The Draw for the 2022 Mixed Double is out

Monique Professional snooker tournament

Here is the announcement by WST, including information about the format:

BetVictor World Mixed Doubles Teams Drawn

Ronnie Betvictor, cazoo, rokitThe draw for the inaugural BetVictor World Mixed Doubles has been made, with seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan teaming up alongside 12-time Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans.

The pioneering event is pairing each of the world’s top four men with one of the top four women. As one of the few major sports where men and women can compete alongside each other on an equal footing, snooker will showcase its diversity in this showpiece tournament in September.

The Draw:

Current and seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and 12-time Women’s World Champion Reanne Evans
2010 World Champion Neil Robertson and Current Women’s World Champion Mink Nutcharut
2019 World Champion Judd Trump and three-time Women’s World Champion Ng On Yee
Four-time World Champion Mark Selby and Women’s world number four Rebecca Kenna

Televised live by ITV, the invitation event will take place over the weekend of Saturday September 24 and Sunday September 25 at the Marshall Arena at MK Stadium in Milton Keynes.

…

The four pairs will compete over two days in a round-robin format, followed by the final with the winning team to be crowned inaugural champion.

Each round-robin match will be four frames, with all frames to be completed. Teams will score one point for each frame. At the end of the group phase, the top two teams will go through to the final, which will be best of seven frames. The two players in a team will make alternate visits to the table (rather than alternate shots).

Session times are 1pm and 7pm on both days. Each of the first three sessions will feature two group matches, so all eight players will be in action. The final will then take place on Sunday September 25 from 7pm.

Once again, I hope that there will be other options than ITV for us fans outside the UK.

Alternate visits, rather alternate shots, will probably provide more “fluent” action and faster matches. I just hope that it will not become a “90% men/10% women” show.

 

 

5 thoughts on “The Draw for the 2022 Mixed Double is out”

  1. Alternate shots can be very disruptive as well. Actually we don’t know how the balls will go, but the teams could have internal discussions before the event that the men generally play more offensive and the women more defensive and just don’t go for every single shot they might usually go for, so that they don’t let the men in too easily. I think nobody will be too disappointed if play got more tactical because of that, many fans enjoy tactical play as well as break building and it’s only two days. I think it will be a good occasion anyways.

  2. Alternate shots would have been better and indeed more of a partnership. And I think more interesting too. This way it’s hard to imagine other than some high breaks for the men with the women watching.

  3. Well that is the problem with the format. Alternate shots (Scotch doubles) would be a better test of the partnership. With this, there is a significant chance that the women get to play a few safety shots, whilst the men pot the balls and make breaks. Perhaps the organisers want to see ‘fluent’ play, i.e. Ronnie etc. getting 100 breaks.

    Once again, there is a potential issue of dead frames near the end of the group stage, or frames where one side has nothing to play for but the other does. There is a way to mitigate this by suitable re-ordering of the matches, but I don’t suppose the organisers have a clue what I’m on about…

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