Shanghai Masters 2024 Predictions: Ding can win on home soil

After the low key Championship League started the season last month the first knockout event gets under way this week as the top 16 players in the World and eight invited Chinese players battle it out for the Shanghai Masters.

As always we have our snooker expert Dean Strand (@DSSnookerTips) on hand, with his comprehensive preview and Shanghai Masters Predictions.

History, Location and Format

The Shanghai Masters is an invitational tournament that was first held as a ranking event in 2007 and then changed to an invitational format in 2018. The event is being held at the Shanghai Grand Stage and runs from Monday 15th July to the final on Sunday 21st July.

There have been just two multiple winners of this event, with Ronnie O'Sullivan winning the last four years, to go with his 2009 win. Ding Junhui also won it twice in 2013 and 2016.

The defending champion is O'Sullivan, who beat Luca Brecel 11-9 in the 2023 final.

Prize Money

Shanghai Masters Odds

0.5 pts Each Way - Ding Junhui To Win Outright @ 18/1

My first outright pick is Ding Junhui. The greatest ever Chinese player has won seven ranking events in China including twice lifting this trophy in 2013 and 2016.

Since this event became an invitational he’s twice been beaten by Neil Robertson, once in a decider and in 2018 was only one frame away from reaching the final after wins over Allen and Selby.

Finished 7th on the one year list last season and had a couple of good runs in the Chinese events, reaching the Quarter Finals of the International Championship and the Final of the World Open, wins over Murphy and Robertson in that one.

Likely faces Ali Carter first, a player who he has a dominant head to head record over, winning nine of their 12 previous meetings.

1 pt - Tom Ford to win Quarter 2 @ 10/1

Tom Ford looks a good price in a wide open Quarter 2 for me. Faces a tricky match against Si Jiahui first up but that one looks pretty evenly matched with Ford the more consistent of the two in general, ranked 13th. Si made his debut at this event last year and was disappointing with a 6-2 defeat to Ding.

If he can make it past Si he’ll face Luca Brecel, another very inconsistent player who disappointed throughout last season after his shock World Championship win.

Ford has a decent record in China too, last year he reached the Quarter Finals in the Wuhan Open and followed that up a few weeks later with some great performances in the International Championship, beating Fu, Selby and Hawkins on his way to the final.

0.5 pts Each Way - Jak Jones to win Outright @ 33/1

1 pt - Jak Jones to win Quarter 3 @ 11/2

Quarter 3 is led by Mark Selby and Mark Allen in the betting but neither have a great record in this event. Since the format change both players have only made one semi final out of three attempts with Allen losing 10-3 to Murphy in his effort and crashing out in the last 16 in the other two years.

Pang and Wilson both made their debut here last year and both went out in their first match with very little fight.

Jak Jones has very little experience of the big occasions, usually found lower down the ranking so we don’t know how he’ll find the occasion of these smaller field invitational events.

Judging by his performances at the Crucible though he looks like a player more than capable of coping with the pressure, making the quarter finals on his debut last year before a superb run to the Final in April.

1 pt - Zhou Yuelong to win Quarter 4 @ 12/1

In Quarter 4 I'll take a punt on the outsider Zhou Yuelong. He has a good head to head record against first round opponents Barry Hawkins including a 4-0 win the last time the two met.

He’s entered this event twice previously and although he’s only won one of the three previous matches his performance levels have been good, with a win over Luca Brecel and deciding frame defeats to Selby and Lisowski.

Not the most consistent player but very capable when he hits form, reached two quarter finals and the semi finals of the UK last year and is a three time ranking event finalist, 12/1 a decent price for him to win three matches in my opinion.

Check out the rest of our Snooker Betting Tips here including Dean's daily World Championship picks.