Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy reached the last 16 of the Shanghai Masters draw with comfortable wins on day one of the invitational in China.
Robertson contributed a brace of century breaks to power past Pang Junxu with a 6-2 scoreline, while Murphy thumped wildcard Han Fuyuan with a whitewash display.
The pair will next play one of the top eight seeds who enter the prestigious competition in the tournament’s second round.
They promise to be humdinger affairs too, with Robertson rekindling his rivalry with Judd Trump and Murphy in action against fellow Englishman Mark Selby.
Reigning champion Trump will be making his first appearance of the 2025/26 snooker season, so it’ll be interesting to see how the runaway world number one gets on.
The 35 year-old has a long history of memorable matches with Robertson, of course.
They have contested seven finals and six semi-final encounters over the years, making it somewhat unusual that their paths cross this early in a week.
Trump boasts a superior head-to-head record overall, but Robertson did win their most recent fixture at same stage of the German Masters in January.
Like Trump and Robertson, Murphy and Selby have similarly played just shy of 50 games against one another.
The former has good memories of going far in a Shanghai Masters draw after his run to the final a year ago, but Selby will represent a significant step up in class compared to his inexperienced first opponent.
Elsewhere on Monday, there were close victories for Barry Hawkins over Wu Yize and Zhang Anda against Yuan Sijun.
Si Jiahui and Chris Wakelin also advanced courtesy of respective defeats over Wang Xinbo and Zhou Jinhao – a couple of the other amateurs wildcards who were invited to compete.
The first round will conclude early on Tuesday with an all-Chinese clash between two ranking event winners from last season, Xiao Guodong and Lei Peifan.
Ali Carter, who received a call-up to participate in the 2025 Shanghai Masters draw in the absence of Mark Allen, will entertain Qiu Lei.
Following those clashes on day two, the second round will commence with the Trump versus Robertson and Selby versus Murphy matches among those on the order of play.
Si will also play his next game against former world champion Kyren Wilson, while home favourite Ding Junhui meets Zhang.
Record five-time champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and reigning world champion Zhao Xintong will play their initial fixtures in the event on Wednesday.
Shanghai Masters draw
Round of 24 (bo11)
Neil Robertson 6-2 Pang Junxu
Shaun Murphy 6-0 Han Fuyuan
Xiao Guodong vs Lei Peifan
Tuesday, July 29th – 2:30am
Ali Carter vs Qiu Lei
Tuesday, July 29th – 2:30am
Si Jiahui 6-4 Wang Xinbo
Barry Hawkins 6-4 Wu Yize
Zhang Anda 6-5 Yuan Sijun
Chris Wakelin 6-3 Zhou Jinhao
Round of 16 (bo11)
Judd Trump vs Neil Robertson
Tuesday, July 29th – 12:30pm
Mark Selby vs Shaun Murphy
Tuesday, July 29th – 7am
John Higgins vs Xiao/Lei
Wednesday, July 30th – 7am
Mark Williams vs Carter/Qiu
Wednesday, July 30th – 7am
Kyren Wilson vs Si Jiahui
Tuesday, July 29th – 7am
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Barry Hawkins
Wednesday, July 30th – 12:30pm
Ding Junhui vs Zhang Anda
Tuesday, July 29th – 12:30pm
Zhao Xintong vs Chris Wakelin
Wednesday, July 30th – 12:30pm
The quarter-finals (bo11) will be played on Thursday, July 31st. Schedule TBC.
The semi-finals (bo19) will be played on Friday, August 1st and Saturday, August 2nd. Schedule TBC.
The final (bo21) will be played on Sunday, August 3rd at 7am and 12:30pm.
All times are in UTC+1 (BST)
Featured photo credit: WST
