Shanghai Masters Qualifiers 2013
Played in Doncaster – August 7-10, 2013.
All Grove players are involved, except for Judd who is seeded in the last 32. Four of them were in action on day 1, Li Yan, Li Hang and Chen Zhe all won their first matches. Jack, Wenbo and Yu Delu joined the action on day 2. Wenbo, Yu Delu and Jack booked their place in round 3, but only Yu Delu made it to the final qualifiers round and, defeating Ken Doherty by 5-1, booked his place in the last 32 in Shanghai.
Round 1 – best of 9 (first to 5) – 7.8.2013
Li Yan 5-1 Ryan Clark
Li Yan won by 5-1 but the match was much, much closer than the score suggests. Ryan is a talented player and he won the opener. Li Yan however showed his battling qualities more than any sort of scoring power, winning all remaining ones without any break over 50. In fact it was Ryan who scored the only 55 in frame 3, a frame he still lost 71-57.
Zhang Anda 4-5 Chris Norbury
This was another match with most frames going close. Anda came back from 2-4 to force a decider and scored a 98 in frame 8 in the process. However it was Chris who took the last frame and the match, restricting Anda to 7 points in the decider.
Chen Zhe 5-3 Sanderson Lam
Another close battle between two young players, both showing talent and heart. Sleepy lead 3-0 but “Sandy” fought back to 3-3. Sleepy’s experience then probably helped him to prevail. He won the next two and the match but they weren’t one sided.
Li Hang 5-3 Jak Jones
Going by the frames scores, there weren’t many tactical exchanges in this match. Both players were scoring well when in and winning their frames by convincing margins. Hang had breaks of 60 and 89, Jak scored a 89 as well.
Round 2 – best of 9 (first to 5) – 8.8.2013
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Li Yan
Li Yan made a 51 break in the first frame, and still lost it. Xiao was in high scoring mode and lead 3-0, with the help of 71 and 83. Li Yan again showed his battling spirit to reduce his deficit to 1-3 and 2-4. He stole the 6th frame 60-59, despite his opponent 59 break. But Xia was too strong and took a a hard fought 7th frame by 60-46 and the match.
Alfie Burden 5-1 Chen Zhe
Sleepy won the first frame, 90-10 and was then restricted to 85 points in total for the remaining five ones … Alfie once again showing how good he can be when on form.
Liang Wenbo 5-2 Scott Donaldson
Wenbo had a slow start whilst Scott had breaks of 54 and 88 to lead 2-0. Wenbo though stepped up a gear … or two … and won five on the trot to take the match. He had breaks of 67 and 52.
Yu Delu 5-1 Tony Drago
When Tony is involved, you expect it to be quick and it was indeed the first match to finish in the evening session. Breaks of 76, 55 and 76 gave Yu the victory in a match that didn’t feature any really close frame.
David Gilbert 5-4 Li Hang
Li Hang went 3-0 up with a great 120 in the first. But then David entered heavy scoring mode: 77, 74, 54 and 55 helped him back in the match and to victory despite another 53 by Li Hang. It was high quality all along and shame there had to be a loser.
Jack Lisowski 5-2 Daniel Wells
Jack wasn’t playing at his best, at least at the start of the match but he managed to steal two extremely close frames to lead 4-1. At that stage none of the players had any sizeable break. Daniel then kept his hopes alive with a good 84 to make it 2-4, only for Jack to reply with a 133 to seal the win.
Round 3 – best of 9 (first to 5) – 9.8.2013
David Morris 5-1 Liang Wenbo
We no was outplayed by his Irish opponent who was scoring heavily when in. Davy had breaks of 78, 85 and 83, we bro made 74 in the only frame he won.
David Gilbert 5-2 Jack Lisowski
David started with 57 and finished with 62. In between all frames bar one were close but jack couldn’t find his break building power and that was the main factor that cost him.
Sam Baird 2-5 Yu Delu
Delu started strongly with 63 and 58 to lead 3-0. From there however the match was close as Sam fought hard. He had left himself too much to do though and Delu concluded on the comfortable score of 5-2.
Round 4 – best of 9 (first to 5) – 10.8.2013
Ken Doherty 1-5 Yu Delu
Ken is one of the hardest players on the tour and Delu played very well to beat him convincingly. Ken was first in in frame 1, but Delu took his chance and made 70 of it. Ken replied by winning the next one. However Delu restricted his opponent to only 16 points in the next three frames. Ken wasn’t going to give up and the last frame was hard fought, but Delu finished the job by winning it 59-49.
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