Snooker

Alread had a fair few early exits for some of the bigger names.

Neil Robertson lost 5-3 to Wu Yize in the qualifying round - who's opponent in the last 64 withdrew so his reward for beating Robertson is to go straight into the last 32 and a match against Noppon Saengkham.

Other "shock" results were Mark Allen losing 5-0 against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh as did Hossein Vafaei against Allan Taylor, Stuart Bingham lost 5-3 to Xiao Guodong and Jack Lisowski will have to remain waiting for his first ever ranking win after he went down 5-4 to Michael White.

World champion Luca Brecel has bowed out of the European Masters thanks to a 5-4 defeat to Barry Hawkins. Gotta be said, Luca hasn't looked anywhere near the level he showed in Sheffield this week in Germany.

Full quarter final draw.

Kyren Wilson v John Higgins
Judd Trump v Ashley Carty
Lyu Haotian v Mark Selby
Noppon Saengkham v Barry Hawkins

My pick Judd Trump still going strong, he’ll face John Higgins in the semi finals today while in the other half of the draw it’s Mark Selby v Barry Hawkins.

It’s a Trump/Hawkins final after Judd beat John Higgins 6-5 and The Hawk beat Mark Selby 6-4 in their respective semi finals.

It’s a Trump/Hawkins final after Judd beat John Higgins 6-5 and The Hawk beat Mark Selby 6-4 in their respective semi finals.

Trump I always feel should have won more of the big ones. If he just tightened up a tad.

Selby still my favourite player in the game today.

Trump I always feel should have won more of the big ones. If he just tightened up a tad.

Selby still my favourite player in the game today.

I think he has tightened up a lot mate, which is why he went on that run a few years back which really started with winning the World Title and the following season won five ranking titles followed by four the next yeae. But he's admitted himself that those 12-18 months of being a relentless winner took it out of him and playing became a chore for him, which is why the last couple of years have been really poor for him.

I am expecting him to have a great season this time round though - hence me picking him for the European Masters. And I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him win at least one of the Triple Crown events this season.

Having the tactical side of their game is something we could label at a lot of today's players though.

Trump is currently 3-1 down to Hawkins in the final.

Trump lost the final to Barry Hawkins as his wait for a ranking event goes on.

Shanghai Masters started yesterday with players ranked 1-8 getting a bye to the second round and players ranked 9-16 playing against a Chinese player in the opening round. The four highest ranked Chinese players not in the top 16 were selected as well as four wildcard selections.

Unfortunately the homegrown players didn't fare too well in the opening round with Ding (who being ranked 15th was playing a fellow Chinese lad anyway) and Fan Zhengyi (beat Gary Wilson) progressing into the last 16.

John Higgins continued his good form by becoming the first man into the quarter finals after beating Kyren Wilson 6-3. In his first round match, Higgo also became just the second man in history to hit 950 career centuries. Trump had a scare with Lisowski in their second round match after Judd led 5-2 only for Jack to claw it back and send it to a decider. Lisowski got in first in the final frame but then missed a tricky pink into the middle and Trump was able to mop up and set up a quarter final match with either Mark Selby or Hossein Vafaei.

First time I've heard Fergal O'Brien on commentary bar the odd frame in the Shootout. and I've gotta say I thought he was quite good. Wasn't the usual overly critical type, which quite a few of the snooker commentators seem to be. And didn't get every single shot wrong like his fellow paddy Ken Doherty.

Shanghai Masters started yesterday with players ranked 1-8 getting a bye to the second round and players ranked 9-16 playing against a Chinese player in the opening round. The four highest ranked Chinese players not in the top 16 were selected as well as four wildcard selections.

Unfortunately the homegrown players didn't fare too well in the opening round with Ding (who being ranked 15th was playing a fellow Chinese lad anyway) and Fan Zhengyi (beat Gary Wilson) progressing into the last 16.

John Higgins continued his good form by becoming the first man into the quarter finals after beating Kyren Wilson 6-3. In his first round match, Higgo also became just the second man in history to hit 950 career centuries. Trump had a scare with Lisowski in their second round match after Judd led 5-2 only for Jack to claw it back and send it to a decider. Lisowski got in first in the final frame but then missed a tricky pink into the middle and Trump was able to mop up and set up a quarter final match with either Mark Selby or Hossein Vafaei.

First time I've heard Fergal O'Brien on commentary bar the odd frame in the Shootout. and I've gotta say I thought he was quite good. Wasn't the usual overly critical type, which quite a few of the snooker commentators seem to be. And didn't get every single shot wrong like his fellow paddy Ken Doherty.

Where's this being broadcast? Eurosport?

Where's this being broadcast? Eurosport?

Aye mate, it'll be back on in about an hour with the O'Sullivan/Carter match.

A comfortable 6-3 win for Ronnie, sets up a quarter final with John Higgins. And Selby beat Vafaei in a decider where he'll play Trump in the quarters.

Tomorrow Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi will battle it out for the right to play either Neil Robertson or Ding Junhui, while Mark Williams takes on World champ Luca Brecel to set up a quarter final against Shaun Murphy or Rob Milkins.

Fan Zhengyi still flying the flag for China after beating Mark Allen 6-3 while World Champion Luca Brecel beat Mark Williams 6-4.

Robertson beat Ding and Milkins beat Murphy with both matches going to deciders.

Quarter finals are

O'Sullivan v Higgins
Selby v Trump
Fan v Robertson
Milkins v Brecel

O’Sullivan and Higgins went the distance with the Rocket picking up the victory in the end to advance to the semi finals where he’ll play Mark Selby who absolutely trounced Trump 6-1.

A 6-1 victory for Robertson over Fan and a 6-3 win for Brecel against Milkins completes the last four.

10-7 wins for both O’Sullivan and Brecel has set up todays final, which Ronnie currently leads 6-4.

Really enjoyable final that Ronnie just edged with a 11-9 victory.

He's now won it four times on the spin, dating back to 2017 when it was last a ranking tournament. Since it became non-ranking he's won 11-9 against Hawkins in 2018, 11-9 against Murphy in 2019 and today 11-9 against Brecel.

Next tournament is the British Open which starts on the 25th September.

British Open starts today with coverage on ITV4 for those in the UK.

Tonight is Barry Hawkins against 17 year old Stan Moody.

I didn't watch this afternoon's session due to doing some prep work for a job interview I have coming up so I haven't seen any of the tournament yet. But as I'm off work this week I will be watching the majority of this.

First four men into the last 32 are Ma Hailong (the latest Chinese whizzkid), Ali Carter, Oli Lines and Yuan Sijun.

They'll find out who they'll play in the next round later on today when the random draw is made. I think all tournaments would be better with a random drawing system like this as it gives the chance of matches like we've got today Murphy v Lisowski as well as giving the players further down the rankings a chance of getting slightly easier route to the business end of the tournament.

The other matches for the last 64 are;

Today's afternoon session

Lyu Haotian v Dave Gilbert
Noppon Saengkham v Fergal O'Brien
Judd Trump v Hammad Miah
Oliver Brown v Hossein Vafaei
Scott Donaldson v Liam Graham
Mark Williams v Stephen Maguire
Jamie Jones v Julien Leclercq
Neil Robertson v Si Jiahui

Today's evening session

Rob Milkins v Barry Hawkins
Ken Doherty v Matthew Stevens
Andy Hicks v Graeme Dott
Jimmy Robertson v Wu Yize
Rod Lawler v Dominic Dale
Anthony Hamilton v Xiao Guodong
Gary Wilson v Chris Wakelin
Jack Lisowski v Shaun Murphy

(there's some F***ing old timers there, it's like a Dad's Army of snooker)

Tomorrow's morning session

Fan Zhengyi v Ross Muir
He Guoqiang v Muhammad Asif

Tomorrow's afternoon session

Daniel Wells v Ashley Carty
Matt Selt v Zak Surety
Tom Ford v Ashley Hugill
David Grace v Sanderson Lam

Tomorrow's evening session

Ryan Day v Thor Chuan Leong
John Higgins v Robbie Williams
Mark Selby v Tian Pengfei
Kyren Wilson v Mark Allen
Ding Junhui v Liu Hongyu
Ishpreet Singh Chadha v Stuart Bingham

Because of the format of the draw it's difficult to pick a winner because we don't know who'll play who and all the top players could get each other but I'm gonna stick me neck out and pick Ding. Like quite a few of the top players he's due another win in a ranking tournament and I reckon this is the week for him.

First four men into the last 32 are Ma Hailong (the latest Chinese whizzkid), Ali Carter, Oli Lines and Yuan Sijun.

They'll find out who they'll play in the next round later on today when the random draw is made. I think all tournaments would be better with a random drawing system like this as it gives the chance of matches like we've got today Murphy v Lisowski as well as giving the players further down the rankings a chance of getting slightly easier route to the business end of the tournament.

The other matches for the last 64 are;

Today's afternoon session

Lyu Haotian v Dave Gilbert
Noppon Saengkham v Fergal O'Brien
Judd Trump v Hammad Miah
Oliver Brown v Hossein Vafaei
Scott Donaldson v Liam Graham
Mark Williams v Stephen Maguire
Jamie Jones v Julien Leclercq
Neil Robertson v Si Jiahui

Today's evening session

Rob Milkins v Barry Hawkins
Ken Doherty v Matthew Stevens
Andy Hicks v Graeme Dott
Jimmy Robertson v Wu Yize
Rod Lawler v Dominic Dale
Anthony Hamilton v Xiao Guodong
Gary Wilson v Chris Wakelin
Jack Lisowski v Shaun Murphy

(there's some F***ing old timers there, it's like a Dad's Army of snooker)

Tomorrow's morning session

Fan Zhengyi v Ross Muir
He Guoqiang v Muhammad Asif

Tomorrow's afternoon session

Daniel Wells v Ashley Carty
Matt Selt v Zak Surety
Tom Ford v Ashley Hugill
David Grace v Sanderson Lam

Tomorrow's evening session

Ryan Day v Thor Chuan Leong
John Higgins v Robbie Williams
Mark Selby v Tian Pengfei
Kyren Wilson v Mark Allen
Ding Junhui v Liu Hongyu
Ishpreet Singh Chadha v Stuart Bingham

Because of the format of the draw it's difficult to pick a winner because we don't know who'll play who and all the top players could get each other but I'm gonna stick me neck out and pick Ding. Like quite a few of the top players he's due another win in a ranking tournament and I reckon this is the week for him.

Did Ronnie not enter this ?

Did Ronnie not enter this ?

Withdrew due to medical reasons mate.

Not entirely sure what's going on with him because as well as this he's withdrawn from the Championship League and European Masters citing medical reasons. But he was alright to play the Shanghai Masters the other week, which he went and won.

So he's not played any of the ranking events yet this season, therefore not picking up points. But picked up a healthy 200 grand for his win in China.

Stuck a quid on a 16 match accumulator for today which results in 1749/1 odds.

Wins for Trump, Lyu, Noppon, Vafaei, Leclercq, Donaldson, both Neil and Jimmy Robertson, Williams, Dott, Doherty, Hawkins, Guodong, Gary Wilson, Lisowski and Dale.

Gotta admit, I'm not overly confident on a lot of them but what's a quid eh?

Well Hammad Miah is tearing up the pre-match predictions (as well as my bet) here with a century to take the opening frame against Trump.