As those of you who will have read my preview for the World Series event in Warsaw this weekend will be aware, Steve Davis and Ding Junhui will be in action. Click below to read all about it…
NEWS RELEASE
DAVIS AND DING JOIN WORLD SERIES LINE-UP
Snooker legend Steve Davis and Chinese sensation Ding Junhui will be making their debuts in the World Series of Snooker in Warsaw this weekend.
Davis, six times the winner of the World Championship in the 1980s, faces Polish champion Rafal Jewtuch in the first round.
Ding, who won three ranking titles as a teenager, takes on Polish qualifier Piotr Murat.
Mark Selby, the reigning Wembley Masters champion, and 1997 Crucible winner Ken Doherty are also in action in the third leg of the World Series.
It is organised by John Higgins and manager Pat Mooney in an effort to take snooker around Europe, where it has grown in popularity in recent years through Eurosport’s coverage of the professional circuit.
One of the Polish wildcards will be guaranteed a place in the Grand Finals and will be selected by Higgins.
“It gives us a chance to bring in local talent,” said Higgins.
“It is a dream for some of these guys to play against their heroes in the type of match conditions we are used to on the tour.
“I look at someone like Ding who came out of China and became a world star and I wonder why we can’t have someone from Poland or Germany or the Czech Republic do something similar in five or 10 years time.
“But we have to give them a chance. With the way that snooker is organised at the moment it would take someone four or five years to break through the log-jam.
“With the World Series we are trying to offer them little short-cuts and a little taste of the big time.”
The Warsaw leg of the World Series will be broadcast live by Eurosport.