Shanghai Masters 2026 draw released as Wu Yize set for first outing as world champion

The 2026 Shanghai Masters invitational is scheduled to take place in the Far East between July 27th to August 2nd and will feature 24 players.

First played in 2007 - when it was won by Dominic Dale - the Shanghai Masters is one of the most established and lucrative tournaments on the professional snooker calendar. It's first 11 editions were played as ranking events, but since 2018 it has been a strictly invitational affair.

All of the world’s top 16 have accepted their invites for the latest staging and are in the draw, except for Mark Allen, who for the second consecutive year has decided not to play. Because of Allen’s non-entry, world number 17 Jack Lisowski has received a call-up as first reserve.

The four highest ranked Chinese players outside the world’s top 16 have also been invited, and they will be joined by four local amateur wildcards who are yet to be revealed.

The world’s top eight go straight through to the last 16, while all the other contestants must play in the preliminary round. All matches up to and including the quarter-finals are the best of 11 frames, the two-session semi-finals are the best of 19, and the final is extended slightly further to a best of 21.

Who is playing at the 2026 Shanghai Masters snooker and what is the draw?

A plethora of snooker’s top stars will be making their first appearances of the new 2026/27 top-flight season at the 2026 Shanghai Masters.

They won’t have to play in any of the early season qualifying rounds with their opening assignments held over to the main venues, and only a handful of top 16 exponents have entered the behind-closed-doors Championship League Ranking Event where the first trophy of the term will be lifted.

It means that Wu Yize will play his first professional match as world champion on home soil in China. The current Crucible king is scheduled to play his opening tie on the evening of Wednesday 29th July, with compatriot and last year’s world champion Zhao Xintong scheduled to be on the other table at the same time. There are two tables in operation until the semi-finals.

Wu is guaranteed to face a fellow countryman as he awaits the winner of the preliminary round match involving Si Jiahui and Pang Junxu.

Looking further on, there could be a rerun of the epic 2026 World Snooker Championship final at the Crucible from a few weeks ago in the quarter-finals if Shaun Murphy gets past either Mark Selby or Zhou Yuelong.

The reigning and defending Shanghai Masters champion is Kyren Wilson who ousted Ali Carter in last year’s final, 11-9.

Wilson will initially face Ronnie O’Sullivan in a blockbuster last 16 tie if the seven-time world champion can negotiate an amateur wildcard. O’Sullivan is the most prolific winner in Shanghai Masters history having claimed the title five times (two ranking, three invitational).

Elsewhere in the top half of the draw are top seeds Mark Williams, Zhao, and Neil Robertson, while joining Wu and Murphy in the bottom half are world number one Judd Trump, and John Higgins.

Prize money for this year’s Shanghai Masters has yet to be officially released, although the champion has collected £210,000 in each of the last three editions.

This stop in Shanghai is the first part of a ‘Chinese swing’ on the World Snooker Tour, with the 2026 China Open (August 8-16) and 2026 Wuhan Open (August 23-29) competitions following not long after.