was Xiao Guodong, after his runners-up money from 2013 came off, sending him down 9 places to 32nd.

It may come as a slight surprise that there was only one whitewash in the final stages in Shanghai, as Judd Trump overcame Robert Milkins 5-0 in the Last 32, while the highest break of 140 from Luca Brecel came in one of only three frames he managed to win, losing 5-3 to Mark Allen in round one.

Previous Stats Review

To really review the event in terms of statistics, it's worth having a look at some of the stats I picked out in my original Shanghai Masters Statistics Preview...

"One Last 32 that will take place on Monday sees John Higgins play Liang Wenbo. The pair have played 6 times previously, the last of which was at the 2015 Welsh Open, a tournament won by Higgins, and John has won every single won of their previous outings. The closest Wenbo has come to beating Higgins was at the 2012 World Championship when Higgins edged him out 10-9."

The form continued on this front for John Higgins as he beat Liang Wenbo 5-1 in this opening round match, making it 7 from 7 now for John against Liang.

"One head to head that may surprise a few people is that of the one between Mark Davis and Michael White. Despite Michael being the slightly higher ranked player, he's never beaten Mark in 7 professional meetings, something that the Welshman will be looking to put right on Wednesday."

Well, White couldn't put this right either, as Davis overcame him for an eighth time in eight meetings, 5-1 in the first round.

"When it comes to the actual tournament itself, the Shanghai Masters has been staged 8 times, with 8 different players winning it, while 3 of those 8 previous winners (Dale, Carter and O'Sullivan) are not in this weeks field."

Again this statistic can continue on to next year as Kyren Wilson is not only a first time winner in Shanghai, but a first time ranking winner full stop.

"Meanwhile, Shaun Murphy has an interesting statistic to look out for, having played in 8 deciding frames at the final stages of the Shanghai Masters, and 12 in total if you include qualifiers, which is the most out of anyone in the events history."

Shaun was certainly happy to add to his deciders played in Shanghai, which is now 9 in 7 years during the final stages, and 5 Last 32 matches in a row in Shanghai that he's taken into a final frame after he came back from 4-1 down to beat Peter Ebdon 5-4 in round 1 this week.

"Martin Gould will also be a dangerous opponent this week if he gets going like he did in Australia, having so far won 8 of his 10 matches played in the 2015/2016, averaging a break of 50+ in every 2.21 frames played, which is a rather impressive haul."

On this front Martin was a very dangerous player in Shanghai beating Barry Hawkins and former champion John Higgins before losing from 4-2 ahead against defending champion Stuart Bingham. That makes him 10 wins from 13 this season while he now averages a break of 50 or above in every 2.39 frames.


That's just about it from me on my statistical review of the weeks events in Shanghai. Just remember, any feedback on this new feature to the blog is welcome, while if there are any particular statistics you would like to know again the comments section of the blog or by tweeting me @CueActionBlog are to ways you can get your opinions across.

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