The first invitational tournament of the new snooker season will be played this week when the stars of the sport head out to China to compete in the Shanghai Masters, a lucrative event which will set the winner up for a big campaign.
Judd Trump set himself up for the season to come when he took down the title a year ago and the world number one is in the field looking to make a successful defence of the crown. Some big players will be out to deny him though.
Recent Winners
2024 – Judd Trump
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
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 ever in snooker, the defending champion is the number one seed which means that Judd Trump is right at the top of the draw bracket, although as the world number one he would have been anyway. He is joined in the top half by three seeded players who all bypass the opening round. They are all former world champions in the form of Mark Selby, John Higgins and the man who was beaten in the world final in May in the form of Mark Williams.
Eight players will join the tournament from the first round in this half of the draw. The four top 16 men among them are former world champions in the form of Neil Robertson and the beaten finalist in this tournament a year ago in Shaun Murphy. Xiao Guodong will want to go well in front of his home fans while Ali Carter gets in after the withdrawal of Mark Allen. The four invited Chinese players are Pang Junxu, Scottish Open winner Lei Peifan and the amateur wildcards of Han Fuyuan and Qiu Lei.
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Bottom Half
Zhao Xintong isn’t the second ranked player in the world but prior to the World Championship he will be the number two seed in every tournament he enters as he is the reigning world champion. This is the first tournament he will have played since winning the world title and the other three seeds will hope that his newfound status will impact him negatively. They are the world number two Kyren Wilson, home star Ding Junhui and the most successful man in the history of this tournament in Ronnie O’Sullivan.
As with the top half, eight players will enter the bottom half in the first round. The top 16 players in this section are Barry Hawkins, Chris Wakelin and the Chinese pair of Zhang Anda and Si Jiahui. It won’t be long before Wu Yize doesn’t need an invite to this tournament but he has needed one here and is in the bottom half. The other three Chinese players are Yuan Sijun and the wildcard pair of Zhou Jinhao and Wang Xinbo.
Betting
There isn’t a massive amount of appeal in the outright market but I can’t ignore the 12/1 on the world finalist Mark Williams to have a big week. There was evidence on social media over the last few days that he made two 147s in an exhibition and although there wasn’t much pressure in that environment, you don’t make those kind of breaks if you are not hitting the ball well. Williams hasn’t landed in the toughest section and with enough players of quality to threaten Trump if not take him out before a possible semi-final meeting then I think there is enough in the price to get involved. Williams made the world final just three months ago and even at 12/1 I think he’s the pick of the outright market this week.
I’ll also play one in the bottom half of the draw where Wu Yize could be a big price at 50/1. He has a terrible first round draw against Barry Hawkins but if he comes through that he could easily find a part of the draw which opens right up. I do think Wu Yize will kick on from a very good season last term this time around and I also think he is going to be better over the longer distances as well. He performed well enough in the Championship League and should be solid in home conditions so at 50/1 I’ll have a small play on him as well.
Tips
Back M.Williams to win Shanghai Masters (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 13.00 with Boylesports (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back W.Yize to win Shanghai Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 51.00 with Coral (1/2 1-2)
