Tuesday sees the start of the 2015 Champion of Champions event and following Mark Allen’s victory at the Bulgarian Open yesterday, we now know who the 16 players competing at the Ricoh Arena will be.
Click below for my look at the draw and thoughts on the tournament generally…
It feels like a long time since we last saw the players in ranking event action and indeed it has been, as over two months have passed since July’s Australian Goldfields Open.
Next week though the professionals will be back in action at the 2015 Shanghai Masters, with Stuart Bingham looking to defend the title that he won 12 months ago and following the event will also come the second mid-season seeding revision of the current season.
As well as being a remarkable achievement in its own right, Ali Carter’s victory at the recent Paul Hunter Classic, also secured him a place in the Champion of Champions event for the third successive year.
Click below for a look at who will be joining him with just five counting events still to be played…
UPDATE: An interesting snippet out today from last year’s winner Ronnie O’Sullivan, who has indicated on Twitter that he will not be taking up his place in this year’s tournament:
Heard a rumour going around that I'm playing The Champions Of champions. Not true
— Ronnie O'Sullivan (@ronnieo147) September 8, 2015
Original article follows…
Barry Hawkins is the 2015 Riga Open champion after the world number eight defeated Leicester’s Tom Ford 4-1 this evening.
Having dropped the opening frame, he made short work of the next four to make the perfect start to the new season, after he elected not to enter last month’s Australian Goldfields Open.
He earns £18,750, which will make certain of his place at this season’s Players Championship event, while his victory will also see him back at the Champion of Champions event this November…
It might only be June, but following the conclusion of next week’s Australian Goldfields Open we will see the first mid-season seeding revision of the 2015/16 campaign.
The revision is a notable one too, with seedings for the Shanghai Masters, another event not to be played under a flat draw format, up for grabs in Bendigo…
Six years after his last Crucible final, Shaun Murphy today booked his place in a World Championship final for a third time with an emphatic 17-9 victory against 2013 runner-up Barry Hawkins.
Following a dramatic day of quarter-finals at the Crucible Theatre yesterday, we are now down to just one table as the sport’s most cramped venue suddenly becomes its most spacious.
Click below for a few thoughts and a look back at those last eight matches…
Following his defeat to Barry Hawkins at the World Championship yesterday, Mark Allen gave an interesting press conference in which amongst other things, he discussed how much he is looking forward to working with Terry Griffiths again next season.
But who will join him in that association from this summer?