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.
Fixtures Confirmed For Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship In Manchester
Snooker’s biggest names including Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Allen, John Higgins, Mark Selby and many more will be in Manchester next week for the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship, and the match schedule is now confirmed.
The best 12 players of the 2023/24 season will compete in the world ranking event which runs from April 1st to 7th at the fantastic Manchester Central venue in the heart of the city.
…
The top four seeded players go straight into the quarter-finals, while those seeded 5-12 start in round one. All matches are best of 19 frames. The schedule is:
Monday April 1st
1pm Mark Allen v John Higgins (first eight frames) Gary Wilson v Mark Selby (first eight frames)
7pm Mark Allen v John Higgins (conclusion) Mark Williams v Tom Ford (first eight frames)
Tuesday April 2nd
1pm Barry Hawkins v Ali Carter (first eight frames) Gary Wilson v Mark Selby (conclusion)
7pm Barry Hawkins v Ali Carter (conclusion) Mark Williams v Tom Ford (conclusion)
Wednesday April 3rd
1pm QF4 Ronnie O’Sullivan v Hawkins or Carter (first eight frames) QF3 Zhang Anda v Wilson or Selby (first eight frames)
7pm QF4 Ronnie O’Sullivan v Hawkins or Carter (conclusion) QF2 Ding Junhui v Allen or Higgins (first eight frames)
Thursday April 4th
1pm QF1 Judd Trump v Williams or Ford (first eight frames) QF3 Zhang Anda v Wilson or Selby (conclusion)
7pm QF1 Judd Trump v Williams or Ford (conclusion) QF2 Ding Junhui v Allen or Higgins (conclusion)
Friday April 5th
1pm Semi-final 2 (QF3 winner v QF4 winner) first eight frames
7pm Semi-final 2 (QF3 winner v QF4 winner) conclusion
Saturday April 6th
1pm Semi-final 1 (QF1 winner v QF2 winner) first eight frames
7pm Semi-final 1 (QF1 winner v QF2 winner) conclusion
Sunday April 7th
1pm
Final (first eight frames)
7pm Final (conclusion)
Televised by ITV, the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship is the third and final event in the 2024 Players Series. Manchester Central hosts the event for the first time.
2024 Hong Kong All Star Challenge
The action continues in Hong Kong and I really appreciate the help readers of this blog in the chase for images and videos. Thank you! You know who you are ❤️ … I can’t put everything in the post, it would be very long to read but the comments are there for all pick, chose and enjoy…
So here goes… Ronnie yesterday played two matches. The first match was delayed by nearly an hour because spectators were unhappy, and rightly so. The more expensive tickets – and they were really expensive – were for seats that were close to the table but basically level with it … and the persons seated in them could not actually see the bed of the table. How daft!
Ronnie’s first match was against Mark Williams. Willo won it by 5-4. Ronnie fought back from 4-2 down to force a decider but it as Mark who took it eventually.
Here are some images … (thanks Kalacs!)
Ronnie’s second match, in the evening was against Marco Fu and Ronnie beat him by 5-2.
That match is on Youtube (thanks Ben!) filmed by a spectator.
The action continues today and I will report on that tomorrow.
This is the programfo the event as known at this stage:
Northern Ireland’s Robbie McGuigan is the 2024 European Champion in Sarajevo following an incredible Final where he beat Craig Steadman 5-4.
McGuigan just 19 years of age will now become a Professional Player on the WST in the 2024 – 2025 Season after winning a two year Main Tour Card.
The final could have gone either way and the two players were level no fewer than four times until in yet another deciding frame and McGuigan kept his nerve to pot the final couple of Reds to win the title.
BIH President Senad Pehlivanovic and EBSA President Maxime Cassis with the new Champion
Final Referee from Bosnia and Herzegovina Almedin Hodzic and Final Marker Catalin Cojoc from Moldova
Robbie also received a New Titanium Cue from the Newest EBSA Sponsor ‘little monster’ presented by EBSA General Secretary Simon Smith and EBSA President Maxime Cassis.
Runner Up and Silver Medal winner Craig Steadman
Bronze Medal winner Florian Nuessle from Austria
Congratulations Robbie!
About this competition, a player from England was reflecting on Facebook that, a few years back, when facing an amateur from mainland Europe, the UK players almost always won easily, but things have changed radically. That’s good news to me! All the results are available on snooker.org.
Lei Peifan came from 5-3 down to defeat Vinnie Calabrese 6-5 in the final of the Asia Pacific Open Championship to earn a return to the World Snooker Tour after a one-year absence.
The 20-year-old Chinese player came through a strong field of 90 cueists at the Mounties Club in Mount Pritchard, Australia to regain his professional status less than twelve months after dropping of the tour at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
Both Lei and fellow eventual finalist Calabrese stormed through the initial group phase with a clean sweep of victories and an aggregrate frame score of 11-1.
Victories over Adam Waller and Chi Kin Yeung early in the knockout phase saw Lei lose just one further frame as he set up a mouthwatering quarter-final contest with fellow countryman and former WSF champion Luo Honghao.
Lei was able to overcome his toughest opponent thus far as he defeated Luo 4-2, before booking his place in the title match with a 5-2 victory over Hong Kong China’s Wan Nansen Sin Man.
Former professional and recent Q Tour Asia Pacific event winner Calabrese would be his opponent in the final as he lost just four frames in his four knockout matches en route to a meeting with Lei – comfortably defeating fellow Australian Shaun Dalitz 5-1 in the last four.
Calabrese had been in fine form throughout the event, including firing in four centuries and a further sixteen breaks of 50 and over, and he moved to the verge of claiming the Asia Pacific Open Championship title when he moved 5-3 ahead in a race to six.
Lei held his nerve, however, to claim three consecutive frames and dramatically secure both the championship crown and a two-year World Snooker Tour card for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.
Photos courtesy of the Asia Pacific Snooker & Billiards Federation
Congratulations Lei Peifan
Ronnie News
According to Weibo, Ronnie traveled to Xinchang, Shaoxing yesterday to participate in the filming of a film named “Lovely Home”. At the scene Ronnie admitted that this was a completely new experience for him. He also met many fans.
The film, named “Lovely Home” is produced by the Xinchang County Tourism Group and features a scene where the main protagonist competes with the World Billiards best player. The crew invited Ronnie, the current number one, to Xinchang Stadium for the filming. From what transpired, the film is written and directed by Chen Tianyi – who was born in Xinchang – and stars some famous actors such as He Saifei and Zhang Chenguang. The film is a “family drama” about billiards.
Here are some images shared on Weibo:
And, yes, Ronnie travels by train… he often does actually. He finds it more relaxing than dricving.
Today, Ronnie is playing an exhibition in Hong Kong
I haven’t found much about the outcome yet, but some images were shared on Weibo, as well as news about spectators being unhappy with the organisers about the seating…
Bai Yulu has won the 2024 Women Snooker World Championship
She beat Mink Nucharut by 6-5 in a tense high quality final. This means that she will be offered a main Tour card for the 2024/25 season. Mink will get one as well as she’s guaranteed to finish the season as Women’s Snooker number 1. In many ways this is the best possible outcome from allegedly the best ever Women Snooker World Championship.
Congratulations Bai Yulu!
Bai Yulu 2024 Women Snooker World Champion AND 2024 Junior Women Snooker World Champion!
Home favourite Bai Yulu beat Mink Nutcharut 6-5 on the final pink to win a dramatic final at the World Women’s Snooker Championship in Dongguan Changping, China.
Victory earns 20-year-old Bai a place on the World Snooker Tour for the first time and she will join the main circuit for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons. Talented Bai reached the final last year before losing to Baipat Siripaporn, and has now clinched her maiden world title.
Women’s world number one Nutcharut, who lifted this trophy in 2022, had not dropped a single frame in the tournament until the final. Bai took an early 3-1 lead, helped by a break of 122 which was the highest of the tournament and highest ever in the World Women’s Championship final. Thailand’s Nutcharut hit back to take three in a row with a top run of 62 to lead 4-3, before Bai knocked in 97 and 75 to edge 5-4 ahead. Nutcharut then took frame ten on the colours to set up the decider.
Both players had chances and it came down to the colours – Nutcharut leading 46-43 when she failed to gain position on the brown. Bai potted brown and blue to lead 52-46 during a safety battle on the pink. Trapped in a snooker, Nutcharut hit the pink but left her opponent a chance, and Bai slotted it into a baulk corner to clinch the Mandy Fisher Trophy.
It has been an impressive rise to the top from Bai, who had never competed on the women’s tour before last year’s World Championship. She went on to win her first women’s ranking event at the British Open in May last year, beating Reanne Evans in the final.
Bail also won the world under-21 title earlier in the week, beating Narucha Phoemphul in the final.
Eve of the 2024 World Open in Yushan … Ronnie honoured
As always in China, the players are made to feel very welcome with an opening ceremony and a red carpet walk, but this time, Ronnie was particularly honoured as he was inducted in the World Billiards Museum Hall of Fame
Here is a short video of that event shared by Roger Leighton on Youtube
And there were some pictures shared on weibo, of the red carpet walk, the induction ceremony and the opening ceremony
Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh, Mohamed Shehab from the United Arab Emirates and Welshman Duane Jones all came through the WPBSA Q Tour Global Play-Offs to earn a place on the World Snooker Tour for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons.
The 2023/24 WPBSA Q Tour season saw the tour go global for the first time by incorporating series’ in the Middle East, Americas and Asia-Pacific region alongside the UK/Europe series which has been held since 2021/22. Cueists from across the globe have been competing all year to earn a coveted spot in the Global Play-Off. The season’s best 24 players came together in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina this week, split into three sections of eight.
Sarkhosh beat Iulian Boiko 10-8 in the final of his section and will turn pro for the first time, joining fellow Iranian cueman Hossein Vafaei on the circuit next season. “I am happy that snooker is growing in the Middle East and I think it will get better day by day. I know it will be difficult on the professional tour but I am really excited by it,” said Sarkhosh, whose top break in the final was 125.
Shehab, who last played on the pro tour in 2007, saw off Yu Kiu Chang 10-8. He said: “I feel brilliant, I came here prepared for a challenge – not only to secure the tour card, but to represent my country and the Middle East. It is the first time we have had the Q Tour in the Middle East and the top two players have qualified – that’s a clear message that there are good players in the region.“
In an all-Welsh derby, Jones came from 9-7 down to edge out teenager Liam Davies 10-9. “I was gutted when I dropped off the tour and I’ve felt like chucking it in a few times, but snooker is in my blood and it always will be,” said the former German Masters semi-finalist.
Meanwhile, the EBSA European Under-18 Championship title went to Bulcsú Révész, beating Vladislav Gradinari 4-0 in the final. Recent WSF Junior champion Révész lost just a single frame in the knockout stages.
Not many would have predicted that the two “Middle East” Q-Tour laureates would qualify for the main tour, nor that the latter stages of the two junior EBSA events – under-16 and under-18 – would be dominated by mainland Europe players. This once again debunks the claims that the UK has the best amateurs, something that has occasionally been presented by some British fans as a justification for the UK centric organisation of the sport. Also at the EBSA event, the two winners so far are mainland Europe lads AND it’d about time that WST/WPBSA make the effort to spell “foreign” names correctly. It isn’t hard. I corrected the spelling in the above report BTW.
The draw for the 2024 Huading Nylon World Open has been updated, to include the four wild card players.
CLICK HERE for the draw and here for the match schedule. Matches involving the wild cards are:
Sanderson Lam v Gong Chenzhi Wang Xinbo v Wang Xinzhong Jordan Brown v Lan Yuhao
Sam Craigie has withdrawn from the event due to injury. His last-64 opponent was Robert Milkins, who now receives a bye to the last 32.
David Gilbert has also pulled out and his last-64 opponent was Fan Zhengyi, who now receives a bye to the last 32.
Ronnie has already landed in China. A short video was shared on weibo, showing him and Victoris Shi arriving in the country.
And the 2024 Women Snooker World Championship is in its final day…
At the time of writing Bai Yulu has already booked her place in the Final, beating Reanne Evans by 5-3 from 0-3 down… Here are the scores (Bai Yulu first): 29-78(30); 33-69(68); 0-88(76); 62-54; 72-31; 77-70(44); 74(38)-14; 71(71)-33(33).
UPDATE
Mink has beaten On Yee by 5-0 with scores being like this: 6-64; 19-54; 61-66(40); 1-64; 30-67 (although it’s shown the other way around in some pages of the WPBSA scores site). This means that Mink strengthened her position as Women number 1. Should Bai Yulu win tomorrow, both of them would be on the main tour next season and I’d love that.
Nutcharut and Bai to Contest World Championship Final
Mink Nutcharut will meet Bai Yulu in the final of the 2024 World Women’s Snooker Championship after the pair won their semi-final matches on Saturday at the Changping Gymnasium, Dongguan, China.
World number one Nutcharut will contest the title match for the third time in her career and will be looking to lift the Mandy Fisher Trophy for the second time after she stormed to a 5-0 whitewash of Ng On Yee this evening.
The 2022 winner is yet to drop a frame in this year’s event and claimed a surprisingly one-sided encounter against three-time winner Ng to also guarantee that she will remain world number one following the conclusion of this year’s event.
With Nutcharut having comfortably eased into a 2-0 lead, the crucial frame would prove to be the third as with Ng ahead and favourite to reduce her arrears, a classy break of 40 turned the tide in her favour as she took the frame on the black to move further clear. Ng continued to fight, but Nutcharut proved strong and would maintain her perfect record in the tournament.
Earlier in the day, China’s Bai Yulu completed a successful comeback from 3-0 down to defeat England’s Reanne Evans 5-3 for the second successive year in the World Championship semi-finals.
It was 12-time champion Evans who flew out of the traps with breaks of 30, 68 and 76 to lead 3-0, before Bai claimed a crucial fourth ahead of the mid-session interval to gain a foothold in the contest.
The decisive frame would ultimately prove to be the sixth, however, as with Evans having potted a respotted black to seemingly take a 4-2 lead, she could only watch on as the cueball dropped into the middle pocket and the scores were level at 3-3.
From this point it was Bai who would not be stopped and added breaks of 38 and 71 to clinch a dramatic victory and secure her place in the final for the second successive year. Having lost out to Thailand’s Baipat Siripaporn in 2023, the 20-year-old will be looking to go one step further and claim the title and a place on the World Snooker Tour for the first time in her career.
The best of 11 frames final will begin at 12pm CST, with the pair set to clash for the third time this season with Bai having won 3-2 in the quarter-finals of the UK Championship and Mink having triumphed 4-3 in the Albanian Open semi-finals last month.
