The heavy hitters start their pursuit of the £500,000 champion’s cheque by getting into the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters draw on Tuesday in Riyadh.
A complete of 112 gamers have already bitten the mud within the profitable new rating occasion on the Inexperienced Halls.
There are nonetheless 32 contenders vying for glory, with 16 of these coming by means of the early rounds to hitch the highest 16 seeds within the fifth spherical.
An embarrassing gaffe from the World Snooker Tour noticed the organisation launch an announcement of clarification on Monday.
How the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters draw was initially offered was deemed to be unsuitable, with the highest 16 seeds initially set to face the unsuitable opponents within the fifth spherical.
All was cleared up in time for it to not matter a lot within the grand scheme of issues, however it was an premature instance of poor organisation that the event, already controversial sufficient, might have completed with out.
Crowd numbers have been desperately poor throughout the primary 4 days of competitors, so it will likely be attention-grabbing to see if that improves with the marquee names now concerned.
Whereas there was pleasure among the many gamers contemplating the massive prize cash on supply, it’s truthful to say that watching supporters of the sport have been much less impressed to date.
A grim ambiance contained in the venue doesn’t replicate effectively on the occasion’s self-proclaimed standing because the calendar’s fourth main.
There may be nonetheless time for that facet of issues to enhance and the ultimate judgement needs to be reserved for the occasion’s conclusion, however it doesn’t look nice.
Regardless, the motion on the desk is about to maneuver up a notch with gamers like Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, and Kyren Wilson becoming a member of the fray.
O’Sullivan, who triumphed within the Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker in March, faces Lei Peifan.
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Saudi Masters draw + outcomes
World primary Trump encounters Wu Yize, whereas world champion and up to date Xi’an Grand Prix winner Wilson takes on Liu Hongyu.
Undoubtedly the tie of the spherical sees Mark Selby entertain Neil Robertson in a battle of the previous world champions.
As soon as once more, the matches in spherical 5 happen over 9 frames.
Monday’s Outcomes (Rd 4)
Rory Thor 0-5 Jimmy Robertson
Ashley Carty 2-5 Liu Hongyu
Anthony Hamilton 3-5 Stuart Bingham
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-4 Chris Wakelin
Hossein Vafaei 3-5 Ben Woollaston
Joe O’Connor 2-5 Lei Peifan
Matthew Selt 3-5 Pang Junxu
Graeme Dott 0-5 Si Jiahui
Jack Lisowski 5-2 Martin O’Donnell
Stephen Maguire 4-5 Wu Yize
Gong Chenzhi 1-5 Neil Robertson
Jordan Brown 3-5 David Gilbert
Zhou Yuelong 2-5 Elliot Slessor
Noppon Saengkham 4-5 Yuan Sijun
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Lyu Haotian
Scott Donaldson 5-2 Ryan Day
Tuesday’s Matches (Rd 5)
12pm UTC+1
Judd Trump vs Wu Yize
Jak Jones vs Jack Lisowski
Gary Wilson vs David Gilbert
Mark Selby vs Neil Robertson
Shaun Murphy vs Yuan Sijun
Ali Carter vs Elliot Slessor
Barry Hawkins vs Scott Donaldson
Mark Allen vs Xiao Guodong
6pm UTC+1
Kyren Wilson vs Liu Hongyu
John Higgins vs Jimmy Robertson
Mark Williams vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Ding Junhui vs Stuart Bingham
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Lei Peifan
Zhang Anda vs Ben Woollaston
Tom Ford vs Si Jiahui
Luca Brecel vs Pang Junxu
Click on right here to view the complete draw, together with up to date outcomes.
Featured photograph credit score: WST