Click to view the revised rankings…
As is often the case, it was a tough day for some of the local wildcards during day one of this year’s Shanghai Masters but there were a couple of exceptions nonetheless…
Of all of today’s today’s seeded players involved during the last 16 stage, the man under the most pressure was without doubt Scotland’s Jamie Burnett. Not only was he up against the highly talented Tian Pengfei, a man who coming into the match had won his previous three wildcard matches, but unlike anyone else involved today, he was also fighting for a place in the last 16 and the extra ranking points that would accompany it. With the added pressure of being on the main table in front of a crowd rooting for Tian, many were tipping an upset here.
Bearing all of this in mind, to come out of the match with a 5-2 win was a very good result for Jamie who now moves straight through to the last 16 and a potential tie with either Ryan Day or Andrew Higginson, the latter also a winner today against Rouzzi Maimaiti.
Other familiar names to progress included Dave Harold, Martin Gould and Joe Delaney, all of whom won relatively comfortably although Martin was pushed somewhat by young Li Hang.
The final seeded winner though was Ken Doherty who not for the first time in his career, pulled off an impressive comeback to turn around a 2-4 deficit and scrape through by the skin of his teeth against Mohammed Sajjad.
So what about the upsets? The unfortunate duo were Mike Dunn and surprisingly the improving Robert Milkins who were defeated by Mei Xiwen and Jin Long respectively. For two players both chasing a place in the top 32 when the rankings are revised in October, this is a real set-back and they will be hoping for the likes of Higginson and Gould to join them on the plane home sooner rather than later.
Results:
Jamie Burnett 5-2 Tian Pengfei
Andrew Higginson 5-2 Rouzzi Maimaiti
3. Ken Doherty 5-4 Mohamed Saijad
Robert Milkins 3-5 Jin Long
Dave Harold 5-1 Passakorn Suwanawat
Mike Dunn 1-5 Mei Xiwen
Martin Gould 5-3 Li Hang
Joe Delaney 5-1 Li Yan