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Metro
11-08-2025
- Sport
- Metro
Top 16 learn Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters opponents and hopefully bring crowds
The top players in the world will join the action at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters on Tuesday and hopefully they will bring some fans with them. 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
The Irish Sun
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Stephen Hendry snubs Ronnie O'Sullivan as he names his top 5 favourite snooker players to watch
STEPHEN HENDRY has snubbed Ronnie O'Sullivan in his pick for most entertaining snooker player. The six-time world champion is a big admirer of The Rocket and confessed he always wants to commentate on his matches. Advertisement 3 Ronnie O'Sullivan is not Stephen Hendry's favourite player to watch Credit: Getty 3 The Scot picked his top five most entertaining snooker stars Credit: Alamy But there are several snooker stars Hendry is fond of, including his idol Hendry, 56, says White's style and the shots he produced in his prime helped him fall in love with snooker. He named White fifth in his top five list however, behind Judd Trump and Jack Lisowski, who place fourth and third respectively. Hendry is a big fan of Trump's power and his breakbuilding abilities, while he believes Lisowski is reminiscent of Advertisement READ MORE IN SNOOKER That leaves the top two, and although Hendry believes O'Sullivan is the best player of all time, he is still not his favourite to watch. He said on the "If Ronnie is in a tournament and I get my rota for commentating, I always hope to be on his matches. "He's the greatest player of all-time. Break-building, cue ball control, if you don't like watching that then you don't like watching snooker. When he's on he plays the game perfectly, basically." Advertisement Most read in Snooker Exclusive CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS Hendry then went on to make a shock revelation, naming Thepchaiya Un-Nooh as his number one favourite. The Scot continued: "Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is my favourite player to watch. Unbelievable talent. Championship League snooker match awkwardly interrupted by Ice Cream Van "He beat me 6-1 once in the UK Championship qualifiers, he had five centuries and I don't think any of them took more than seven or eight minutes. The cue ball was on a string, it was absolute perfection. Advertisement "How he's where he's ranked in the world…talent isn't enough on its own to be successful and he proves it because he's got bucket loads of talent. "I love watching him play. It's all-out attack, he refuses nothing. Incredible talent, incredible player, incredible speed." 3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is ranked No46 in the world Credit: Getty
