Shanghai Masters The Story so Far.

Three days of action at the 2014 Shanghai Masters and with the completion of the last 32,as well as the dreaded wild card round,we have a healthy mix of big names and those hoping to capitalize on some good early season form left to battle it out in tomorrows last 16.

Here are the headlines from what we've seen so far.

Defending champion Ding Junhui eased his way through with a 5-1 victory over  Jack Lisowski.This had looked on paper as if it could be a tricky one for the Chinese,but in truth he was never really put under any pressure.

World Champion Mark Selby also showed some decent form in beating the veteran Irishman Ken Doherty 5-2.,but his World final opponent Ronnie O'Sullivan opponent didn't fair as well in his first ranking outing of the season,going down 5-3 to the resurgent Alan McManus.

There were mixed results for Ronnies fellow members in "The class of 92" with Mark Williams showing he still has the bottle for the fight,beating Barry Hawkins 5-4 but sadly there was more frustration for John Higgins,who in what seems to be becoming a worrying trend for him,couldn't finish the job off from well in front,as he let a 4-2 lead turn into a 5-4 defeat to Ryan Day.

The last 16 will also be missing the winners of this seasons two previous ranking event with both Neil Robertson & Judd Trump crashing out here in the last 32. Robertson will be wondering just how it came to this as he looked in complete control when leading Michael White 3-0,but the Welshman battled back to edge this one in a decider, 5-4.Trump for his part never looked comfortable and was duly punished by Dominic Dale,going down 5-2.

The much criticized Wildcard round claimed its usual couple of victims with Liang Wenbo & Matthew Selt exiting before their tournament really began,Indeed Selts conqueror Zhao Xintong produced another shock in the next round,beating Marco Fu 5-4. He will now play Fergal O'Brien,who is also doing his bit for the over 40's and reached the last 16 with a fine 5-1 over Robert Milkins.

Elsewhere recently crowned "6 red" world champion Stephen Maguire quickly dispatched Jimmy Rbertson 5-1 and  Shaun Murphy & Graeme Dott will face each other in a battle of the former world champs after recording 5-4 & 5-2 wins over  Joe Swail & Yan Bingtao respectively.

Here is the draw for the last 16

Ding Junhui v Martin Gould
Graeme Dott v Shaun Murphy
Dominic Dale v Stuart Bingham
Stephen Maguire v Alan McManus
Michael White v Ryan Day
Mark Williams v Mark Allen
Zhao Xintong v Fergal O'Brien
Michael Holt v Mark Selby