Top 16 learn Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters opponents and hopefully bring crowds
By the end of Monday's play there will be 32 players left in the draw in Jeddah, with the top 16 in the rankings beginning their campaigns against opponents who have come through the earlier rounds of the tiered draw.
The event started on Friday, with the fourth round coming to a close on Monday as 144 players are whittled down to 32, so there has been a huge amount of snooker played already, and some brilliant stuff in there.
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh knocked in a maximum in a win over Jordan Brown and followed it up with a brilliant 5-1 demolition of former Crucible finalist Jak Jones.
There have been multiple wins for some of the youngest players on tour, including the youngest, 14-year-old Michal Szubarczyk, and 16-year-old Lan Yuhao.
Reanne Evans has flown the flag for the women on the professional tour with back-to-back victories and there have been wins for players from countries as diverse as Canada, Ukraine, Brazil and Egypt.
Very few people have watched any of that at Green Halls, Jeddah, with most matches played in front of a handful of people or literally no one.
The tournament has been dubbed 'the fourth major' by World Snooker Tour and boasts a fantastic top prize of £500,000, but building support in Saudi Arabia is a process and we are very early on that journey.
Clearly with a relatively small fanbase in the area, people are more likely to wait for the big names to arrive on Tuesday before they turn up to watch and tournament organisers will be hoping that the arrival of the sport's stars starts to fill some seats.
It has been an odd watch on television as players pull off brilliant shots and pot winning balls to complete silence in a pretty vast arena.
These are the rounds that would be seen as qualifiers in other events, so would never be likely to attract vast crowds, but an entirely empty arena is jarring viewing and one solitary person clapping a shot sounds daft.
It is also the case that the event boasts total prize money of over £2m, second only to the World Championship, so fans or not, the players are delighted that it is on the calendar and providing life-changing opportunity.
In Riyadh last year the crowds did start to build from the last 32 onwards, with Ronnie O'Sullivan's games attracting healthy audiences and by the semi-final and final there were plenty of people in.
It will likely still be a slow burn outside of those games, but there is plenty to look forward to for the fans who do arrive at Green Halls.
Tuesday August 11
11am
Neil Robertson vs Ben Woollaston
Zhang Anda vs Stuart Bingham
Mark Selby vs Long Zehuang
Judd Trump vs Oliver Lines
Mark Williams vs Yuan Sijun
Ali Carter vs Gary Wilson
John Higgins vs Elliot Slessor
Shaun Murphy vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
5.30pm
Ding Junhui vs Maguire/McGill
Mark Allen vs Chang/Gilbert
Zhao Xintong vs Hallworth/Zhou
Kyren Wilson vs Heathcote/Boiko
Chris Wakelin vs Jamie Jones/Ajaib
Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Lam/O'Connor
Si Jiahui vs Wu/Stevens
Barry Hawkins vs Vafaei/O'Donnell
Eight of the games in the last 32 have already been set, with defending champion Judd Trump set to take on his good friend Oliver Lines after impressive wins over Liam Pullen, Matt Selt and Noppon Saengkham for the Yorkshireman. More Trending
The in-form Un-Nooh has an eye-catching clash with Masters champion Shaun Murphy and last year's runner-up Mark Williams meets rising Chinese star Yuan Sijun.
Ronnie O'Sullivan will take on either Sanderson Lam or Joe O'Connor, while newly crowned Shanghai Masters champion Kyren Wilson faces either Louis Heathcote or Iulian Boiko.
The final round four fixtures begin at 5.30pm UK time on Monday, as eight more players book their places in the last 32.
Winner: £500,000
Runner-up: £200,000
Semi-final: £100,000
Quarter-final: £50,000
Last 16: £30,000
Last 32: £20,000
Last 48: £11,000
Last 80: £7,000
Last 112: £4,000
Last 144: £2,000
MORE: Luca Brecel speaks out on health problems after Saudi Arabia Masters withdrawal
MORE: Ronnie O'Sullivan Saudi Arabia Masters draw opens up after shock late withdrawal
MORE: Joe O'Connor makes silverware prediction after best ever start to season
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters 2025 LIVE RESULTS: Ronnie O'Sullivan into semis after beating Wilson in NAILBITING tie
THIS year's thrilling Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters is rolling on at pace - and Ronnie O'Sullivan is closing in on the £500,000 jackpot! The Rocket edged past Kyren Wilson 6-5 in what turned out to be a blockbuster quarter-final. And he now awaits the winner of Barry Hawkins and Chris Wakelin in the other final eight fixture. Neil Robertson and Elliot Slessor booked their spots in the semi-finals with wins over Ali Carter and Mark Williams respectively. BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK 8th Aug 2025, 11:32 By Kealan Hughes Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters 2025 schedule Round One Friday, August 8 From 12pm BST Florian Nuessle v Dylan Emery Liam Pullen v Ahmed Aseeri Robbie McGuigan v Gao Yang Kreishh Gurbaxani v Reanne Evans Ross Muir v Abdulraouf Saigh Sahil Nayyar v Habib Subah Huang Jiahao v Wilcard TBA Steven Hallworth v Omar Alajlani From 2pm Leone Crowley v Ziyad Alqabbani Zhao Hanyang v Musab Sayegh Jonas Luz v Musaad Almisfir Mateusz Baranowski v Lan Yuhao Michal Szubarczyk v Ryan Davies Sam Craigie v Xu Yichen Liam Highfield v Mohammed Al Joker Jiang Jun v Hesham Shawky From 6pm Chatchapong Nasa v Fahad Alghamdi Iulian Boiko v Liu Wenwei Mitchell Mann v Ashley Hugill Ian Burns v David Grace Chang Bingyu v Marco Fu Ken Doherty v Jimmy White Connor Benzey v Adeel Aqdus Mink Nutcharut v Umut Dikme From 8pm Louis Heathcote v Ayman Alamri Hatem Yassen v Ng On Yee Mohammed Shebab v Abdullah Alotayyani Oliver Brown v Patrick Whelan Yao Pengcheng v Alexander Ursenbacher Fergal Quinn v Mahmoud El Hareedy Farakh Ajaib v Saud Albaker Liam Graham v Asif Mukhtar 8th Aug 2025, 11:12 By Kealan Hughes Hello and welcome! Welcome to SunSport's blog on the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters where we will be bringing you all the action from Green Halls, Jeddah. Play gets underway today and runs until Saturday, August 16.
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
Iconic Brazilian coach Dilma Mendes: ‘Police would arrest me for playing football'
Dilma Mendes's contribution to football has been significant. She is the coach responsible for identifying and honing the talent of Formiga, one of Brazil's most emblematic female footballers. Mendes trained the player from the age of nine until her professional career began at 16. Now, more than 30 years later, they are working together again, to bring the Football 7 World Championship title to Brazil. The international tournament takes place in Curitiba, in the south of Brazil, from 21-24 August. Mendes, twice voted the best women's seven-a-side coach in the world, has called up the 47-year-old Formiga to lead the fight for a second world title, and Formiga's wife, the former player Érica de Jesus, will be assistant coach. Mendes's career with the national seven-a-side outfit began in 2019, when she was hired to develop a new team, and she searched all corners of Brazil to identify players. In 2023, when the men announced the futsal legend Falcão would play for them, the women brought in Formiga. 'I reached out to Formiga and told her we needed her as a legendary player,' Mendes says. 'I truly believe in this sport because we have seen events growing more and more, even big tournaments like The Soccer Tournament, for example. We see players who have a history in other kinds of football, but we also see new generations who can become stars of the game in their country.' Formiga, who played 234 times for Brazil's 11-a-side team, including at seven World Cups and seven Olympic Games, calls Mendes her 'second mother'. Mendes would take Formiga to every tournament her team played, even if she was too young to participate . 'I think life chose Formiga for me, as much as I chose her,' Mendes says. 'I always say that love found both of us – the love we have for football. I met Formiga when she was nine, playing in the neighbourhood, barefoot among adult men. I even wondered if she was a boy or a girl. I shared her custody, so to speak, with her mother, Celeste, until she was 12. Then, we decided she needed a change and she moved in with me. I left my flat and rented a place for me and 11 girls, which we called Athlete's Home.' Living and training with women helped Formiga develop her style. When she was 16, a group representing the women's national 11-a-side team saw Formiga playing futsal and gave her a Brazil call-up. Her international career would span 26 years. When Formiga was called up as a forward, Mendes fought for her to play as a defensive midfielder. 'I'd seen her playing against grown men, fighting for the ball, at just nine years old. I knew she would be great at that – and also, Brazil has always had many forwards but needed more people who could play defensively. It worked out for the best.' Mendes's path in football began in her home town of Camaçari, in the countryside of Bahia. However, during childhood, it was illegal for women to play football. She would play with boys in the neighbourhood, paying them in ice-cream to warn her if the police or her mother were around. The ban was lifted in 1979 – until then, she would be detained and sometimes scolded if caught playing. 'The police would arrest me but couldn't keep me for long because it was a small town – they couldn't keep me in a cell for playing football. But they would sit me down and wait for one of my parents to come and pick me up. I always hoped it was my dad, because he would cover for me, but my mum would scold me. She thought I was just being a rebel, but I played football out of love.' Mendes has been appointed sports secretary in Camaçari and works with several social projects teaching football to girls in the state. Formiga followed in her footsteps and became sports secretary in the city of Cotia, in the countryside of São Paulo, working with Mendes to develop a strategy for women's football teams around the state. Mendes has also worked as a curator in the new permanent exhibit at the Football Museum in São Paulo, sharing part of her archives about women's football in Bahia and around Brazil, with pictures and stories. She regularly meets fellow women's football pioneers to study and discuss the game, their lives and shared experiences. 'As Black women, we need to not only have the knowledge but also be able to strategise in order to get into the game without changing who we are,' she says. 'Ever since I was a kid, I knew that if I wanted to play football, I needed to learn the fundamentals – keepy-uppies, control, balance … I believe that as a coach, I have to study even more.' Her experience with futsal led her to better understand how to play in tight spaces and take advantage of every shot. Mendes has big dreams and is developing a study of women's football teams around Bahia to understand where the game needs more support. 'If you have 20 girls in a social project, for example, they will need support. One of them might be a future Formiga, a future Marta, Roseli, Pretinha … We need to think about the 2027 Fifa Women's World Cup as an opportunity for legacy and public policy, but always questioning who is benefiting from it. 'We need to create laws to protect the game, because when I was a kid, there was a law that tried to keep me from playing. I think our own existence as players and as people who want to develop the women's game in Brazil show why this study matters. Otherwise, the stakeholders will be talking about us without us having a seat at the table.' If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is back to its twice-weekly format, delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.
Metro
2 days ago
- Metro
How Chang Bingyu has exploded back from match-fixing ban to become snooker force
Chang Bingyu is enjoying a superb run at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, ready to take on Ronnie O'Sullivan in the last 16, and it has been an eventful journey to this point. The 23-year-old has won five matches to book his clash with the Rocket, winning three deciders before ousting Dave Gilbert and then Mark Allen in the last 32. The Chinese star is ranked number 104 in the world but is clearly a better player than that, as these results suggest. Chang is languishing near the bottom of the rankings as he has only recently returned to the professional tour after two years away due to a match-fixing ban. The talented young cueist was one of the 10 players banned as part of the match-fixing scandal which emerged late in 2022, with punishments dished out in June '23. World champion Zhao Xintong was another, although he did not fix any matches and received the shortest ban of the 10 as a result. Chang is the first to return from a ban of any of the players found guilty of match-fixing and he is making the most of it as his eventful life in snooker continues. Chang was a wildly talented junior player, winning the 2018 IBSF World Snooker Championship at just 16 years old, having made a maximum in tournament play at just 14. He joined the professional tour in 2019 as a teenager, moving to Sheffield as a result, and he picked up some encouraging wins, but the global pandemic disrupted his progress as he returned to China and missed some events. A run to the 2020 UK Championship last 32 was probably the highlight of his early pro career, before he was suspended in December 2022 as part of the match-fixing scandal. Chang admitted to fixing a match against Jamie Jones at the 2022 British Open, losing 4-1, but did so as a result of pressure and influence from Liang Wenbo, who subsequently received a lifetime ban. The Disciplinary Commission's findings read that Chang 'accepted that he on 28th September 2022 had fixed a snooker match that he was playing in.' He gave evidence to the commission that he was called by Liang Wenbo on the morning of the match 'with a threatening tone' and told that Liang 'had placed a lot of money on his bet without my knowledge, for my match with Jamie Jones that evening.' Chang 'reluctantly agreed' but said he never received the money he was told he would be given for the fix. The independent tribunal's findings on Chang read: 'We have found that Chang fixed or contrived, or was a party to an effort to fix or contrive, the result or score of a snooker match on one occasion. 'We note that, at the time that his match fixing took place, Chang was aged 20. He was young and impressionable and under the influence of Liang, of whom he was scared. Chang has given evidence that he thought Liang would take action against him if he did not comply with Liang's demands. We accept that, in all probability, Chang would not have offended absent that element of threat. He was also suffering financial difficulties at the time, he has shown genuine remorse for his actions and he admitted his office at the earliest opportunity. There is no suggestion that Chang committed any betting offence.' Chang was given a three-year ban in June 2023 for fixing a match, reduced to two years following early admissions and his plea of guilty, which kept him out of snooker until December 2024 – backdated to his original suspension. Chang quickly won his place back on tour after being able to compete again, winning the Asia-Pacific Snooker Championship by beating Ryan Thomerson 6-1 in the final in April. Now 23 years old, Chang has made a fantastic return to the professional circuit, starting with back-to-back wins in June over Dan Wells and Kreishh Gurbaxani in the Wuhan Open and British Open qualifiers. He didn't progress through his Championship League group, but only suffered one loss, to Ricky Walden. A perilous draw awaited him at the Saudi Arabia Masters this month but he has been brilliant, winning a string of close games. The Chinese star downed Marco Fu, Scott Donaldson and Wells all by a 4-3 scoreline, before beating Dave Gilbert 5-3 to reach the last 32. Former UK and Masters champion Mark Allen awaited him there, but Chang beat the Pistol 5-4 to set up Wednesday's clash with the Rocket. Speaking to World Snooker Tour about his return to the game, Chang explained the huge amount of practice he was putting in with his coach Li Jianbing back in China, before a move back to Sheffield. 'I was based at Coach Li's academy and the schedule was very structured, I would practise from 9am to around 8:30pm every day,' he said. 'Everything was very disciplined, and he really helped me get into good form. I'm now based at Ding Junhui's academy in Sheffield and I still have long, focused practice sessions daily, around six to seven hours.' More Trending He added that two of the brightest young talents in the game, Si Jiahui and Wu Yize, have been his rivals through their young careers and he intends to reach their level as quickly as possible. 'Over the past two years, I have gained perspective,' he said. 'Now I approach matches with a much calmer mindset. My goal is to catch up with players like Wu Yize and Si Jiahui. We grew up playing each other together, and they've both made great strides so I'd like to follow their lead. 'We've been close since we were kids. Seeing them succeed definitely motivates me to push harder.' Controversies and difficulties behind him, Chang appears to be ready to make a huge impact at the top end of the game. MORE: Ronnie O'Sullivan heaps praise on rival: 'Like playing Hendry in his prime' MORE: Shaun Murphy: Triple Crown events head and shoulders above Saudi Arabia Masters MORE: Defending champion Judd Trump stunned in Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters opener
