First of all … it’s Ronnie’s birthday. He turns 49 today. He doesn’t like birthdays but all the same

Happy birthday Ronnie !

Next, WST has published some information about the next events to come

Judd Trump will defend the World Open title in China in 2025, in a strong field of snooker’s biggest names.

The draw for the qualifying round is now available – CLICK HERE for the match schedule.

Trump won the title for the second time last season, beating Ding Junhui in the final in Yushan. He will start the defence of his crown against Xing Zihao. The following matches have been held over to the final stages in China:

Judd Trump v Xing Zihao
Ding Junhui v Jiang Jun
Sanderson Lam v wild card
David Lilley v wild card
Scott Donaldson v wild card
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Stuart Carrington
Zhang Anda v Stan Moody
Xu Si v wild card
Kyren Wilson v Hammad Miah

The remaining ties will take place during the qualifying round at Pond’s Forge in Sheffield on December 20-22. Notable qualifying ties include:

John Higgins v Wang Yuchen
Neil Robertson v Michael Holt
Mark Selby v Artemijs Zizins
Luca Brecel v Iulian Boiko
Mark Williams v Sunny Akani
Mark Allen v Rory Thor
Shaun Murphy v Mostafa Dorgham

GERMAN MASTERS QUALIFIERS DRAW

The draw for the 2025 German Masters qualifying rounds has been made. CLICK HERE for the match schedule.

The qualifying rounds run from December 16 to 19 at Pond’s Forge in Sheffield, with players battling to make it through to the final stages at the Tempodrom in Berlin (January 27 to February 2). The top 32 are seeded through to Berlin, with the draw to be announced soon.