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**Mr P** · 3 September 2010, 08:42 AM

Are those times UK times, or Shanghai times?

**ltfc39** · 3 September 2010, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by Mr P View Post

Are those times UK times, or Shanghai times?

Shanghai time. If it was BST, they would be playing at 4 o'clock in the morning!

**Looki** · 3 September 2010, 08:50 AM

Originally Posted by Mr P View Post

Are those times UK times, or Shanghai times?

Local times. Subtract by 7 and you'll get the British times.

**Mr P** · 3 September 2010, 08:52 AM

Oh god.

I doubt I'll be watching much of it then!

**Odrl** · 4 September 2010, 02:16 PM

Finally, major televised snooker returns after four months. It's been hard to wait until September, but what can you do... It's going to be even worse waiting nearly three months for the next tournament.

It just makes this event all the more special. Not that it wouldn't be special anyway, with the always interesting wildcard round, and (for us Europeans) the early morning matches.

It's a slightly different situation than it used to be in previous years. When this was the opening event of the season, it was always hard to predict what kind of form players were in. There would usually be some surprising results, with qualifiers going far in the tournament, and some more predictable results, with a couple of the top players doing well, particularly those who are not as affected by the summer break, like O'Sullivan for example.

Well, this is still the opening event of the season in many ways, but most players are already in "competitive mode" this year. Perhaps this will result in more of the top players coming through the earlier rounds, and better snooker in general? It's tough to say, but it's sure going to be interesting finding out...

Let's see what the draw looks like...

Quarter 1:

O'Sullivan v. Burnett/Tian
Day v. Higginson/Maimaiti
Fu v. M.Davis
Maguire v. Trump

With O'Sullivan's absence, a very open and unpredictable top quarter. The three remaining seeds are players who have struggled to perform recently, and are not among the immediate tournament favourites here. Perhaps this is a chance for Tian Pengfei to impress again. His most famous victory so far was the one over O'Sullivan at the China Open last season, but I'm sure he'll be happy to see the draw opening up for him after O'Sullivan withdrawal. Tian's match against Burnett is effectively a last32 match now, even though it's part of the wildcard round. Another thing worth mentioning is Tian's record in wildcard matches, where he's been successful three times in a row now, including a victory over a possible last16 opponent - Andrew Higginson.

Other than Higginson and Tian, another player who could come through here is Ryan Day. He has struggled somewhat over the past year, but before that, he played some good snooker to get this high in the rankings, a lot of it in the Chinese events. He seems like a player who easily adapts to the conditions in China, so I expect him to play well here. If he should meet Tian in the last16, it would be a repeat of this year's BTV Cup final, where it was Tian who won convincingly, 9-3.

The second quarter-finalist in this part of the draw could be any of the remaining four players. Mark Davis is the outsider, but he's had some good results recently, and seems to be playing some of the best snooker of his career. Fu is the kind of opponent who is often vulnerable in 1st rounds, and with all his inconsistency, you can never really tell if he is up for a tournament. I've always expected him to raise his game in China, but it hasn't really happened, so perhaps it doesn't suit him particularly.

But leaving those two players aside, it's Maguire against Trump that is the more interesting prospect. Trump comes here as the winner of the recent event in Germany, so his form must be quite good. But it takes more than form to do well in this event, as Trump discovered when he was poorly prepared for China in the past. But he's a year older now, and I'm sure he would like to improve on the past season, which was not that great. Neither was Maguire's for that matter. Even though he had some decent results, it's been a long time since he last played well enough to win a tournament. I find it hard to commit here, but with his class and experience, I think Maguire is still a slight favourite to come through here.

Quarter 2:

Williams v. Walden
Dott v. Doherty/Saijad
Cope v. S.Davis
Ding v. Milkins/Jin

The second quarter is perhaps even more interesting, particularly the first two pairs. Williams against Walden is probably the most exciting 1st round prospect, or at least on par with Robertson and Ebdon. It's a match featuring two great specialist for Chinese events. Williams' record in Asian ranking events is matched only by Hendry's, but what is even more telling is how he has performed in China in recent years. Even when he struggled, which was quite often, he was still able to look like his old self in the Chinese events, winning the China Open in 2006 and 2010. He was very good for most of last season, one of the the better players in fact, and with the absence of O'Sullivan and Higgins, he finds himself as one of the top favourites here, a situation he hasn't really been in for at least five years. But his problems start as early as 1st round, where he drew one of the very few qualifiers who are possible title contenders themselves. Ricky Walden is of course a former winner of this event, and a player whose best performances have come mostly in China. He finished last season poorly, and threw away the chance to get into the top16, but he's had a long break to get over that, and I'm sure he'll be highly motivated to do well here.

Graeme Dott is also back as a seeded player, and he is another player with a good overseas record. He won the China Open in 2007, before his drop down the rankings, and it looks like he is back to that sort of form. He must be full of confidence after reaching the World final, but one thing that could work against him here is the fact that he didn't feature heavily in the minor ranking tournaments in the last couple of weeks. Ken Doherty is another player with the class to come through here, but realistically, Williams must be the favourite.

The other big name in this part of the draw is Ding, and his draw looks a lot easier. He is a big favourite in his 1st round match, and if he comes through, a reasonably big favourite in the 2nd round as well. He could meet Jamie Cope, who is here as a seeded player with Higgins being suspended. Cope did beat Ding in the Welsh Open last season, which was his last bit of glory before he embarrassed himself in the next round, as well as in the 1st round of the WC. So I would think he is not exactly full of confidence at this point in time, but he has played well in China before, particularly in reaching the final of the 2007 China Open. Alternatively, Ding could meet Steve Davis, which is quite a different prospect. As well as being primarily a great tactician, Davis also comes here on the back of a great WC and a pretty good tournament in Germany. But as he has admitted himself, he sometimes can't be bothered to properly prepare for events like this one, so I don't really expect that much from him. I think this part of the draw will mainly come down to what kind of form Ding is in. He hasn't featured at all in the minor tournaments so far this season, so he could be a bit rusty. But his natural break-building ability is so reliable that he could well find some magic very quickly.

Quarter 3:

Carter v. Harold/Suwannawat
Allen v. Bingham
Liang v. Stevens
Murphy v. Lee

The third quarter is quite strong, with four very good seeds. Harold and Bingham are two very respectable qualifiers, but on first glance, it looks like it's between Carter and Allen for the first QF spot. Carter started last season slowly, but finished it with three successive SF appearances, including the China Open. But traditionally, Chinese events have not been particularly successful for him, and he admitted himself that he prepares better for the majors. Allen had a pretty good season as well, playing well quite consistently in most of the tournaments. It's hard to call this one, I suppose it's possible that Allen starts the season in better form, but there really is no way of telling. In fact, I can't even remember these two ever playing each other off the top of my head.

Liang Wenbo, last year's finalist, has been pretty quiet in recent times, and as a result, he has dropped down the rankings again. If he wants to stay in the top16 and benefit a bit more from that position, he needs a good result here. Stevens is a tricky 1st round opponent, but with all his class, he is the qualifier in this pair, and he rarely plays to his potential these days. But having said that, he did play some decent snooker last season, so it could go either way. It will be interesting to see if Liang has improved any more, and how well he copes with the pressure and expectations of the home crowd this time round.

Murphy against Lee could be a good one as well, but if Murphy plays his best, he should prevail. He was quite impressive in the Premier League on Thursday, so he must be up for this tournament as well. In last season's China Open, he was the only seed other than O'Sullivan to go out in the 1st round, so he can be caught off guard. But then again, he did win the Wuxi Classic in the summer, with a remarkable comeback against Ding in the final. If he was to meet Liang in the 2nd round, it would be a repeat of last year's SF, where Liang won unexpectedly. This year, I have a feeling Murphy might be up for some payback.

Quarter 4:

Selby v. Dunn/Mei
Hendry v. Gould/Li H.
King v. Delaney/Li Y.
Robertson v. Ebdon

The final quarter is another interesting one, with some great prospects. A possible encounter between Hendry and Gould being one of them. Hendry didn't impress last season, and he rarely impresses early in the season these days, so I don't expect much from him. He didn't play much in the minor events either. But you never know, he might find something. I don't know what kind of mental state Gould is in after the WC, but I would expect he is quite confident. He really did play some good stuff. It's just a question if he can reproduce that sort of form consistently. But whatever happens, I would consider Selby the favourite in this part of the draw. It seems like he has finally found a bit of consistency, so I don't expect him to play many bad tournaments this season. He is such a laid-back character as well, so he should easily adapt to any situation. He seems to like playing Hendry as well.

Robertson against Ebdon is another great prospect, one of the two most exciting 1st round prospects for me. Robertson is the better player at this point in time, one of the best in the world in fact, but I'm not really sure about his chances in this tournament. He seems to be winning his 1st round matches pretty consistently, but that's about as far as his consistency goes. And this time, he's really got a tricky opponent. China isn't Robertson's favourite place either, I don't think he's ever got past the 2nd round. I think Robertson will play an important part this season, but as far as this tournament is concerned, I think he's quite vulnerable. He wouldn't be the first to take it easy for a while after a big success, such as winning the WC. Ebdon is no model of consistency himself, but his last ranking event title did come in China in 2009, as did his last (convincing) win over Robertson a couple of months ago. Snooker may not have been the most important thing in his life recently, but I have a feeling he could win a couple of matches here.

I wouldn't completely rule out Mark King either. As for the wildcards, Li Hang, Li Yan and Mei Xiwen have all had some success before, so it will be interesting to see them as well.

Possible QF lineup:

Tian Pengfei v. Stephen Maguire
Mark Williams v. Ding Junhui
Mark Allen v. Shaun Murphy
Mark Selby v. Peter Ebdon

Ok, that's quite enough of this over-analysis, it's time to enjoy the tournament. It's quite convenient for me that the matches are in the morning, so I don't have to choose between this and basketball. Instead, I get an entire day of fun next week.

**wildJONESEYE** · 4 September 2010, 02:32 PM

BST

Wild Card-Quarter Finals
1ST Session=7.30am
2nd Session=12.45pm

Semi Finals and Final
1ST Session=7.00am
2nd Session=12.45pm

might help for British people

**jrc750** · 4 September 2010, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by wildJONESEYE View Post

might help for British people

What would help even more is if it were on a channel i have

will it be streamed at all by some kind person ???

**Matt_2745** · 4 September 2010, 03:21 PM

I do love Odrl's previews.

**thinsy** · 4 September 2010, 03:51 PM

Pointless Facts! (I was bored!)

Only 6 of the 'top 16' are in the current PTC24 (PTC 24 player cut off!) and only 5 of the PTC24 have 'qualified' for the Roewe Shanghai Masters - And with Ronnie pulling out means only 10 of the PTC24 will be in China.

Out of the 5 PTC (EPTC) winners 2 are in the top 16. Out of the other 3 only 1 has qualified for China.

The most consistent player in the PTC rankings (the only player to have made 2 PTC finals so far) didn't manage to qualify for China.

There is only 1 amateur in the PTC24

PTC24 is based on current standings after the EPTC1

**Mr Snooker** · 6 September 2010, 07:06 AM

Rouzi Miamatti 1 andrew Higgison 0 any ideal country Rouzi Miamatti is from Jamie Burnett 1 Tiang Pengfei 0

**chasmmi** · 6 September 2010, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by Mr Snooker View Post

Rouzi Miamatti 1 andrew Higgison 0 any ideal country Rouzi Miamatti is from Jamie Burnett 1 Tiang Pengfei 0

With a name like that I would expect Rouzi miamatti's ideal country to be somewhere like Malaysia.

Sadly I have no idea where he is actually from.

(Sorry)

**kokokol** · 6 September 2010, 07:18 AM

He's Chinese as far as I know.

**spike** · 6 September 2010, 07:19 AM

A total clearance of 130 from Tian Pengfei. its now 1-1.

**Odrl** · 6 September 2010, 07:21 AM

Originally Posted by spike View Post

A total clearance of 130 from Tian Pengfei. its now 1-1.

And what a great break it was. Excellent start to the "TV season".

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Shanghai Masters 2010 - Round 1-QF discussions!

Shanghai Masters 2010 - Round 1-QF discussions!

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