I mainly watched Group 16 yesterday. Zhou Yuelong was very poor on the day, it has to be said. Mink, on the other hand, performed better than I expected. She managed two draws. OK, Zhou Yuelong was far from his best, but she got a draw against the eventual group winner, Fan Zhengyi, as well and she secured some precious points by finishing third in the group. She is clearly working hard and progressing. She is a petite, slender women. She lacks cue power but she has a very decent safety game as well as the right mindset and attitude. Is that enough to give her a chance on the main tour? The honest answer is that I’m not sure. What I’m very sure of though is that she deserves respect, a lot of it. She certainly doesn’t deserve the contempt that so often transpires through disparaging comments made by insecure machos in chats and posts. You know who you are.
CAPTAIN CRUISES THROUGH
Ali Carter got his season off to a strong start by topping Group Five at the BetVictor Championship League and earning his place in Stage Two.
The Captain opened his day with a 2-2 draw against Joshua Thomond, where he lost the final frame to surrender victory. However, he recovered well with a 3-1 defeat of Indian tour rookie Kreish Gurbaxani. That set up a group decider against Xing Zihao, who won his opening two matches with Thomond and Gurbaxani. It was Carter who crafted breaks of 87 and 73 en route to a 3-1 victory and the next round.
Former BetVictor European Masters champion Fan Zhengyi prevailed in Group 16. He opened with a 3-0 whitewash win over former World Seniors finalist Alfie Burden, before making breaks of 121 and 65 in a 2-2 draw with women’s world number one Mink Nutcharut. Fan faced Chinese compatriot Zhou Yuelong in a crucial final game, but crafted contributions of 113 and 57 in a group sealing 3-1 victory.
As always you will find all the results on snooker.org
About Wildcards …
This was shared by WST three days ago:
DOHERTY AWARDED INVITATIONAL TOUR CARD
Former World Champion Ken Doherty has been awarded an Invitational Tour Card which will allow him to compete on the World Snooker Tour for the next two seasons.
Ireland’s Doherty has been ever-present on the tour since 1990. He would have been relegated at the end of last season having finished 79th in the world rankings, but has accepted the Invitational Tour Card which gives him the chance to enter events during the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.
Doherty conquered the Crucible in 1997 and in all has won over 20 professional tournaments.
WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “In view of Ken’s tremendous record as a player and a fantastic ambassador for snooker, we had no hesitation in offering him a tour card. He is a great asset to our sport and also remains very competitive as a player and no doubt fans will continue to enjoy watching him in action over the next two seasons.”Stephen Hendry was also offered an Invitational Tour Card but has decided not to accept. The seven-time World Champion had held the card since 2020, but now feels that he is unable to commit to the tour due to other priorities including the growth of his CueTips YouTube Channel and brand, broadcast commitments and ambassadorial role in China.
His various commitments aren’t the only reasons why Hendry decided to decline the offer. Indeed here is what he had to tell the Daily Record as reported by BBC:
“Let’s be honest, I wasn’t pulling up any trees, was I?
“I was a little bit surprised with how good the standard was, but I’ve just got so many other work commitments, I won’t be able to dedicate enough time to practising.
“I know the game inside out, I still know all the shots, but unfortunately the body is not performing like my brain wants it to.“
Stephen Hendry did the right thing. Respect. It’s always hard to cope with the situation when your body starts to fail you because of age. You have to accept it and adapt. It’s not easy at all. Ken took the offer and I saw some very negative comments about his decision on social media. “He should leave his spot to young players who are better than him”. Possibly … BUT … bear in mind that the likes of Ken and Jimmy still put bums on seats, quite a lot of bums too. They bring money to the game that way, money that, amongst other things, helps supporting to the rookies and young on tour financially. No matter how good they may be, these are players very few would pay to watch, quite simply because they don’t know them (yet).
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Mink is both good and frustrating to watch: I loved her clearance of the colours when the first frame against Zhou Yuelong was already won, only to see her miss much easier shots in the nex. I really wished she had won that match, still a good performance to also draw against Fan Zhengi, I really wish she could do better than before.
Glad that Henry decided not to continue, I suppose this was not what he expected and usually looked miserable. I really remember reading somewhere that Doherty wanted to finish playing, but if not, good for him. I never thought it was like giving him (or Jimmy) the card or to some young up and coming guy, but to Ken, Jimmy etc or nobody. Most tournaments have top-up amateurs anyway, do this idea of taking someone’s place is a made-up issue, even though he certainly takes the 20000.
Well, an invitational tour card does indeed take someone else’s place. Each tournament has a fixed capacity (usually 128). That doesn’t change no matter how many tour cards are allocated.
Well, an invitational tour card does indeed take someone else’s place. Each tournament has a fixed capacity (usually 128). That doesn’t change no matter how many tour cards are allocated.
It’s always difficult to assess Summer Championship League performances because so much depends on what each player has been doing during the holiday. Clearly Xing Zihao, Fan Zhengyi and Mink Nutcharut (all Victoria players) have been working hard. Xing should have won the group comfortably, but somehow ran out of position on match ball. That one shot could turn out to be the critical point of his whole career, as there’s no guarantee he will stay on tour. Along with several other players, Zhou Yuelong has been playing Chinese Heyball through the summer. This season could also be critical for him: he’s 26 now and has to make some decisions about his long-term future; of course we all hope he stays with snooker.
Back in Shaanxi, the China City Teams concluded with a victory for the Xianyang franchise (Xiao Guodong, Gao Yang and Chen Qiyu). There were 36 teams, including some professionals (Ding Junhui, Cao Yupeng, Zhang Anda, Lyu Haotian) and almost all of the leading amateurs. Remarkably, Liu Hongyu returned after his Championship League group to play in it, but in most cases Chinese players had to choose between the two events. Only the very top players get to choose their Championship League dates.