Snooker

Can Ronnie still win a Tournament?

Monique opinion, Professional snooker tournament, Snooker , ,

Desmond Kane has been asking the question to Stephen Hendry and Neil Robertson

Can Ronnie O’Sullivan end title drought at Wuhan Open as Stephen Hendry and Neil Robertson highlight key Rocket asset.

Ronnie O’Sullivan won the last of his record 41 ranking titles in January 2024 when he claimed the World Grand Prix. The snooker GOAT has appeared in three major finals since then, but has yet to end his 31-month trophy drought despite putting in the hours in practice ahead of the Wuhan Open.

O’Sullivan described himself as “a very poor snooker player at the moment” after losing to 6-4 to world No. 27 Noppon Saengkham in the second round of the China Open in Taiyuan last week.

Upon reflection, it was a defeat that was probably not that bad, with the inspired Thai potter also brilliantly seeing off Judd Trump (6-3), Shaun Murphy (6-4) and Zhou Yuelong (6-5) before losing the final 10-6 to Mark Selby.

O’Sullivan returns to the table when he opens his Wuhan Open campaign against Ashley Carty on Monday morning at 02:30 am…

The Essex player has come up short three times in finals, losing at the 2024 Tour Championship (10-5) to Mark Williams, last year’s Saudi Arabia Masters against Neil Robertson (10-9) and the World Open (10-7) to Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in March.

O’Sullivan is not faltering through lack of preparation, with world No. 2 Robertson praising the work ethic of O’Sullivan during his run to the quarter-finals of the China Open.

“I was watching Ronnie O’Sullivan on the practice table the other day, he was there for three-and-a-half hours,” said the Australian.

“I was on the other table and I felt that if he is still putting the hours in at the age of 50, then I should be too.

“I feel I have done everything right for this trip, and it’s nice to get the results.“

….

Fellow seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry feels it is only a matter of time before O’Sullivan comes good in a blue-chip event providing he can minimise the misses.

“I’m going to make a prediction: I think Ronnie will win a tournament this year. There will be a week when he just hits form,” said Hendry, speaking to World Snooker Tour.

“We know at his best he can produce unbelievable performances and if he can string them together, I think he will win a tournament.

“Which is not the greatest of predictions. He seems to be working his n*** off. He is pounding the practice table as soon as he is out of the tournament.

“All of a sudden he misses something you can’t believe out of nowhere, like John Higgins and Mark Williams, and it’s those unforced errors on easy shots which cost him.

“The concentration has to weaken a bit, the ability to keep that massive focus through a whole match or tournament, that has to waver as you get older.

“It is just natural. These easy misses and mistakes get punished more than they used to, Ronnie has always been quick to blame himself when he is not playing well.“

After Wuhan, the snooker roadshow moves back to the UK, with the British Open in Cheltenham and English Open in Brentwood.

I wish I had their confidence in such prediction … but, no, right now I can’t see it. That said, those two guys are/were professional snooker players and are multiple ranking event winners and former World Champions. They are probably better judges than me … hopefully they, and Ronnie, prove me wrong.

So far this season, Ronnie has played in two events, losing in round two both times, and on both occasions the player who beat him went on to reach the final. They were clearly playing very well. On both occasions, I feel that Ronnie showed some very good stuff in patches and could have won those matches, but was guilty of the odd mistakes that cost him dear. And it wasn’t even the hardest balls he missed either, and that kind of “silly” errors are typically caused by lapses in concentration. I’m not sure what the answer is if that is indeed the main issue. Time waits for no one …

2026/27 Q-Tour Europe News

Monique Amateur, News, Snooker ,

The WPBSA has announced the calendar for the 2026/27 Q-Tour Europe:

Q Tour Europe Dates Announced For 2026/27

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) has today announced the 2026/27 WPBSA Q Tour Europe series featuring seven tournaments to be held across the continent.

The WPBSA Q Tour Global is an established series of events which provides an elite pathway for snooker players around the world to earn their place on the World Snooker Tour.

Last season saw former Shoot Out semi-finalist Jamie Clarke top the Q Tour Europe rankings, with England’s Craig Steadman, Ashley Hugill and Ashley Carty each qualifying from the overall Q Tour Global Playoffs in Spain.

Jamie Clarke 2026 Q-Tour nr 1

WPBSA Q Tour Europe

This season’s Q Tour Europe will once again comprise seven events, with four to be held in mainland Europe.

Following last season’s revamped format, the series will once again feature a rolling points-based ranking system with best-of-seven frame matches.

At each event, 64 players will be seeded through to the last 128 stage based on the latest seedings cut-off point. Each tournament will be played under a flat draw, with the remaining players drawn at random.

A total prize fund of £30,000 will be on offer at each of the seven events throughout the campaign.

As in previous seasons, the top ranked player at the end of the campaign will earn a place on the World Snooker Tour. The next 16-ranked players (to include each event champion) will qualify for the season-end Q Tour Global Play-Offs.

Q-Tour event Trophy

The Dates

The provisional dates for this season’s Q Tour Europe are listed below. Click on the event to enter now via WPBSA SnookerScores.

*Please note this will be staged alongside the 2026 EBSA European Championships

All dates are provisional and subject to change.

All Q Tour Europe events in England will be held at official 147 Clubs recognised by the English Partnership for Snooker and Billiards.

Event Entry

Entry for all seven Q Tour Europe events is now open via WPBSA SnookerScores. Please view each tournament for confirmation of each entry deadline.

You can enter multiple events at once via the WPBSA SnookerScores series page.

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 subject to the number of tables available at the club and time available.

balls on table

Q Tour Global

WPBSA Q Tour Global will continue to incorporate regional Q Tour series’ staged around the world as part of the continued international expansion of Q Tour.

The Q Tour Global will once again continue to include series in the Middle East, Americas and Asia-Pacific regions, alongside the CBSA China Tour.

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 Play-Offs, 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.

There is progress … four out of seven of those Q-Tour events are played outside the UK. However, the three remaining events are all played in England… nothing in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Ok, they are all played in excellent clubs that will offer first class conditions, which, of course, is very important. And, also, for players from outside the UK, England is probably the “easiest” UK area to reach from outside the UK, be it by plane, boat or train (Eurostar).

I have been at all of these venues in the past, except for the one in Vienna. They are all very good venues, the conditions should be excellent and the “hospitality” should be great too.

The draw and schedule for Q-Tour 1 is already available:

Q Tour Europe 2026/27 – Event 1 | Tournament Information

The draw and schedule for the first event of the 2026/27 WPBSA Q Tour Europe series is now available with 143 players competing at the Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds, England on 27-30 August 2026.

A total of 25 nations will be represented in the opening event which features an incredible entry number of 143 – higher than any Q Tour event during the 2025/26 season.

The top ranked player at the end of the campaign will earn a two-year World Snooker Tour (WST) tour card, while further places will be available at the Q Tour Global Play-Offs where an additional three tour cards will be on offer.

143 players are in the draw … Drat! they missed the 147 target 😇…

Unless I’m mistaken there is only one woman in the draw… Corina Maracine. She’s a mystery to me that woman. She enters those events every year, for years now and it’s not cheap. Unless my memory fails me, she has never won a match in any of those comps. Maybe she can afford it and she just loves to be at those events, to part of it…

The first round draw for the 2026 British Open is available

Monique Professional snooker tournament, Snooker ,

This event has a random draw, and a new draw is made before each round. Therefore only the first round draw can be published ahead of the event and WST has now made it available:

Unibet British Open 2026 Draw: Murphy To Face Evans

Shaun Murphy will take on Reanne Evans when he starts the defence of his Unibet British Open title in Cheltenham, with the first round draw for the event now available.

CLICK HERE FOR THE DRAW AND THE MATCH SCHEDULE FOR THE QUALIFYING ROUNDS

Murphy beat Anthony McGill in the final last year and will aim to win the Clive Everton Trophy again at the world ranking event which runs from August 31 to September 6 at the Centaur Arena at Cheltenham Racecourse. 

…

The tournament has a random draw which means that star names can go head-to-head from the opening round. Most round one matches will take place in a qualifying event on July 23 and 24 in Leicester, but fixtures involving the top 16 seeds have been held over to Cheltenham. They are:

Defending champion Shaun Murphy v Reanne Evans

Four-time Crucible king John Higgins v Hossein Vafaei

World number one Judd Trump v Dylan Emery

World Champion Wu Yize v Liu Hongyu

All-time greatest Ronnie O’Sullivan v Mateusz Baranowski

Mark Williams v David Gilbert

Zhao Xintong v Oliver Brown 

Neil Robertson v Pang Junxu

Kyren Wilson v Florian Nuessle

Mark Allen v Wang Xinbo

Ding Junhui v Anton Kazakov

Barry Hawkins v Deng Haohui

Xiao Guodong v Jiang Jun

Mark Selby v David Lilley

Chris Wakelin v Luca Brecel

Si Jiahui v Ashley Carty

The match schedule for Cheltenham will be announced after the qualifiers. The event will have extensive live coverage in the UK on 5, with the full list of broadcasters to be announced soon.

The draw may be random but there is no clash between two top sixteen members, which, of course, would have not been good commercially… luck was on the side of WST there 😎1

  1. or was i? ↩︎

Ronnie Talks Up Snooker 900

Monique Interview, Snooker ,

The SportBible has shared this interview yesterday

Ronnie O’Sullivan: ‘If my son wants to play Snooker 900, I’ll tell him to go for it’

O’Sullivan is a key part of Snooker 900, which is broadcast live on Pluto TV.

Ryan Smart

Ronnie O’Sullivan says he has never encouraged his son, Ronnie Jr, to take up professional snooker – but won’t stand in his way when it comes to Snooker 900.

Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan is heavily involved in the project of Snooker 900, a faster-paced format founded by promoter and agent Jason Francis which sees frames played over 15 minutes and with shot clocks in operation.

He co-launched a dedicated, 24/7 snooker channel on Pluto TV last year, which broadcasts up to 18 hours of live snooker every week including all Snooker 900 events.

The concept has attracted some of snooker’s big-name stars, with the likes of Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Luca Brecel and Jimmy White competing in events.

Robertson called the rules for Snooker 900 ‘the most fun I’ve had playing snooker’ after he took part for the first time last year.

When the channel was launched in October, O’Sullivan spoke about how he felt the format was bringing back ‘grassroots snooker’ and, as well as the senior events, there are also tournaments for junior, amateur and disability snooker players.

In April, ‘The Rocket’ won the inaugural Global Snooker 900 Championship, taking home the £25,000 top prize and beating 2023 world champion Luca Brecel on the way.

Now, O’Sullivan has opened up on the next steps for Snooker 900 – and has reiterated his hopes of setting up a specialised tour over the coming years.

“My legacy would be, providing a tour, and a summer camp for juniors where they’re just playing 900,” O’Sullivan said in a new interview with Pluto TV, which is releasing on Monday.

“They’ve got choices now – football, tennis and golf. We need to give them the snooker option. I feel like the 15 minute frames just keeps it modern day – it’s enough, it’s perfect. Everyone gets what they need out of it.

“It’s something I would encourage juniors to play. We’ll have some academies where they can go and learn 900, and go and be an expert.

“We want to encourage everyone. It’s a level playing field, anyone can do it. Your talent can be [smaller] and you can still make it, I think.“

‘Everyone’s happy’ – O’Sullivan praises Snooker 900 concept

O’Sullivan, one of the quickest players on the professional snooker circuit, says he enjoys the 15-minute concept – because there is a set start point and end point to every match.

“The biggest thing is, it gives structure. If I play at 12, I’m done by 2:30. I can have a nice lunch and time to have a sleep,” he explains.

“I have time to come back, have a shower, get warmed up for the evening session. I’ve already planned what I’m doing tonight. I know I’m going to be back in Woodford probably around half 10.

“If I was playing in a normal tournament, I don’t know what’s going to happen. My wife knows [in a Snooker 900 tournament] I’m going to be home at half 10, and she’s like, ‘Cool’, and can get on with her day. Everyone’s happy.

“You see it at Wimbledon sometimes. The rain starts and the players are there for about six or seven hours. It must be awful for them. We do that on the main tour.“

‘You’ve got one or two hours of pain, but enjoyment‘

O’Sullivan has repeatedly stated in the past that he wouldn’t want his children to play snooker – comments that did bring with them some negative reactions from other players.

In 2022, he told Eurosport that he ‘just wouldn’t want my child to live that life‘, adding: “I want them to be out in the fresh air. I want them to have a good life … I kind of just think, would I want my child to grow up in that environment? Would I want my child to go through what I went through?“

But he now says that, when it comes to Snooker 900 tournaments, he would be more than willing to encourage them to play if they wanted to.

“It’s a great format. Snooker is a hard game. If you’ve played traditional snooker, it’s a tough game,” O’Sullivan stated.

“I’d never say to my son, ‘Play snooker’. I try to take him away from it. But if he says, ‘I want to play 900’, I’ll go, ‘Yeah, fine’. You’ve got one hour or two hours of pain, but enjoyment. It’s fun. It’s good. Go for it.”

There has been increasing talk over the past 12 months of what life beyond the main snooker tour holds for O’Sullivan, given he operated on a part-time schedule during the 2025/26 season.

He stated in April that he was ‘working with the sponsors and promoters on my schedule‘, but hasn’t yet announced what that schedule will entail in terms of specific events.

But ‘The Rocket’ says he is reassured by what Snooker 900 can offer as he transitions to a new stage of his career.

“I love the way that Jason has kept it as a kind of club atmosphere. Growing up as kids in the snooker clubs… I’ve always said they were probably the happiest days of my life, playing in that environment. The atmosphere, really intimate – it’s exciting.

“Someone like me, or John Higgins, we’ve always got an eye on life after the main tour. It kind of gives you that hope to keep playing against top-level players, and being able to adapt and compete and give back to the fans.”

Snooker 900 is available to watch live and exclusively on Pluto TV. The interview with Ronnie O’Sullivan will be available to watch live tonight at 11pm BST, or on demand from Tuesday 7th July.

New interview episodes drop daily throughout the week, featuring exclusive interviews with snooker greats including Cliff Thorburn. Catch them all entirely for free and on demand on Pluto TV.

It’s nice to see Ronnie being enthusiastic about something snooker, and I can’t praise Jason enough for all the creativity he has shown and the work he has put in for years now, trying to develop and promote the sport.

There is one big negative point though … going by a recent tweet, Jason seems to be convinced that Pluto TV is available worldwide. It’s not. It’s only available in the UK … unless you use a virtual private network (vpn) to cheat the system…

The 2026 Snooker 900 Global Championship

Monique Snooker ,

The Snooker 900 Global Championship is the “youngest” of Jason Francis snooker’s brainchild. Ronnie is competing in it, and the event is already at thee semi-finals stage.

Here is the piece written by the always extremely knowledgeable David Caulfield, explaining everything you may need to know about this new concept.

How the semi-finals look at Snooker 900 Global Championship

Ronnie O’Sullivan is one of four players who are still in the hunt for glory at the semi-finals stage of the 2026 Snooker 900 Global Championship. 

The Rocket is bidding to claim silverware in consecutive weeks following his triumph at the World Seniors Championship last Sunday.

In the inaugural staging of the Snooker 900 Global Championship in Reading, O’Sullivan edged Billy Castle in a dramatic 5-4 tussle in the last of Friday’s quarter-finals.

The 50 year-old, who is one of the backers behind the emerging Snooker 900 format, was pushed all the way by the amateur competitor but eventually got over the winning line with a break of 79 in the deciding frame.

O’Sullivan will face Kyren Wilson in the last four after the 2024 world champion also survived a scare before coming through as a 5-4 winner against Pankaj Advani.

India’s Advani, who was a professional on the main tour from 2012 until 2014, led 4-3 but miscued when in with an opportunity to seal victory.

Wilson pounced to take the game to a deciding frame, which he duly won to book his spot in the semi-finals.

The other semi-final encounter on Saturday will be between Luca Brecel and Joe Perry, who each also came through close fixtures in the last eight.

Brecel beat Florian Nuessle in another deciding-frame belter while Perry orchestrated a 5-3 triumph over Shaun Murphy.

Murphy was playing in his first competitive match since losing the World Snooker Championship final to Wu Yize at the start of the month.

But it was Perry who extended his good run of form having reached the final of last week’s World Seniors Championship where he was beaten 10-4 by O’Sullivan.

A second title-deciding bout in as many weeks between the pair could be on the cards, but they must first overcome their respective hurdles in the penultimate round of the competition.

The Snooker 900 Global Championship, with a total prize fund of £100,000, is using the new variation of rules that has gained popularity over the course of the last few years.

Frames are played over just 15 minutes – or 900 seconds – with a shot clock in operation and the ball-in-hand rule enabled when there are fouls.

It has proven to be entertaining to watch, although a bit like last week’s World Seniors Championship, some have questioned the generosity of the pockets.

The semi-finals both take place on Saturday over 11 frames, with the O’Sullivan-Wilson clash at 12:00 BST and the Brecel-Perry tie at 18:00 BST.

The best-of-19 frames final is then scheduled for Sunday, with live coverage available in the UK and selected regions on Pluto TV.

Yesterday evening, after returning from Athens where I went for medical tests, that yielded reassuring results, I was able to watch and enjoy, the Wilson v Advani game. It was a good entertaining match. I always liked Pankaj, as a person and as a player. He was however terribly homesick when on the tour. Living in the UK didn’t suit him at all.

Zhao Xintong is the 2026 Tour Championship Champion

Monique Professional snooker tournament, Snooker ,

Zhao Xintong won the 2026 Tour Championship in Manchester, having previously won the other two events of the “Players Series. He beat Judd Trump convincingly in the final.

Congratulations Zhao Xintong!

Here is the report share by WST

Zhao Beats Trump To Complete Players Series Slam

Zhao Xintong boldened his status as the best player in the world on current form as he thrashed Judd Trump 10-3 in the final of the Sportsbet.io Tour Championship, becoming the first man to win all three events in the Players Series in the same season. 

China’s Zhao was imperious all week in Manchester, conceding just eight frames on his way to the title as he showcased his tremendous long potting and seemingly effortless break-building. He beat Chris Wakelin 10-4 before dismantling John Higgins 10-1 – the heaviest defeat of Higgins’ career – then comfortably saw off an out-of-sorts Trump. A fierce battle was expected today between the World Champion and world number one, but it turned out to be a one-sided affair as Zhao pulled away from 5-3 to win the last five frames in the evening session.

Trump admitted: “Over the last two months Zhao has been the best player in the world. I always enjoy the challenge, it’s up to me to go away and try to improve.” 

After a relatively quiet first half to this season, highlighted only by winning the invitational Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in November, in recent weeks 29-year-old Zhao has recaptured the form which made him the first Asian to conquer the Crucible last Spring. In February he won both the World Grand Prix and Players Championship, and he has now completed an unprecedented hat-trick of Players Series titles. 

The top prize of £150,000 takes Zhao’s prize money for this season past the £1 million mark, and he climbs to a career high of fourth in the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings. He could even take over as world number one in Sheffield, albeit only if he lands the £500,000 jackpot and Trump goes out in the first round. 

Zhao has now won his first six ranking finals – previously only achieved by Steve Davis, Mark Williams and Neil Robertson – and on the all-time list he is now level with Ken Doherty, Stuart Bingham and Ali Carter. The left-hander becomes the 12th player to win three ranking titles in a single season, and surely now heads to the Crucible as the clear favourite. 

Trump misses out on a 32nd ranking title, which would have brought him within one of Higgins in fourth place on the all-time list, and has now lost 22 ranking finals. He has landed the German Masters crown this season, but the 36-year-old has finished second best at the Northern Ireland Open, Champion of Champions, UK Championship and now this event in Manchester, where he had never previously reached the final.

Zhao is an amazing player and I love to watch him at the table.

In less than two weeks, he will enter the Crucible arena as the defending Champion to start his defence of the title. No first time World Snooker Champion has ever defended at the Crucible but I certainly don’t write Zhao off … he could well be the one who breaks “The Curse”.

The qualifiers for the 2026 World Championship start today and those who will be action in the first round need to win four matches to get at the Crucible … a formidable task. Good luck to all players involved.