The evening session of today’s Shanghai Masters got underway with only three of the four scheduled matches taking place. As reported earlier Stephen Maguire has had to withdraw from the event due to a shoulder injury, resulting in Barry Hawkins being given a walkover victory to the next round.
Evening Session
Results
Stephen Maguire w/d-w/o Barry Hawkins
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-0 Graeme Dott
80(41,39)-0, 74-67(rsb), 57(39)-45(32), 67-58, 101(101)-0
Mark Allen 2-5 Matthew Stevens
78(78)-8, 0-127(118), 1-120(120), 43-52, 53-66, 52-20, 0-99(69)
Mark Williams 5-3 Joe Swail
33-70(52), 67(66)-12, 43-67, 0-85(40,45), 64-52(52), 75(55c)-54, 119(101)-1, 67-65(51)
Crowd favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan got his event underway today against fellow former World Champion, Graeme Dott. Whilst the frame score may suggest otherwise, this was indeed a very close match and no doubt Graeme will be bitterly disappointed not to have even taken a frame where on another day he’d have possibly won! Such is snooker though, Dott failed to register a point in two of the five frames and the other three were very close run with one coming to a re-spotted black. The first frame of the match seen Ronnie O’Sullivan need two chances to wrap up the frame. From there the match would prove to be a close encounter. Whilst Graeme may have not won any of the frames, the second frame was won on a re-spotted black by Ronnie. The third and fourth frames both had chances for Graeme to get back into the match but today was one of those days where he couldn’t turn the chances into winning breaks. The victory for O’Sullivan was wrapped up with his first century break of the tournament, a 101.
The second match to finish this evening was that of former World Championship runner-up Matthew Stevens and Mark Allen from County Antrim, Northern Ireland. I managed to catch the latter part of this match between the two players who were battling it out to play Ryan Day in the next round. In the end it would be Matthew who would progress for an all Welsh affair.
Mark started this match well with a break of 78 only for Matthew to strike straight back in emphatic fashion. The Welshman rattled home back to back century breaks to give an indication of how well he was playing. A 118 break was soon followed by a 120 break to show that despite slipping down the rankings in recent times, Stevens is still a very good player on his day.
From there though the big breaks dried up for a period of time and the match became slightly scrappy. Mark did have chances to in the next two frames but found himself trailing 4-1. Allen would go on to eventually the 6th frame after an opening 40 break. This was large in part due to poor play from Matthew as after fluking a pot, he played two very poor shots in a row and ended up leaving Mark a simple red to middle to get going again. This was to prove the final frame for Allen as Matthew set about closing out the match looking for a third century in five frames but unfortunately missed a tricky red down the side cushion while on 69. It was enough for the frame though and in what was a hard fought victory, Matthew will no doubt be buoyed by his big breaks and his doggedness in the scrappy frames where many would have picked Allen as the favourite to win the match.
Today’s final match saw another Northern Ireland v Wales encounter. This time it was between Joe Swail and the injured former World Champion, Mark Williams. As previously reported Mark broke his wrist prior to Shanghai and was a doubt to be able to play. However with a replacement cast which appears to making things worse, The Welsh Potting Machine appeared to be playing pretty well. Things looked to be going according to plan, with a lot of people expecting Joe to do well in this match due to Mark’s injury, when Joe took the first frame with a 50+ break. Williams then replied with a 66 to show he fully intended on making a fight of it and levelled the match. At this point Joe then went on to win a close third frame and fourth frame thanks to 40 and 45 breaks.
Trailing 3-1 after the break, Williams repeated what has happened so many times previously this week and managed to bring himself level. A close fifth frame was followed by an excellent 55 clearance from the Welshman to bring him right back into the match. This would have given Mark a boost and he would continued his winning streak by taking the seventh frame to go into the lead for the first time with a 101 century break. Williams then managed to seal the victory and a place against John Higgins in the next round in a close frame.