WPBSA Q Tour Global Play-Offs 2025 | Draw & Preview
The draw has been made for the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) Q Tour Global Play-Offs, where players will compete for a trio of two-year World Snooker Tour (WST) cards.
The prestigious event will be held alongside the EBSA European Championships in Antalya, Turkey from 11-13 March 2025.
A total of 24 players have qualified from the WPBSA Q Tour series’ in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region as well as one nomination by the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA).
The cueists have been split into three sections of eight and the player coming through each will earn their professional status for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 seasons.
Play-Off 1
Quarter-Finals (Best of 9 Frames)
Dylan Emery (Wales) vs. Ali Gharagozlou (Iran)
Connor Benzey (England) vs. Mark Joyce (England)
Steven Hallworth (England) vs. Luo Honghao (China)
Kuldesh Johal (England) vs. Ryan Davies (England)
Semi-Finals (Best of 11 Frames)
Emery/Gharagozlou vs. Benzey/Joyce
Hallworth/Luo vs. Johal/Davies
Final (Best of 19 Frames)
Winner of Semi-Final 1 vs. Winner of Semi-Final 2
Wales’ Dylan Emery is the top seed after finishing second in the Q Tour Europe ranking list, behind only four-time event winner Zhao Xintong, as a result of winning the second title of the season in Bulgaria and finishing runner-up to Liam Highfield in event seven.
He faces a tough opening round tie against Iran’s Ali Gharagozlou, who finished at the summit of the Q Tour Middle East ranking list by winning back-to-back titles in the United Arab Emirates.
Former professionals Mark Joyce, Steven Hallworth and Kuldesh Johal are joined by Connor Benzey and Ryan Davies as qualifiers from Q Tour Europe in the top section while Luo Honghao, a former World Snooker Federation (WSF) champion who reached the televised stages of the World Championship in 2019, completes the line-up as the CBSA nomination.
Play-Off 2
Quarter-Finals (Best of 9 Frames)
Liam Highfield (England) vs. Habib Humood (Bahrain)
Dhimones Moraes (Brazil) vs. Harvey Chandler (England)
Iulian Boiko (Ukraine) vs. Alex Clenshaw (England)
Vinnie Calabrese (Australia) vs. Craig Steadman (England)
Semi-Finals (Best of 11 Frames)
Highfield/Humood vs. Moraes/Chandler
Boiko/Clenshaw vs. Calabrese/Steadman
Final (Best of 19 Frames)
Winner of Semi-Final 1 vs. Winner of Semi-Final 2
A trio of Q Tour event winners from across the globe feature in a strong second section where five nations and four continents are represented.
Liam Highfield, who won the seventh and final Q Tour Europe event of the season earlier this month, is aiming for a quick return to the World Snooker Tour after an unbroken 14-year spell came to an end last year.
He is joined in the second section by Australia’s Vinnie Calabrese and Bahrain’s Habib Humood, who finished top of the Q Tour Asia-Pacific and Middle East ranking lists as a result of winning all but one of the events in their individual regions.
Humood will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Amir Sarkhosh and Mohammed Shehab, who each earned professional status as qualifiers from the Middle East series 12 months ago.
Former professionals Harvey Chandler, Iulian Boiko and Craig Steadman have qualified from the Europe series, as well as England’s Alex Clenshaw, while Brazil’s Dhimones Moraes will compete as the Q Tour Americas series’ South American nomination.
Play-Off 3
Quarter-Finals (Best of 9 Frames)
Ryan Thomerson (Australia) vs. Ehsan Heydari Nezhad (Iran)
Josh Thomond (England) vs. Florian Nuessle (Austria)
Sean O’Sullivan (England) vs. Oliver Sykes (England)
Vito Puopolo (Canada) vs. Andres Petrov (Estonia)
Semi-Finals (Best of 11 Frames)
Thomerson/Nezhad vs. Thomond/Nuessle
O’Sullivan/Sykes vs. Puopolo/Petrov
Final (Best of 19 Frames)
Winner of Semi-Final 1 vs. Winner of Semi-Final 2
Estonia’s Andres Petrov, the first Q Tour Europe event winner of the season, headlines the third and final section of the play-offs which features competitors from six nations.
Petrov will face Canada’s Vito Puopolo, who won an event on the Q Tour Americas series in Toronto, while the other six contenders have qualified via the Europe series.
Former professional Ryan Thomerson finished fourth in the Europe ranking list and will face Iran’s Ehsan Heydari Nezhad, who reached the final in Stockholm, while the line-up is completed by Josh Thomond, Sean O’Sullivan and Oliver Sykes from England as well as Austrian national champion Florian Nuessle.
This is a proper competition, and the ones who will emerge from it will really deserve their tour card.
It’s interesting that the Q-Tour actually travels more than the main tour, the latter being mainly confined to the UK and China. It is also interesting that it’s “combined” with the EBSA championships that also offer tour cards, possibly making it easier and cheaper for players who want to play in both.
Regarding the main tour, they should scrap the invitational championship league and use the calendar slots for events in mainland Europe. They could also make the ranking championship league shorter by using four tables instead of two. This year the Players Championship is played in Hong Kong. What about having one of the events of that series in mainland Europe? Sponsoring has been an issue in mainland Europe events, I know that. BUT, a big part of the problem is the strong ties between the sport and gambling, something that is much more “regulated” in mainland Europe than it is in the UK, and doesn’t have a very favorable image with the general public. Surely they can find sponsors in other areas? Maybe, at the start, those sponsors won’t offer as big price money as WST would like to get but they surely can and should “complement” it. It’s called “investing” in the future. After all they call themselves “World” snooker, not “UK, China and friends” snooker.
Also I mention mainland Europe, but if successful, in the future WST will have to consider the Americas and Africa and then they will need to consider simultaneous events in various locations like other big sports do because the calendar has only 52 weeks and then, to be fair to all players they will be forced to “depart’ from the money list and adopt a different “rating” system. I’m 70, I may never see it but there will come a time when they will have to evolve to that model … or never grow into a global sport.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 