The first proper tournament of the new snooker season is upon us and gets underway in China on Monday when the majority of the leading players in the game compete in the Shanghai Masters, an invitation event to kick the new campaign into life.
Ronnie O’Sullivan returned to Shanghai and took the title a year ago and the Rocket is back in China looking to make a successful defence of the trophy but you get the feeling the field is much more ready to dethrone him after a year of tournaments in China.
Recent Winners
2023 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2019 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2018 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2017 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
2016 – Ding Junhui
2015 – Kyren Wilson
2014 – Stuart Bingham
2013 – Ding Junhui
2012 – John Higgins
2011 – Mark Selby
The Format
We have a 24 man field for the tournament this week. The top 16 in the world rankings at the respective cut off point receives invites to the event as did the next four highest ranked Chinese players. The field is completed by four wildcards. The top eight ranked players head straight through to the second round with players ranked 9-16 coming in at the first round where they will play a Chinese player for the right to meet a top eight seed in the second round. The first round, second round and quarter finals will be over the best of 11 frames before we go up to the best of 19 frames for the two semi-finals ahead of the final on Sunday which will be over the best of 21 frames.
Top Half
As always the defending champion is the number one seed this week so that means that Ronnie O’Sullivan sits at the top of the draw bracket. He will be joined in the top half by three other top eight players who automatically head straight into the last 16 of the tournament. They are the former world champion Luca Brecel, player of last season Judd Trump and the home hero who had a good run at the UK Championship last season in Ding Junhui.
Eight players will compete in the top half from the first round with the Championship League winner Ali Carter among them. The pick of the names in the top half who start out in the first round is Mark Williams while Zhang Anda will be looking to deliver on home soil. Tom Ford is the other top 16 player in this half. The four Chinese players in this half of the draw are Si Jiahui, Zhou Jinhao, Qiu Lei and Wang Xinbo.
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Bottom Half
This is the half of the draw where the world champion Kyren Wilson will look to add to his world crown with a second Shanghai Masters title. Wilson bombed out on his opening day of the Championship League so has a bit to prove here. Mark Allen is the other leading player in this half and they are joined by former world champions Mark Selby, who won this tournament in 2011, and Shaun Murphy, for whom this is a big season with him defending a lot of money.
The big name among the players who are entering this tournament in the first round in the bottom half of the draw is John Higgins. The former world finalist Barry Hawkins is in the bottom half as is the man who lost in the title match in Sheffield last season in Jak Jones. The other player in the top 16 in this half is the Scottish Open and Welsh Open winner Gary Wilson. The four Chinese players are Pang Junxu, Cao Jin, Lyu Haotian and Zhou Yuelong.
Betting
There isn’t much in the way of value which jumps out at me in the outright market and in truth there isn’t anywhere in the draw where I can pick a hole and look to exploit a part of it which will open up so with that in mind I’ll just take what I think might be a bit of value in John Higgins. I read an interview where he said he is relishing these events because he doesn’t know if it is going to be the last time he will play in them and he has been working towards playing well in them.
Higgins is in a half of the draw where to be fair Lyu Haotian will take some beating in the first round but then Shaun Murphy and Kyren Wilson certainly have question marks around them. The former was having issues with his cue arriving if his social media posts are anything to go by while the latter has to get used to the world champion tag. I believe in Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Ali Carter the form players are in the top half of the draw so in the bottom half at 18/1 Higgins looks fair value to me.
Tips
Back J.Higgins to win Shanghai Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 19.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
