Roewe Shanghai Masters Wildcards

It would appear that there will be seven wildcards appearing in the main draw for the Roewe Shanghai Masters this month. Their matches will be played on Monday 29th September and according to this document, and the official tournament format, this will mean that the schedule is:

Monday 29 September
3pm

Ricky Walden v Zhang Alda

Judd Trump v A Bu La Jiang

Jimmy White v Xiao Guodong

Anthony Hamilton v Li Yan

7.45pm

Andy Hicks v Li Yuan

Tom Ford v Yu Delu

Stuart Pettman v Cao Xinlong

Also taking place on the Monday evening will the qualifying match held over from Prestatyn between Liang Wenbo and Atthasit Mahitthi. The winner will play Mark Allen for a place in the last 32 on Tuesday morning.

Roewe Shanghai Masters Qualifying Quotes Round-up

Here are a selection of quotes from the players following the final qualifying matches for Shanghai yesterday as reported on SkySports.

Jimmy White:

“I played very well, I had to if I wanted to beat Ken,”

“I was very solid today and it’s great to have qualified for the first two events.

“I’ve got used to the conditions at Pontin’s now, which is important as the guys who play here all the time have an edge.

“I’m looking forward to China because snooker is very popular there, although to be honest I’m enjoying the game so much at the moment it doesn’t matter where I play.”

Ken Doherty:

“It’s a bad result, it was a baptism of fire for me,”

“Jimmy got off to a flyer and I was always playing catch-up. It’s hard coming here, you have to get your hands dirty and get on with it, but fair play to Jimmy because he deserved to win.”

Steve Davis:

“Any win is a good win,”

“I wasn’t expecting too much and Gerard was probably favourite having played a match here yesterday. But he didn’t play great today.

“It’s funny to be here and see people like Jimmy, Ken, Mark Williams and Matthew Stevens. I looked at the monitor where all the matches are listed and thought ‘wow, there’s some fantastic games on today’.”

Anthony Hamilton:

“I played solid, but a 5-1 scoreline was a hit flattering,”

“It could have easily been 2-2 at the interval, but I stuck in there and didn’t give him many chances. It really wasn’t as comfortable as 5-1 suggests, but you’ve got to win those scrappy frames. Once I’d won them I started to play a lot better.”

And Dave Harold told The Sentinel:

“It was a little bit of a shock to the system going back to Pontin’s, especially having reached the final in Belfast,”

“In Belfast I played in front of a big crowd, but there was no one in the crowd here.

“But I’m so used to playing here that I knew what I had to do. I played solidly, it was another good win for me.”

“I was feeling the pressure. Everyone expects you to win because of what I achieved in Belfast,” added Harold.

“But I played well from the word go. I twitched a little bit to get over the winning line, but there were no scares.”

“It’s tremendous to have qualified for Shanghai for the second season in a row. I’m looking forward to playing Ding.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. To qualify for the first two ranking events has been great – and of course getting to the final in Belfast.”

Roewe Shanghai Masters Qualifying – Day Four (updated)

Today marked the final day of the Shanghai Masters Qualifiers and other than the match involving Liang Wenbo and Atthasit Mahitthi which has been held over until the venue, all of the matches have now been completed. Click here for the full draw.

Afternoon Matches

Day to remember for legends

With 14 world championship finals and six world titles between them both Steve Davis and Jimmy White are undoubtedly snooker legends, but success in recent years has been somewhat harder to achieve. Today however, both showed that they still have the talent and they still have to hunger for the game by winning their final qualifying matches this week and qualifying for the TV stages of the Roewe Shanghai Masters later this month.

First to win was Jimmy White who recorded a stunning 5-1 win over 1997 world champion Ken Doherty. Again as in many of his matches this season White’s performance wasn’t one full of high breaks, but his determination and ability to fight this week was enough to beat an opponent playing his first ever match at Prestatyn. With the venue being as small and as intimate as it is, Ken can be forgiven for being a bit lost away from the TV venues that he has become accustomed to, but he will nevertheless be disappointed with this latest setback. Hopefully he will be back though, Ken is one of the nicest guys on the tour and is still classy enough to fight with the best.

White was then joined in the TV stages by six times world champion Steve Davis who recorded a very impressive 5-3 win over the dangerous Gerard Greene. Greene on the back of a good win yesterday against Steve’s namesake Mark was always going to be a tough but to crack but breaks of 64, 50 and 54 were enough to see him home. Davis will meet defending champion Dominic Dale in Shanghai in what is bound to be another close match.

Fellow veterans follow suit

Northern Ireland Trophy finalist Dave Harold kept up his brilliant form today with an excellent 5-1 win over Rod Lawer. The most impressive aspect of Dave’s performance today was his scoring which with breaks of 62, 84, 44, 83 and 41 ensured that Lawler was always on the back foot.

Similarly impressive was Ireland’s Fergal O’Brien who won 5-3 in what was a high quality encounter with Ian Preece, highlighted by a break of 137 in the penultimate frame. Preece who yesterday recorded the highest break of the week and of his career fought well to level the match at 3-3 but Fergal moved up a gear when he had to and sealed the win.

Also progressing were Anthony Hamilton who won 5-1 against livewire Michael Holt and interestingly the 1995 World semi-finalist Andy Hicks who won his third match of the week in beating Michael Judge 5-2. In a match where nearly every frame seemed to go the distance, Hicks managed to follow White’s example and keep his nerve in these situations

Youth hits back

The veterans didn’t have it all their own way today however as Joe Swail slipped to a 5-3 defeat against teenager Judd Trump. In a performance highlighted by a tremendous break of 135 Trump showed some of the promise that has put him up to a career high position of 41 in the rankings to earn a match with Mark Selby in the last 32

Evening Matches

Welsh Wins

Two of the most comfortable wins tonight belonged to Welsh pair Matthew Stevens and twice world champion Mark Williams who both recorded 5-1 wins tonight. Stevens overcame Alan McManus, gaining some measure of revenge following defeat to the Scot in last week’s Northern Ireland trophy. Williams meanwhile beat Mark Joyce by the same scoreline as his quest to regain a place in the top 16 goes on.

Big Breaks

The match of the day however was that between Stephen Lee and Leicester’s Tom Ford. Ford started brilliantly with a run of 106 which set him on the way to a 4-1 lead and seemingly a comfortable win. Lee showed his class however and fought back well taking the next three frames. With the scores level though, Ford finished off the match as he started it with his second century of the match to seal an excellent win.

Similarly Stuart Pettman secured a place in Shanghai by winning the last two frames in his match against Nigel Bond to win 5-4. The match got off to a flying start with first Bond making a break of 119 before Pettman went one better with a 120 and then 114 to move into the lead. Bond then fought back to go 4-3 ahead following a lengthy seventh frame but it was Pettman who was to prevail and earn a shot at world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan in Shanghai.

Five star performances

Less close however were the matches involving Jamie Cope and Stuart Bingham. Cope, looking to break into the top 16 for the first time this season managed to see off Welshman Jamie Burnett without losing a frame whilst Bingham did likewise against 36 year old Mike Dunn.

Today’s results in full:

Round Four

Steve Davis 5-3 Gerard Greene 19-65(50), 80(64)-34, 74(50)-0, 68-18, 65(54)-25, 40(30)-70(40), 60-68, 57-34

Dave Harold 5-1 Rod Lawler 92(62)-0, 84(84)-0, 71(44)-38, 83(83)-4, 36-61, 53(41)-6

Fergal O’Brien 5-3 Ian Preece 80(50)-53(39), 57(57)-66(48), 66(39)-12, 74(50)-0, 37-74, 0-90(82), 137(137)-0, 63(36)-18

Ian McCulloch 2-5 Ricky Walden 66-44, 70(40)-13, 8-46, 46-63, 50-73(42), 0-69(40), 14-73(35,38)

Joe Swail 3-5 Judd Trump 0-135(135), 69-22, 38-54, 42-64, 77(66)-16, 73-63, 0-92(92), 52-65(38)

Ken Doherty 1-5 Jimmy White 37-92(44), 28-73, 0-82(82), 24-80(42), 88(50, 38)-0, 8-70(37)

Anthony Hamilton 5-1 Michael Holt 62(32)-39, 66(52)-54, 76(76)-32(32), 61(43)-14, 48(44)-83(72), 71(67)-28

Michael Judge 2-5 Andy Hicks 66-67(38), 67(40)-54(54), 79-6, 25-69(39), 0-71(59), 23-86(82), 43-73(64)

Barry Hawkins 5-2 David Morris 73(56)-12, 66-54(54), 6-85(70), 67(47)-21, 49(44)-70(38), 87(49)-4, 103(103)-0

Stuart Bingham 5-0 Mike Dunn 70-34, 71(38)-36, 94(68)-52, 74(74)-10, 70-42

Stephen Lee 4-5 Tom Ford 0-106(106), 9-71(71), 87-25, 14-81(45,35), 13-69(56), 64(36)-14, 71(56)-64, 65(40)-1, 0-138(100)

Mark Williams 5-1 Mark Joyce 97(38,37)-4, 53(41)-54(37), 101(77)-4, 68(67)-43, 76(38)-28, 63(39)-60(35)

Matthew Stevens 5-1 Alan McManus 67-37, 70(46)-43, 81(80)-0, 74(73)-28, 1-83(69), 69(36)-28

Jamie Cope 5-0 Jamie Burnett 69-48, 71(42)-45, 67(33)-55(55), 81(48)-1, 62(45)-17

Nigel Bond 4-5 Stuart Pettman 119(119)-18, 0-120(120), 1-115(114), 74-49, 70-1, 0-88(88), 66-13, 47-72, 13-72