Shanghai Masters (Snooker)

Shanghai Masters
Tournament status
Ranking tournament:	2007-2017
Minor ranking tournament:	-
Invitation tournament:	2018–
Current tournament dates
Defending champion:	Ronnie O'Sullivan
Attendees:	24 (incl. 4 wildcards)
Venue:	Regal International East Asia Hotel, Shanghai
Prize money (total):	£ 725,000
Prize money (winner):	£ 200,000
Frames in the final:	Best of 21
Records
Most wins:	Ronnie O'Sullivan  (4 ×)
Highest Break:	147 ( maximum ) Jamie Cope (2008) John Higgins (2012) Stephen Maguire (2016)
Venue (s) on the map
Shanghai China

The Shanghai Masters is a professional snooker invitation tournament. It had world ranking tournament status up to and including 2017 .

history

Because the snooker sport experienced a boom in China in the mid-2000s, the tournament was launched in the 2007/2008 season as the second Chinese tournament alongside the China Open and included in the tournament calendar of the Main Tour .

Contracts for five years were signed for the world ranking tournament organized by the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association and extended by five years in 2012. Due to the duration of the contract, the Shanghai Masters was the last tournament in which four qualifying rounds were held in the 2016/2017 season and a wildcard round with eight Chinese amateurs nominated by the national association at the beginning of the main tournament . They played against eight of the qualifiers for a place in the round of 32.

After the contract expired, it took until the next season until another tournament in Shanghai was agreed. This time, however, it was played in the now usual mode with only one qualifying round. Four Chinese wildcard players were included in the qualification.

But it remained a one-off arrangement, for the years 2018 to 2022 a new contract was signed, according to which the Shanghai Masters became an invitation tournament with the top 16 in the world rankings and 8 Chinese wildcard players.

The venue for the tournament was the Shanghai Grand Stage up to and including 2017 . The total prize money in 2007 was £ 250,000  . In 2012 it had already risen to over £ 400,000 and last year as a ranking tournament, like all Chinese tournaments, it was played for £ 700,000. The winnings for the tournament winner tripled from £ 48,000 to £ 150,000.

The Englishman Ronnie O'Sullivan (2009, 2017-2019) won the tournament twice as a ranking tournament and twice as an invitation tournament.

The tournament has been held at the Regal International East Asia Hotel in Shanghai since 2018 . It has been an invitation tournament since then, in which the top 16 in the world rankings and 8 Chinese players take part. The prize money continued to rise and, due to the smaller number of participants, the 2018 award rose to £ 200,000.

winner

year	venue	winner	Result	finalist	Main sponsor	season
Shanghai Masters - Ranked Tournament Status
2007	Shanghai Shanghai Grand Stage	Dominic Dale	10: 6	Ryan Day	Roewe	2007/08
2008		Ricky Walden	10: 8	Ronnie O'Sullivan		2008/09
2009		Ronnie O'Sullivan	10: 5	Liang Wenbo		2009/10
2010		Allister Carter	10: 7	Jamie Burnett		2010/11
2011		Mark Selby	10: 9	Mark Williams	Bank of Communications	2011/12
2012		John Higgins	10: 9	Judd Trump		2012/13
2013		Ding Junhui	10: 6	Xiao Guodong		2013/14
2014		Stuart Bingham	10: 3	Mark Allen		2014/15
2015		Kyren Wilson	10: 9	Judd Trump		2015/16
2016		Ding Junhui	10: 6	Mark Selby		2016/17
2017		Ronnie O'Sullivan	10: 3	Judd Trump	-	2017/18
Shanghai Masters - Invitational Tournament Status
2018	Shanghai - Regal International East Asia Hotel	Ronnie O'Sullivan	11: 9	Barry Hawkins	-	2018/19
2019		Ronnie O'Sullivan	11: 9	Shaun Murphy		2019/20

swell

1. ↑ Shanghai Masters to Become Snooker's Richest Invitational , World Snooker, November 18, 2017

Web links

• Official tournament homepage (Chinese)
• Shanghai Masters at Chris Turner's Snooker Archive ( Memento from April 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive )