Shocks Galore at Shanghai Masters
It was a very strange day for snooker top stars as we reached day two in the 2009 Roewe Shanghai Masters.
The early match featured reigning champion Ricky Walden who in relation to other players throughout the day had a very easy passage into round two with a 5-1 victory over Mark King. Walden is defending a lot of points at this tournament but has once again proved that he is good enough for a top 16 place as his provisional number 12 suggests.
Stephen Hendry almost had a major shock against Marcus Campbell, a player who trounced him 9-0 at a previous UK Championships. Another whitewash was on the cards as he powered into a 4-0 lead in the best of 9 match. However Hendry has proved that even at the age of 40 he is still made of sterner stuff and tunred the result around to win 5-4. The first time in his profesional career that he has come back to win from 4-0 down in a best of 9 match.
Hendry said, “At 4-0 I was thinking about going home, I just wanted to make the score respectable and I had no confidence in winning. But when I got to 4-2 I knew there would be some doubt in Marcus’ mind. He missed chances to win it and I played well in the last few frames.”
World Champion John Higgins is through to round two with an unconvincing 5-2 win over Matt Selt. During the same session however, Mark Selby suffered a shock defeat to Stuart Bingham and he was not the only seeded player to fall on day two.
Ken Doherty continued his recent form but was forced to go the distance against Neil Robertson, the Irishman won the deciding frame to book a second round match with Stephen Maguire or Barry Hawkins. Peter Ebdon, who has a crucial season ahead of him if he wants to stay in the top 16, lost to local hero Liang Wenbo 5-1 to the delight of the Chinese fans.
Wenbo is a very dangerous player and it may well be his breakthrough season.
Matches continue throughout the week.
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