The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters has arrived and the world’s best will be competing for an enormous prize in Riyadh over the next few days.
144 players will go to the Green Halls, but just one will leave with the £500,000 top prize, which is equal to the amount Kyren Wilson claimed for winning the World Championship in May.
It is quite the addition to the World Snooker Tour calendar, with the ranking event coming very early in the season and offering every player on tour, plus a few amateurs, to give their campaigns, careers and lives an enormous boost.
Kyren Wilson goes into the event full of confidence after winning the Xi’an Grand Prix last week, but two men who he beat in that event are ahead of him in the betting in Saudi.
Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump are joint favourites to land the huge top prize, ahead of the world champion, despite his great showing in China.
The tournament uses a tiered draw, just like the one in place at the World Championship and UK Championship, so the top 16 don’t come into the event until the fifth round.
However, unlike the Worlds and UK, the tiered draw is already made for the top 16, so they know which players they could be facing in their opener already.
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters prize money
Winner: £500,000
Runner-up: £200,000
Semi-finals: £100,000
Quarter-finals: £50,000
Last 16: £30,000
Last 32: £20,000
Last 64: £11,000
Last 80: £7,000
Last 112: £4,000
Last 144: £2,000
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters draw
Round One
Top half
Rory Thor vs Omar Alajlani
Baipat Siripaporn vs Mohamed Elkhayat
Chris Totten vs Haris Tahir
Michael Holt vs Ahmad Abul
Mink Nutcharut vs Kusai Hamed
Reanne Evans vs Simon Blackwell
Artemijs Zizins vs Lim Kok Leung
Robbie McGuigan vs Abdulraouf Saigh
Liam Graham vs Ali Hussain Ali
Oliver Lines vs Faisal Bahashwan
Ka Wei Cheung vs Josh Thomond
Lei Peifan vs Bai Yulu
Allan Taylor vs Adeel Aqdus
Farakh Ajaib vs Haitham Al Mahri
Julien Leclercq vs Dylan Emery
Jimmy White vs Mohamed Shehab
Bottom half
Andrew Pagett vs Wang Yuchen
Huang Jiahao vs Ahmed Elsayed
Ben Mertens vs Abdullah Alotayyani
Antoni Kowalski vs Habib Sabah
Gong Chenzhi vs Ali Jalil Ali
Mitchell Mann vs Paul Deaville
Bulcsu Revesz vs Iulian Boiko
Dean Young vs Saleh Alamoudi
Mostafa Dorgham vs Jonas Luz
Haydon Pinhey vs Ayman Alamri
Menaswin Phetmalaikul vs Amir Sarkhosh
Zak Surety vs Ali Alobaidi
Duane Jones vs Khalid Alkamali
Liam Davies vs Ken Doherty
Kreishh Gurbaxani vs Sunny Akani
Stan Moody vs Ziyad Alqabbani
Who can the top 16 face?
Top Half
-
Kyren Wilson
Thor/Alajlani/Baipat/Eikhayat/Miah/J Robertson/Milkins/Fan -
John Higgins
Totten/Tahir/Holt/Abdul/Carty/Liu/McGill/Walden -
Mark Williams
Mink/Hamed/Evans/Blackwell/Hamilton/Xing/J Jones/Bingham -
Ding Junhui
Zizins/Lim/McGuigan/Sayegh/Xu/Ma/Thepchaiya/Wakelin -
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Graham/Ali/Lines/Bahashwan/Chadha/Woollaston/Vafaei/Perry -
Zhang Anda
Cheung/Thomond/Lei/Bai/Heathcote/Clarke/O’Connor/R Williams -
Tom Ford
Taylor/Aqdus/Ajaib/Al Mahri/Hill/Carrington/Selt/Pang -
Luca Brecel
Leclercq/Emery/White/Shehab/Dott/Higginson/Craigie/Si
Bottom Half
-
Judd Trump
Pagett/Wang/Huang/Elsayed/Ursenbacher/O’Donnell/Lisowski/Stevens -
Jak Jones
Mertens/Alotayyani/Kowalski/Humood/Long/He/Maguire/Wu -
Gary Wilson
Gong/Ali/Mann/Deaville/Grace/Burns/Page/N Robertson -
Mark Selby
Revesz/Boiko/Young/Alamoudi/Davis/Burden/Brown/Gilbert -
Shaun Murphy
Dorgham/Luz/Pinhey/Alamri/Jiang/Lilley/Zhou/Slessor -
Ali Carter
Manasawin/Sarkhosh/Surety/Obaidly/Muir/Lam/Noppon/Yuan -
Barry Hawkins
D Jones/Al Kamali/Davies/Doherty/Wells/Fu/Xiao/Lyu -
Mark Allen
Gurbaxani/Akani/Moody/Alqabbani/Tian/Pullen/Donaldson/Day
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters format
Round one: Seeds 81-112 v seeds 113-144 (August 30th) – Best of 7
Round two: Those 32 winners v seeds 49 -80 (August 31st) – Best of 7
Round three: Those 32 winners v seeds 17-48 (September 1st) – Best of 7
Round four: Those 32 winners play each other (September 2nd) – Best of 9
Round five: Those 16 winners v seeds 1-16 in the last 32 (September 3rd) – Best of 9
Round six: Last 16 (September 4th) – Best of 11
QF: September 5th – Best of 11
SF: September 6th – Best of 11
Final: September 7th – Best of 19
How to watch the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters
Eurosport and Discovery+ will be showing the tournament in the UK with the main table on Eurosport and four tables on Discovery+.
Session times start at midday at 6pm UK time.
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters odds
Judd Trump 3/1
Ronnie O’Sullivan 3/1
Kyren Wilson 10/1
Mark Selby 11/1
Mark Allen 12/1
Shaun Murphy 14/1
Neil Robertson 18/1
Mark Williams 20/1
John Higgins 20/1
Ding Junhui 22/1
Barry Hawkins 25/1
Ali Carter 33/1
Luca Brecel 33/1
Gary Wilson 40/1
David Gilbert 40/1
Jack Lisowski 40/1
Zhang Anda 50/1
Tom Ford 50/1
Si Jiahui 50/1
Jak Jones 66/1
Stuart Bingham 70/1
Hossein Vafaei 70/1
Stephen Maguire 75/1
Zhou Yuelong 75/1
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 150/1
Ryan Day 150/1
Ricky Walden 150/1
Noppon Saengkham 150/1
Chris Wakelin 150/1
Yuan Sijun 150/1
Anthony McGill 150/1
Lyu Haotian 175/1
Marco Fu 175/1
Joe O’Connor 175/1
Fan Zhengyi 175/1
Jackson Page 175/1
Xiao Guodong 175/1
Matthew Selt 175/1
Pang Junxu 175/1
Sunny Akani 225/1
Robert Milkins 225/1
Jimmy Robertson 225/1
Joe Perry 225/1
Xu Si 225/1
Graeme Dott 225/1
Elliot Slessor 225/1
Robbie Williams 225/1
Daniel Wells 225/1
Wu Yize 225/1
Jamie Jones 225/1
Liu Hongyu 325/1
Ben Woollaston 325/1
Jordan Brown 325/1
Martin O’Donnell 325/1
Matthew Stevens 325/1
He Guoqiang 325/1
Sam Craigie 325/1
Scott Donaldson 325/1
Long Zehuang 325/1
Mark Davis 425/1
Gong Chenzhi 425/1
Alexander Ursenbacher 425/1
Tian Pengfei 425/1
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