The Shanghai Masters has been dealt a huge blow with the withdrawal of the home favourite Ding Junhui.
The world number two – alleged to be suffering from conjunctivitis – has won just one match since the start of October with his form taking a huge dip.
At the end of September, he cruised to a thumping 10-3 victory against Kyren Wilson to land the World Open title but has struggled ever since including a first round defeat at the International Championship to Oliver Lines, a loss to Michael White at the English Open and his most recent elimination from the Champions of Champions to Anthony Hamilton where he looked a shadow of himself.
An oddity to the snooker calendar at this time of the season means that two successive ranking events in China have been sandwiched with the Champion of Champions held in Coventry. This means a packed schedule of travel for the top players.
World number one Mark Selby looked fatigued when he lost to Luca Brecel at the Ricoh Arena owing to him only affording two days between the International Championship final and the start of his next match back on home soil.
Progression at the Champions of Champions sees a similar fate await Brecel who only finished in Coventry last night and Ronnie O’Sullivan who is still in action with the Shanghai Masters kicking off tomorrow morning.
Ding appears to have elected to take a break from both the busy travel and snooker schedule by missing out Shanghai in favour of remaining in the UK to properly prepare for the upcoming Northern Ireland Open and UK Championship events.
With his suspected eye problems hindering his performances, this could prove to a smart call but means that the Shanghai Masters must soldier on without China’s box office name.
While we are often quick to praise World Snooker for offering so many playing opportunities these days, this serves as a warning that sometimes less is more if we want to see the sport’s top stars ever-present throughout the campaign.