The huge upsets kept on coming in the qualifying rounds of the German Masters, with Mark Allen the latest big name to fall early.
The Pistol, who won the Champion of Champions last week and is clearly in fine form, was downed 5-2 by 20-year-old Chinese Pang Junxu on Saturday night, in a substantial shock.
Allen made breaks of 101 and 81 to go 2-1 ahead, before Pang reeled off four frames on the spin, including a 121 as he picked up one of the biggest wins of his young career.
The Northern Irishman follows Neil Robertson, Mark Selby, Kyren Wilson, Yan Bingtao, Mark Williams, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and David Gilbert as top 16 players that are out of the competition before it reaches its main stage in Berlin in January.
Ronnie O’Sullivan did not enter the tournament, so less than half of the top 16 will be heading to the Tempodrom in January, in a real blow for German fans.
Judd Trump breezed through qualifying and will undoubtedly be favourite to retain the title he won earlier this year by beating Neil Robertson 9-6 in the final.
John Higgins, Stephen Maguire, Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, Stuart Bingham and Jack Lisowski are the top 16 players who are preparing to travel to Germany in the New Year.
Not a member of the top 16, but Anthony McGill was another world class player to suffer an upset in the second round on Saturday, being edged out 5-4 by Joe O’Connor.
WST are planning to be at the iconic Tempodrom in the German capital for the latter stages from 27-31 January, although all plans remain subject to change as the global pandemic rumbles on.
All tournaments before the end of 2020 are taking place in Milton Keynes, but the WST hope to host the Masters at Alexandra Palace from 10-17 January, followed by the German Masters in Berlin as scheduled.
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