By elliott west
The Shanghai Masters never fails to disappoint the viewers and today’s play was no exception. With many of the top players having been toppled like a house of cards, it was up to the remaining seeds to show their quality on the baize.
Today’s play involved the greatest in the game and first up was the match between Judd Trump and Mark Allen. The pressure was on Trump in this match as he aimed to continue and preserve his unblemished 13 match victory run but as I have said so many times in my blogs Mark Allen isn’t phased by anyone or anything, especially a record that can be extinguished. It wasn’t long before Allen had gained a 3-1 lead over his opponent. Trump had clawed back an initial frame with a 109 break but that is where it ended for the man from Bristol. The powerhouse that is Mark Allen stole the show from there and left Trump dazed and confused with a 1-6 loss.
On the other table Neil Robertson was drawn against Barry Hawkins. Robertson who seems to be bubbling back to his best this week gave Hawkins a snooker migraine on the table, leaving Hawkins struggling and floundering. Barry chipped away in the match but Robertson was clearly the dominant force and Barry was soon having to live down a 5-2 deficit. Neil went on to win the match, 6-2 and goes through to the semi- finals, knocking out last year’s runner-up, Hawkins. Amazingly Robertson has never won this event before so that probably makes him much hungry for a maiden title in Shanghai!
In the later matches Shaun Murphy was pitched against Jack Lisowski. Both these players are frustrating to watch because I know how good they really are. With this in mind, it was hard to pick a winner in this match but my gut feeling sided with Murphy. This transpired to be the case with Shaun already 3-1 up at the interval. With breaks of 55, 60, 56 and 107, Shaun trounced Lisowski and inflicted a 1-6 defeat on his opponent. Murphy is clearly back in form and proved that earlier in the season by getting to the final of the International Championship. Perhaps this former World Champion is a contender but he will have to maintain this standard of play if he is to have any chance of reaching this year’s final.
Probably the match that most fans were waiting for was the Kyren Wilson / Ronnie O’Sullivan match. For me this was a game that should have gone Wilson’s way but in my mind he squandered his chance of victory. It is true that in any match the mental pressure gets to you when you need to win your last frame but Wilson was 5-1 up in the match and the suddenly took his foot off the gas! The result for Kyren was disastrous as Ronnie flicked his A game button and racked up the frames to win the match 6-5. A pumped fist by Ronnie at the end of the match clearly showed his relief to survive this banana skin and next up he plays Neil Robertson.
