WST has published (shared?) this piece, introducing the wildcards players due to compete in the 2024 Saudi Arabia Masters, with the focus on the youngest player in the field, a promising 14 years old.

TEENAGE SAUDI SNOOKER ACE ZIYAD AL – QABBANI THRILLED WITH CHANCE TO TAKE ON WORLD’S BEST

7 Saudi Wildcards to take part in first ever Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in Riyadh

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 27 August 2024

Fourteen year old  Saudi snooker  protégé Ziyad Al – Qabbani will have the opportunity to play in the same field as the sport’s biggest stars, including his heroes Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters which starts on August 30th.

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Al – Qabbani is recognised as Saudi Arabia’s best young player and has the potential to, one day, join the all-time greats on the professional tour. 

He’ll have his first experience of the big stage when he competes as a wild card at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters which runs from August 30th to September 7th at Green Halls in Riyadh.

Al – Qabbani has been drawn against Stan Moody, a talented 17-year-old from England, in a fascinating first round match-up. “My excitement is indescribable,” said Al – Qabbani. “I will try as hard as I can to win.”

The teenager first played snooker two years ago and has been supported by the Saudi Billiards and Snooker Federation, under the leadership of Dr. Nasser Al-Shammari.

Al – Qabbani now practises for eight hours every day and enjoys watching matches featuring his two favourite players O’Sullivan and Higgins. He added: “I believe that I have a chance to be a professional player and this is what the Saudi Billiards and Snooker Federation is planning for players, especially emerging players, in the short and long term. To inspire young people to play snooker is a goal of Dr. Nasser and the Saudi Billiards and Snooker Federation.”

Dr. Nasser Al-Shammari President of the Saudi Billiards and Snooker Federation said: “We are incredibly excited to welcome the world’s best snooker players to Saudi Arabia for this competition and we are thrilled that seven of our own Saudi stars will be given the opportunity to perform on this stage and to learn from some of the greatest players to ever play the game. 

“This is a landmark moment in the development of our federation and the sport of snooker in the Kingdom. We hope having the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan competing here in Riyadh in the same field as Ziyad Al-Qabbani will inspire other young people to engage with the sport of snooker and pick up a cue for the first time.”

In total there are 17 wild card players from across the Middle East in the line-up in Riyadh. They are:

Ziyad Al-Qabbani, age 14 from Saudi Arabia
Ayman Alamri, age 21 from Saudi Arabia
Abdulraouf Saigh, age 36 from Saudi Arabia
Faisal Bahashwan, age 28 from Saudi Arabia
Saleh Alamoudi, age 38 from Saudi Arabia
Abdullah Alotayyani, age 32 from Saudi Arabia
Omar Alajlani, age 45 from Saudi Arabia
Adeel Aqdus, age 37 from Pakistan
Kusai Hamed, age 35 from Libya
Khalid Alkamali, age 32 from UAE
Ali Hussain Ali, age 40 from Iraq
Ali Jalil Ali , age 33 from Iraq
Mohamed Elkhayat, age 37 from Egypt
Habib Sabah, age 41 from Bahrain
Ali Alobaidli, age 32 from Qatar
Ahmad Abul, age 31 from Kuwait
Haitham Al Mahri, age 39 from Oman

The event has total prize money of £2.3 million and there will be 144 players battling for the new trophy.

Among the legendary names in the draw are seven-time World Champion O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Allen, World Champion Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby, Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Mark Williams, Ding Junhui and many more.

It’s a good move to devote a piece to the wildcards, as most of them will be completely unknown to the majority of European fans. Ali Alobaidli has been IBSF World Snooker champion in 2023. He beat Cheung Ka Wai in the final on that occasion. He’s no push-over.

Ziyad Al-Qabbani was due to play in the current IBSF event in Bangalore, India. Of course he’s a “no show”. There is another Al-Qabbani in the IBSF draw, Abdullah, 9 years old, also a “no show”. A younger brother maybe?

There are no players from Israël in the draw … unsurprisingly given the political situation … although if Egypt is part of the Middle-East then surely so is Israël¹. Mohamed Elkhayat is actually the only player in this field that I have watched playing … in the Africa championship. There are currently no players from Israël on the main tour, but this event being part of a ten years deal the problem could well present itself. It’s not a “void” question. At the time of writing there are IBSF youth events underway in India and players from Pakistan weren’t granted the necessary visas. I hope that WST has “secured” that side of things in their contract.

This event has the potential to seriously shake up/distort the rankings as the money is huge. In my opinion this is plain wrong, it’s a very short format in the early stages, and medium/short up to the semi-finals. Only the final is a multi-session match. That combined with huge prize money will, no doubt, generate huge pressure. But will it favour the best players? I’m not sure, not sure at all. It’s great for the players to have the opportunity to earn good money, but this event also highlights why the money list shouldn’t be used as a “ranking” device.

The narrative is that the huge price money elevates this event to the status or “fourth major”. Not in my views. Being a “major” stems from the importance of the challenge it offers, and history. When the UK championship went from being best of 17 or more all along, to being best of 11 up to the QFs included, it lost a huge chunk of its prestige IMO.

On the other hand, it’s a huge positive that all players will be at the venue and spared qualifying in England… Well done to the Saudis for that!

One way to make this event both different and less of a lottery whilst keeping a short format would be to make it a “double elimination” event with everyone starting in round 1. That would also make it more special, unique. But of course it would make it longer as well.

1. If you are not convinced look at the map of the region… ↩︎