Shanghai Masters The Story So Far.

Three days into the 2016 Shanghai Masters and we've already had plenty to thrill what seem for once to be very healthy Chinese crowds.

Of course to begin with here,we had the dreaded wildcard round,which although nothing more than an inconvenience to most,still always seems to trip someone up.This time it was Martin Gould who went down 5-0 to 16 year old Yuan Sijan..The other thing of note from this round was a 147 from Stephen Maguire in his win over Yi Chen Zu.

Into the tournament proper then and we've already said goodbye to our defending champion Kyren Wilson who wen down 5-2 to the always tricky Michael Holt..He will next face Ronnie O'Sullivan,found some form just in the nick of time as he fought back from 4-1 to beat Liang Wenbo 5-4.

Home favourite Ding Junhui had to also use all his battling skills to eventually see off Scott Donaldson 5-4 & he will now face Mark Allen who dispatched recent Indian Open winner Anthony McGill 5-0.

Michael White held his nerve to see off Ricky Walden in a deciding frame 5-4 where by contrast his opponent in the  next round Judd Trump had a much easier time of it,easing past Ben Woollaston 5-0.

5-0 scorelines were much the order of the day as Barry Hawkins whitewashed Robert Milkins to set up a last 16 clash with the in form Stephen Maguire who dispatched new father Shaun Murphy by the same scoreline.

Stuart Bingham showed signs of a welcome return to form with a 5-0 win over Jamie Jones and he will now play David Gilbert,who turned around a 3-0 deficit against Marco Fu,winning in the end 5-4.

Also making a slow start in his match was John Higgins,who was perhaps lucky to reach his interval with Matt Selt only 3-1 behind,but the veteran Scot found his touch when they resumed to run out a 5-3 winner.

A slow start is probably not a luxury Higgins can afford in his next match though as next faces an in form opponent in Ali Carter,who dispatched Kurt Maflin with the minimum of fuss 5-1.

Ryan Day & Mei Xi Wen will also face each other after both provided the only real shocks in the first round.Day reached the last 16 with a 5-2 win over Neil Robertson  in a match that wont live long in the memory,while Mei Xi Wen beat former world champ Mark Williams 5-3.

Finally world champ Mark Selby brought the run of  Yuan Sijan to an end with a 5-1 win & will now play Stuart Carrington who beat Joe Perry 5-4..

From here the tournament now starts to up the pace with all last 16 matches taking place tomorrow.Hopefully from here the already good crowds continue to build to what could be a grandstand weekend.
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