The snooker tour resumes tomorrow with the start of this year’s Haining Open, an event won last season by Stuart Bingham who now has an impressive four Asian Tour titles to his name.
Although Stuart will not be returning to defend his title in 2015, the tournament remains one that is deceptively important for many players, more so than ever in 2015 as eight Players Championship places and two main tour cards could effectively be up for grabs this week…
As the nights draw in and the clocks go back, it is also that time of the year when I take a close look at the battle for tour places from the start of the 2016/17 season. As regular readers will be well aware, to fully understand how each of the current tour players are currently placed, it is necessary to analyse a number of different ranking lists and orders of merit.
With two of the biggest money events to come in the International Championship and UK Championship tournaments, today I take my first player-by-player look at the current state of play and flag up some of the surprise names with work to do if they are to remain on tour for another season…
When Michael White trailed 19-year-old Steven Hallworth 4-0 at the first mid-session interval of their World Championship qualifying match back in April, the scoreline was more than enough to raise a few eyebrows, even amongst those of us inside of the snooker bubble.
Though White was able to recover to take a 10-8 victory, Hallworth had acquitted himself well and turning to the 2015/16 season is now looking to do enough to successfully retain his place on tour.
That being the case, I caught up with Steven to reflect upon his rookie professional season, look to the future and more…
Sunday marked the 20th birthday of Luca Brecel, who for at least as long as I have written this blog, has been regarded as snooker’s most promising teenage player.
Now that he is half way on to being eligible for the World Seniors Championship however, I posed the question on Twitter as to just who is snooker’s most promising teenager at this time, with several talented young players having either already made a mark on the professional scene, or certainly having done so at amateur level.
I wrote a similar piece back in 2009 and finding it interesting to look back at how those players have so far gone on to progress in their professional careers, click below for my look at some of the most promising teenagers in the game, together with the best of your tweets…
Alongside the World Championship qualifiers this week we have also seen the staging of the second EBSA play-offs, with 12 players fighting it out for three main tour cards from the start of next season.
After two tense days in Sheffield, those places will now go to Ian Glover, Zak Surety and Steven Hallworth, click below for more…