World Grand Prix move to Hong Kong part of plan to reduce UK’s snooker dominance
Phil Haigh
Ronnie O’Sullivan won the World Grand Prix last season in Leicester (Picture: Getty Images)
The World Grand Prix is likely to leave the UK for the first time since it arrived on the World Snooker Tour calendar in 2015 and that looks set to be a sign of things to come in the coming years.
Talks are at an advanced stage for the tournament to be held in Hong Kong this season, in the new 10,000-seat indoor arena at Kai Tak Sports Park, which is still under construction.
Official confirmation of the move to the new venue is yet to arrive, but WST are ‘very confident’ that it will happen, in what would be a big step for the event which has been held in Leicester, Cheltenham, Coventry and Milton Keynes in recent years.
This is part of a plan to spread the sport across the globe a little more fairly as the World Snooker Tour is still mainly based in the UK.
Last season there were 23 professional tournaments held in the UK, with just seven abroad across China, Germany and Saudi Arabia.
This season there are 20 events currently on the calendar with 13 in the UK and seven elsewhere – although with more to be added to the schedule in the near future including the Grand Prix and World Masters of Snooker.
This is getting closer to a 50-50 split, which WST say is the target in the short-term, with the potential for more events to be abroad than in the UK in future.
A WST spokesperson told Metro: ‘You’ll see going forward, the Grand Prix being a great example, less events in the UK at smaller venues. There’s no room for us now to keep doing stuff in smaller places.
‘We’re looking to shift to a 50-50 model in the near future. By 2026/27 it should be 50-50 and it might even go beyond that, which is what it should be really. So there will be fewer UK events but they’ll be world class.’
New events overseas have joined the calendar this season, with the Xi’an Grand Prix in China and the big-money Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters coming up next month, both for the first time, with the World Masters of Snooker in Riyadh is likely to return for a second time in October.
Talk of a new tournament in Qatar was made public by Barry Hearn during the World Championship, and while that remains on the cards for 2025, it may be next season rather than the current one.
Where there has been decline, though, is in Europe where there is only the German Masters on the calendar this season, one event down from last season which saw the European Masters also hosted in Germany.
With the 2023 world champion being Belgian and hugely popular exhibition events held in the likes of Finland and Bulgaria, the presence in Europe is disappointing in terms of how global the game currently is.
However, WST insist they are ‘always looking at Europe’ and ‘desperately trying’ to expand the tour across the continent.
‘We need to move away from relying on the UK market,’ said the WST spokesperson.
Luca Brecel’s 2023 World Championship triumph is yet to lead to more European events (Picture: Getty Images)
With the imminent move for the Grand Prix, more of the ‘smaller’ ranking events in the UK could also be moved abroad or swapped for new international tournaments, with the likes of the English Open currently held in Brentwood certainly a candidate to change.
As for the World Grand Prix, confirmation is expected in the coming weeks on the venue, dates and TV coverage, with talks ongoing on all fronts.
Hong Kong is the likely destination, but dates in January and March are possible and whether ITV4 will continue to televise the event is still being discussed.
The event will remain the first in the three-tournament series which leads into the smaller field Players Championship and Tour Championship.
At last !!!
Well this is good news, well overdue but good news. And if WST is really trying to expand the tour in mainland Europe, I’m not sure what is stopping them. The appetite from the fans is there as the success of this summer exhibitions has shown. What I do know though is that Brexit isn’t making it easier and that there has to be something worth it for the local promoters/organisers. During the PTCs era, I know that organising those events cost the local promotors and staff a lot of work, time and energy and they got very little out of it. That model can’t work in the long term.
A couple of days ago I was wondering about the fate of this season World Grand Prix because the event doesn’t currently feature in the season’s calendar. Yesterday I found this in the Hong Kong press:
Introduction
Invitation to Tender
World Grand Prix Hong Kong 2025 A World Snooker Tour Ranking Tournament
Billiard Sports Council of Hong Kong China Limited (“HKBSCC“) has been engaged by F- Sports Promotions Limited as its exclusive contractor to promote and implement the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong (the “Event“).
The Event is a professional snooker ranking tournament sanctioned by World Snooker Tour. The dates for the Event will be in the first quarter of 2025 which is expected to last 5 to 7 days. The intended venue is the Kai Tak Arena.
HKBSCC hereby invites tender for the work of marketing and managing the Event as sub- contractor of HKBSCC.
Eligibility
The tenderer must have a track-record in planning, promoting, marketing and managing similar major sport events.
Scope of Work
Engagement of Players and Professional Body The top 32 highest ranked professional snooker players are eligible to participate in the Event. There may also be a small number of wild-card players and other players who are not in the top 32. The tenderer is required to:
➢ liaise with World Snooker Tour which is the sanctioning body of the Event.
➢ liaise with the players, their managers and/or management companies.
➢ assist in applying for applicable working visas for the players to participate in the Event.
Event Management The tenderer is required to arrange for and co-ordinate: At the venue
HKBSCC Tender Invitation
Page 1 of 3
➢ venue set up including but not limited to setting up equipment, lighting, spectator stands and venue decoration, etc.
➢ broadcasting set up including but not limited to setting up cameras, commentators’ box, etc.
➢ security of the venue, the players and other personnel.
➢ opening and closing ceremonies.
➢ masters of ceremonies.
➢ programme for the Event.
➢ players’ lounge and practice area, etc.
➢ media center including but not limited to interview area and media facilities.
➢ bilingual press release and results for media distribution.
➢ players’ autograph sessions.
➢ catering services.
➢ lucky draw and other promotional events.
➢ contingency plans in emergency situations. Outside the venue
➢ air ticketing and hotel accommodation for the players and other personnel.
➢ reception of the players and other personnel at the airport and related transportation.
➢ ground transportation for the players and other personnel during the Event.
➢ applications for all necessary and applicable licenses for the Event.
➢ other activities as described in section 3 below.
PR & Promotions The tenderer is required to plan, manage and co-ordinate public relation and promotional activities which include but are not limited to:
➢ press conference
➢ press release
➢ advertisements
➢ interviews and featured articles
➢ website and pages on social media
➢ production of booklets, souvenirs and other promotional items
➢ welcome reception
➢ closing dinner or banquet
➢ other public relations and promotional activities as decided by HKBSCC or the organizer
TV Broadcast The tenderer is required to liaise and co-ordinate with broadcasters on TV production and broadcasting.
HKBSCC Tender Invitation
Page 2 of 3
Sponsorship, Sales and Liaison The tenderer is required to:
➢ Liaise with various stakeholders including but not limited to the Government, venue operator, players, sponsors and media.
➢ arrange for and co-coordinate ticket sales.
➢ invite and liaise with government officials and other officiating guests.
Miscellaneous
➢ The successful tenderer will meet with officials of HKBSCC regularly to take instructions and report on progress, and is required to submit a final written report to the HKBSCC after completion of the Event.
Confidentiality and No Assignment
The tenderer must keep the terms of the agreement with HKBSCC and other commercial terms and information concerning the Event which are not available to the public in strict confidence. The tenderer may not assign or sub-contract any of its rights or obligations under the agreement without the prior written consent of HKBSCC.
Tender Requirements
The tenderer shall submit its tender by e-mail setting out its background, relevant experience and fee proposal under subject “Tender for World Grand Prix 2025”.
➢ Tender closing date: 19 July 2024 (Fri), 17:00 hours
➢ Tender should be sent by e-mail to the following address: info@hkbilliardsports.org.hk Billiard Sports Council of Hong Kong China Limited 5 July 2024
HKBSCC Tender Invitation
The green/bold highlight was added by me.
So, what is this? It’s a call for tender inviting potential promoters/event organisers to submit their proposal for the organisation of the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong during the first quarter of 2025.
If WST intentions are to move the event outside the UK, you have to wonder wether ITV will still be the broadcaster. That looks unlikely to me but you never know. If they don’t, as a person living outside the UK without access to ITV, I won’t be particularly sorry. As good as ITV coverage might be, it wasn’t available to me 1.
But it IS an interesting move by WST. So far all the big invitational or “on merit events”2, other than the Shanghai Masters, were always held in the UK (or Ireland in the past). Is that about to change? Could we see some of those big “restricted field” events starting to travel around the World? Like the Football World Cup, or the NITO ATP Finals in tennis, or many other prestige events in other sports do? I hope it happens. It should really.
By that I mean events not open to the the full tour, but only to players who have “earned” their spot through ranking (be it the one year list, or two years list) or because they won something over the course of the last year. ↩︎
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.
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.
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.
“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).
ohn Higgins’ 33rd season on the pro tour started with an early exit from the BetVictor Championship League as he finished third in Group Nine, behind Ma Hailong and Ben Mertens.
Four-time World Champion Higgins has been ever-present among the top 16 since 1995, and kept that sequence going by beating Mark Allen 13-12 in the last 16 at the Crucible in April. But his status among the elite remains under threat as 2024/25 gets underway.
The Scot opened strongly today in Leicester with a 3-0 win over tour rookie Artemijs Zizins, firing breaks of 95, 74 and 120. But Higgins then lost 3-0 to Mertens, who scored runs of 68, 86 and 82. Meanwhile, China’s Ma drew 2-2 with Mertens and beat Zizins 3-0, which meant he only needed a draw in the last match of the day against Higgins. A break of 111 gave Ma the opening frame, and he lost the second but then snatched the third on the final black to go 2-1 up and guarantee top spot in the group. Higgins made it 2-2 with a 62 clearance in frame four, but it was not enough.
Group Six was topped by Gary Wilson, who enjoyed his best ever season in 2023/24, winning two ranking titles. The world number 11 saw off Huang Jiahao 3-0 then beat Michael Holt 3-1 with a top break of 97. He still needed a draw in his last match against Joe Perry and fell 1-0 behind, but Wilson made an 83 for 1-1 then added frame three, before Perry clinched a 2-2 draw to secure second place.
I saw nothing from group 6 yesterday but group 9 was certainly very interesting, featuring three young players, one from Latvia, one from China and one from Belgium. They all delivered. Ma Hailong played really well and stayed focused throughout. Ben Mertens played very well in his first two matches but then, rather surprisingly, lost by 3-0 to Artemijs Zizins, when he had a very good chance to top the group. During that match, Ben appeared tired and suffering from the heat. Artemijs Zizins himself showed some very good things: he pots well, his positional play is good but he needs to improve in the safety department and risk management.
WPBSA Q TOUR GLOBAL EXPANDED FOR 2024/25 The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association Group of organisations (WPBSA) has today announced the continued expansion of WPBSA Q Tour Global, the series which provides an elite pathway for talented snooker players around the world to earn their place on the World Snooker Tour.
The announcement follows the biggest-ever Q Tour season to date which saw 551 players (individual players taken from all the Q Tour regional ranking lists) from 44 countries complete 1174 matches across four continents.
WPBSA Q Tour Global will continue to grow over the coming 12 months, with an increased number of regional series’ each set to provide players for the season-ending Global Playoff.
WPBSA Q TOUR EUROPE
Topped last season by former Shoot Out champion Michael Holt, Q Tour Europe will return with seven events for the 2024/25 season.
For the first time, the series will include four tournaments in mainland Europe, with the remaining three to be staged within the UK. The circuit will once again see players compete to finish the season as the top ranked player and earn a place on the World Snooker Tour.
The next 16-ranked players (to include each event champion) will be guaranteed to qualify for the season-end Q Tour Global Playoff.
Following player feedback, the match lengths from the last 64 stage onwards has been increased with each match to be played over the best of seven frames (including the final), with the last 16 moved to Sunday morning to accommodate this change.
As in previous seasons, 48 players (see below) will be seeded through to Saturday’s last 64, to be joined by 16 qualifiers.
THE DATES
The provisional dates for this season’s Q Tour Europe are:
Q Tour 1 – 16-18 August 2024 – Northern Snooker Centre, UK
Q Tour 2 – 13-15 September 2024 – Bulgarian Snooker Academy, BULGARIA
Q Tour 3 – 4-6 October 2024 – Snookerhallen, SWEDEN
Q Tour 4 – 8-10 November 2024 – Club 200, UK
Q Tour 5 – 13-15 December 2024 – Vienna, AUSTRIA
Q Tour 6 – 10-12 January 2025 – Zurich, SWITZERLAND
Q Tour 7 – 7-9 February 2025 – Landywood Snooker Club, UK
As was the case last season, each weekend tournament will be made up of 64 players comprising the following:
The top 32 eligible players from the 2024 UK Q School Order of Merit eligible to compete.
Dylan Emery, Simon Blackwell, Iulian Boiko, Joshua Thomond, Paul Deaville, Daniel Womersley, Anton Kazakov, Joshua Cooper, Florian Nuessle, Mark Joyce, Lewis Ullah, Gerard Greene, Kayden Brierley, Umut Dikme, Sean O’Sullivan, Andres Petrov, Craig Steadman, Connor Benzey, Barry Pinches, Zachary Richardson, Josh Mulholland, James Cahill, Ryan Davies, Lee Daegyu, Alfie Davies, Hamim Hussain, Steven Hallworth, Jenson Kendrick, Alex Clenshaw, Andy Hicks, Rory McLeod, Harvey Chandler
The top 8 from the 2024 Asia-Oceania Q School Order of Merit
Lan Yuhao, Ali Gharahgozlou, Ehsan Heydari Nezhad, Kwok Wai Fung, Xiao Long Liang, Yang Gao, Amin Sanjaei, Muhammed Naseem
The eight highest ranked junior players on the 2024 UK Q School Order of Merit, not already qualified.
Vladislav Gradinari, Shaun Liu, Riley Powell, Steven Wardropper, Adam Abbas, Edward Jones, Oliver Sykes, Aidan Gallagher
EVENT ENTRY
The 48 qualified players will be contacted directly by email with entry instructions after 1 July.Each player will be required to pay a block entry fee of £525 by 12:00pm on 5 July and will be guaranteed a place in the last 64 of each Q Tour Europe tournament.
Following this date, subject to the number of players who have accepted and paid for their Q Tour Europe place, we will contact top up players as required until we have 48 confirmed players for each event. These players will have until 12:00pm 10 July to claim their place.
Open entry for all Friday qualifying tournaments will be opened to all players from no later than 12 July. We aim to accommodate all players who wish to enter; however, we do reserve the right to limit entries for each qualifier or to extend events to Thursdays subject to the number of tables available at the club and time available.
WPBSA Q Tour Global will continue to incorporate regional Q Tour Series’ staged around the world as part of the planned international expansion of Q Tour.
Following last season’s inaugural Middle East, Americas and Asia-Pacific Series, each of these series will be expanded for the 2024/25 season. They will be joined by the CBSA China Tour which becomes a recognised part of Q Tour for the first time.
As part of the WPBSA’s commitment to the international growth of our sport, the leading players from these Regional Q Tour events will qualify to compete at the Q Tour Global Playoff, alongside players from Q Tour Europe.
Players competing in Q Tour events outside of Europe, must be resident for a minimum six months to be eligible to play in these events.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The 48 players eligible to accept a seeded place on Q Tour Europe will be contacted from 1 July with instructions on how to accept their place.
Further information, including open entry details and full entry packs, will be published as soon as possible.
There are several interesting and encouraging aspects to this announcement.
For the first time the “European leg” features more events set to be played in mainland Europe than in the UK
The format has been changed to make the matches slightly longer. This is will favour the better players.
The inclusion of the CBSA Tour into the Global Q-Tour really surprised me, but in a good way.
Ronnie is scheduled to play today in the 2024 ranking CLS. I have no expectations. I doubt that he enjoys playing in front of nobody and having to wait hours between his matches. His goal, if he shows up, will be most probably to prepare the best he can for the next event that will really be important to him: the 2024 Shanghai Masters.
Ronnie continues his “China Tour” with Jason Francis and it’s not just for exhibitions.
As reported by WST, Ronnie also took part to the media day to “launch” of the 2024 Xi’an World Grand, a new event that will be played for the first time later during this summer.
O’Sullivan Helps Launch Xi’an Grand Prix Media Event
On the afternoon of May 28th, the press conference for the 2024 World Snooker Xi’an Grand Prix was held at Xi’an SKP Center. Legendary seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, along with over 200 people including representatives from more than 70 brands, guests, fans, and media reporters were in attendance. This event was hosted by Shaanxi Tourism Group and Shaanxi Sports Industry Group.
The press conference was attended by distinguished guests and leaders, including Anthea Heffernan, Regional Cooperation Counsellor at the British Embassy in China; Wang Xiaojiong, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of CBSA; Zhang Wangping, Deputy Director and Party Leadership Group Member of the Shaanxi Provincial Sports Bureau; He Dong, Party Committee Member and Deputy General Manager of Shaanxi Tourism Group; and Mike Ganley, Tournament Director for WST.
Steve Dawson, Chairman WST, and Jason Ferguson, Chairman of the WPBSA, recorded video messages for the press conference. Mike Ganley participated in the guest dialogue session, where he talked about the background for the event to be hosted in Xi’an.
The 2024 World Snooker Xi’an Grand Prix is scheduled to take place from August 19 to 25th at the Xi’an Qujiang Sports Center. Top international players will gather in the ancient city of Xi’an to compete in thrilling matches.
Jason also shared a couple of photos
The second photo is from the 10000 seats venue… Jason also shared this short video:
Before that they were in Shanghai and I never realised that they were doing the exhibition in Disneyland!
And again there is also a short video…
And now they have arrived in Hong Kong
For a sport to really grow big… it needs big audiences and China brings that. That’s why the top players love it there. It may not please the British fans, but it’s the commercial reality. And that’s why it would be good for the sport to have it’s World Championship traveling around the World in big venues, situated in big cities. History and traditions are all well and good but it shouldn’t become an obstacle to the growth and development of the sport, because, it is does, it will kill that sport eventually.
And some more pictures found by Kalacs – thank you Kalacs!
According to automatic translation: Ronnie walking the city, on a film set (looks like a venue to me) and visiting a Temple
TIERED FORMAT FOR HOME NATIONS AND GERMAN MASTERS IN 2024/25
Next season’s Home Nations events, as well as the German Masters, will have a tiered format, which means that all of the world’s top 32 will start in the last-64 round at the final venue.
The round structure for the 2024 English Open, Northern Ireland Open and Scottish Open as well as the 2025 German Masters and Welsh Open will be:
Qualifying rounds Round one Players seeded 65-96 v players seeded 97-128
Round two Those 32 winners v players seeded 33-64
Final venue Last 64 32 qualifiers v players seeded 1-32
This change gives the lower ranked players the opportunity to earn prize money through the earlier rounds and beyond, while ensuring that television audiences and ticket-holders can see the leading players at the final venue. To support this change, we will be increasing prize money for all of these events to over £500,000.
WST Chairman Steve Dawson said: “The 2024/25 season will undoubtedly be the biggest season in the history of the sport. We have announced events with prize money in excess of £16 million and there will be further announcements regarding prize money and new events that will take us close to our target of £20 million; a target we had set for the 2026/27 season and that we expect to hit well in advance of time. This could see not only two or three players hitting over £1 million prize money from a single season that we will witness this year, but four, five or six players joining that group.”
(The “green highlighting” above is my doing.)
This is excellent news , in my view at least. That will come to no surprise to regular readers of this blog. This new approach will mean that at most 32 players will come out of those events penniless, instead of 64 currently. It will also mean that the lowest ranked players will play their first match against opponents ranked outside the top 64. They will be guaranteed a more winnable first match. This is particularly important for the young players and the rookies. Adapting to the professional tour isn’t easy and being hammered all the time is not helping in any way. It destroys both confidence and self-esteem. Being guaranteed matches of progressive difficulty should help.
I have had disagreements about this subject with some of the older (former) pros who came through the old tiered system. Yes, there was too much protection because the players entering at level “n”, should they lose, were guaranteed the same points the “n-1” level winners. I expect that, in this system, even IF the players entering at a “higher” level get some money if they lose their first match, it won’t count towards their ranking, just as it is the case now for the seeds losing their opening match at the Crucible.
Barry Pinches – who I respect and like – was particularly vocal against the tiered system, arguing that it meant that the lower ranked players had to win more matches to win a tournament than the higher seeds. This is true, but I’m not sure it’s a bad thing… in particular for the younger ones. They need to “grow” as professionals and for that they need to play as much as they can. The current system often left them for weeks with nothing at all to play in, brooding over yet another first round defeat against an opponent far too strong and experienced for them.
The next good move would be to have those qualifiers played at, or next to, the main event venue, the week before the main event. That would guarantee that the in-form players are in the “main” draw, as opposed to having there the players who were “in-form” two months earlier in the season. The wildcards, in any, should enter those events at the bottom, play in those qualifiers in front of their friends and family with a reasonable hope to be able to show what they can do.
Mark Allen has withdrawn from this weekend’s World Mixed Doubles due to personal circumstances, and has been replaced by Mark Selby.
As the next highest player in the world rankings, Selby joins the field and will play alongside Rebecca Kenna.
The tournament at Manchester Central features four teams, each with one man and one woman player. The event gets underway on Saturday at 1pm. The teams are:
Neil Robertson and Mink Nutcharut Luca Brecel and Reanne Evans Judd Trump and Baipat Siripaporn Mark Selby and Rebecca Kenna
Selby and Kenna played together at the inaugural staging of this event last season, reaching the final before losing to Robertson and Nutcharut.
Stephen Hendry decides not to play World Snooker Championship qualifying
Phil Haigh
Stephen Hendry says he will not be playing in World Snooker Championship qualifying this season, meaning he will end the campaign winless on the professional circuit.
The seven-time world champion returned to the main tour in the 2020/21 season, accepting a two-year tour card, which was given again at the start of the 2022/23 campaign.
There were some notable wins in the first two years of the return, beating Jimmy White in qualifying for the 2021 World Championship, then picking up victories over the likes of Michael White and Chris Wakelin the following season.
However, the two most recent campaigns have been fruitless, with no wins from four matches last season and none from five outings in the current campaign.
There will be no more matches this season for the 55-year-old, after he posted a comment on Fergal O’Brien’s Instagram ahead of World Championship qualifying.
He explained on the WST Snooker Club podcast: ‘I’ve not entered the World qualifying this year.
‘There’s a couple of reason, it starts the day after the Tour Championship finishes. I’ll have been working for TV all week and obviously not had much chance to practice, which I haven’t really done.
‘I’m not going to bother this year. There’s a lot of things to do in between the Tour Championship and World Championship, so I thought I’d give it a miss this year.’
As announced earlier this month by the WPBSA: ‘Any current professional players who do not enter the tournament will be replaced from the 2023 Q School Order of Merit.’
Hendry’s current two-year invitational tour card will come to an end when this season is over and it is yet to be seen whether he will be offered another one or choose to accept it if he is.
Really, Stephen Hendry shouldn’t get another invitational tour card. He’s not done anything with the opportunities he’s been offered. When he first came back on the tour, he said that his goal was to play at the Crucible again, if only once, but now he’s telling us that it never was a “comeback”. The very simple truth is that he’s not good enough and hasn’t the motivation to work hard on his game which he would need to do to stand any hope of getting results. He’s doing a lot of great things on social media and in commentary to promote and support his sport and he’s excellent at that. All credits to him for that but IF WST is to give wildcards to older legends or retired player it should go to one of hard-working long time servants of the game who will actually use it and try their best to make the most of it.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 