The 2023 Shanghai Masters was played at the Grand Stage in Shanghai, from 11 to 17 September 2023. The prestigious invitational tournament featured only 24 players and all four Grove players featured in that elite group. Ronnie O’Sullivan was the defending champion.

The first round saw twelve professionals and four Chinese wildcards compete to reach the “last 16″ round. Ding was involved in that round and he beat Si Jishui by 6-2. This was Ding’s first match of the season.

In the last 16, Ding and Neil Robertson faced each other, Neil prevailing by 6-5. Mark Selby also needed a deciding frame to beat Hossein Vafaei. Luca Brecel, who was also playing his first professional match of the season, got the better of Mark Williams by 6-4.

The quarter-finals proved to be an easier round for the three remaining Grove players: Mark Selby beat Judd Trump by 6-1, Neil Robertson got the better of Fan Zhengyi by the same score and Luca Brecel progressed with a 6-3 win over Robert Milkins.

Three of the four players involved in the semi-finals were Grove players. Not bad! The semi-finals were played over a best-of-19-frames format. Luca beat Neil by 10-7, and, the World number 1, Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Mark by the same score.

The Final between Luca and Ronnie was played over a best-of-21-frames format. Luca had beaten Ronnie at the Crucible last April. This time it was Ronnie who prevailed by 11-9.

All the detailed results are available on snooker.org