The home fans at the Shanghai Masters will have been pleased to see their home favourite Ding Junhui advance to the Last 16 with an impressive showing against Stephen Lee. Ding will now play Stuart Bingham who caused an upset yesterday in beating Mark Selby.
Afternoon Session
Results
Ali Carter 5-3 Tian Pengfei
9-58(56), 1-126(44,82), 64-20, 66(60)-64(64), 89(88)-1, 55-19, 1-110(110), 62(36)-1
Shaun Murphy 5-1 Michael Holt
109(85)-12, 79(74)-0, 3-73(37), 78-53(36), 73(58)-3, 87(86)-43(38)
Joe Perry 4-5 Jamie Cope
68(68)-0, 97(97)-0, 33-64, 56(48)-60, 7-71(71), 77(40)-38(38), 30-63, 66(44)-19, 39-71(64)
Ding Junhui 5-2 Stephen Lee
70(46)-20, 132(132)-0, 93(93)-0, 0-72(45), 90(43,35)-36, 13-67(47), 76-26
The home fans will have been pleased to see their hero advance with a comfortable and impressive performance against Stephen Lee. In the process of taking the opening three frames Ding had runs of 46, 132 and 93 to show his break building was in good shape before Stephen finally got on the scoreboard with a 45 break to help him close the gap. After the interval Ding continued on his way with some more telling breaks, a 43 and 35 put him one away from victory before 47 break from Lee kept his slim chance of progressing alive. The way Ding was generally playing it did look as if Stephen wouldn’t have a great chance of taking the remaining frames and dully Ding closed out the next frame for a fine 5-2 win.
Shaun Murphy opened his campaign against Michael Holt looking to advance to the Last 16 in Shanghai for the first time after previous heavy defeats to Andy Hicks and Ian McCulloch in this tournament. The former World Champion managed to rectify his unusual poor showings in Shanghai with a comprehensive 5-1 victory over The Hitman. Breaks of 85 and 74 allowed Murphy to build a 2 frame advantage before Michael replied to take what would result in being his only frame of the match. Shaun then went on to take the final frame before the break to put himself in a commanding position. The match was then put even further into Murphy’s favour as he compiled a 58 break to open up a three frame lead. Murphy then finished the match with another high break, this time an 86 winning him the frame. Shaun will now go into unchartered territory in Shanghai where he will face Jamie Cope for a place in the Quarter Final stage.
While one of the Chinese players advanced earlier it was to be disappointment for the other, Tian Pengfei. After his impressive performances so far in the tournament, I really felt Tian had a chance against Ali Carter, especially with Carter’s below par performances of recent in the Far East. It wasn’t to be for Tian although Carter did get an early fright in finding himself 2-0 down thanks to a combination of three 40+ breaks. From there on though Carter started to get more into the match and pulled level before the interval with both players knocking in 60+ breaks in the 4th frame. The Captain continued his run upon the return opening up a 4-2 lead that included an 88 break. Tian stopped the rot in fine style with a break of 110 in the 7th to keep his hopes alive of another excellent win. This however proved to be his last hurrah of a fine tournament as carter took the next to advance 5-3 to face another home talent, Liang Wenbo.
The final match played was a nine frame thriller between Jamie Cope and Joe Perry. As with a lot of the matches so far this week, one player started the stronger and the other came back into the match. This match saw Joe Perry win the first two frames in impressive style with a 68 break in the first and a 97 in the second. It wasn’t until the third frame where Jamie would pot a ball and he then took the third and fourth frames to level the match. This appeared to swing things in to Jamie’s favour as he resumed taking the fifth with a break of 71. Perry would however draw level in the next only for Cope to regain his one frame advantage with only a possible two frames left to play. Both frames ended up being played as thanks in large to a 44 break, Joe forced a decider. Despite having a two frame lead early in the match, Joe couldn’t make it count and was to meet defeat thanks to a 64 break from Jamie which seen him win his first match in Shanghai.
Evening Session
Matches