Main Tour Snooker Players for the 2020/21 Season

The first event of the new campaign gets under way in less than a fortnight in Milton Keynes.

There will be a total of 129 snooker players from around the world on the Main Tour for the upcoming 2020/21 season.

The action for the new term begins on September 13th with the revamped Championship League at the Marshall Arena.

Formerly an invitational tournament, the Championship League is now open to every competitor on the circuit as a result of its upgrading to full ranking event status.

The only player who didn’t have an opportunity to enter the draw this month was Stephen Hendry, who was announced as a late addition to the Main Tour earlier this week.

As an invitational tour card holder, the former seven-time world champion accepts the 129th position on the list and, contrary to popular belief, does not deny anybody else a spot as the tour is usually limited to only 128.

That said, Jimmy White and Ken Doherty are two others notable names who will feature courtesy of the ITC.

The rest of the line-up of snooker players for the 2020/21 season was determined by relatively normal means.

World number one Judd Trump and every cueist down to 64th in the official rankings at the end of the last campaign were guaranteed another year of professional status.

A further 35 players, who are currently positioned outside the top 64, are set to begin the second of their two-year cards and will be tasked with rising above the cut-off point in order to avoid relegation at the conclusion of this season.

Four players, including veteran Irishman Fergal O’Brien, have been awarded fresh two-year cards for topping the one-year rankings list of players who finished outside the top 64 last term.

Jamie Clarke and Ashley Carty’s reward for their impressive World Championship qualifications is also a renewed two-year card.

In addition to that, there were numerous ways for amateur snooker players to gain promotion for the 2020/21 season.

A hectic Q School was held at the English Institute of Sport in August, with 12 places up for grabs in Sheffield.

Among those making a comeback is Welshman Jamie Jones, returning after previously dropping off the tour as a result of his recent one-year ban.

Ashley Hugill graduated by capturing the WSF Open all the way back in January, while Andrew Pagett and Irish teenager Aaron Hill become professional players thanks to their respective European triumphs.

Elsewhere, the Challenge Tour and the CBSA China Tour provided two spots each.

This season’s calendar is still a work in progress as the sport attempts to recover from the trials and tribulations from 2020 so far.

However, with tournaments being confirmed again the opportunity will be there for the players to compete for millions of pounds worth of prize money.

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Meanwhile, there are eight tournaments scheduled between now and Christmas, including the first five that will be all held at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

The first event that is hoped to be hosted at its regular venue is the UK Championship at the Barbican Centre in late-November.

Much of the second half of the season following the New Year has yet to be confirmed or announced.

2020/21 Main Tour Players

1. Judd Trump
2. Ronnie O’Sullivan
3. Neil Robertson
4. Mark Selby
5. Mark Allen
6. Kyren Wilson
7. John Higgins
8. Shaun Murphy
9. Stephen Maguire
10. Mark Williams
11. David Gilbert
12. Ding Junhui
13. Stuart Bingham
14. Jack Lisowski
15. Yan Bingtao
16. Joe Perry
17. Barry Hawkins
18. Gary Wilson
19. Ali Carter
20. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
21. Graeme Dott
22. Anthony McGill
23. Scott Donaldson
24. Tom Ford
25. Zhou Yuelong
26. Matthew Selt
27. Kurt Maflin
28. Jimmy Robertson
29. Zhao Xintong
30. Michael Hold
31. Xiao Guodong
32. Noppon Saengkham
33. Matthew Stevens
34. Martin O’Donnell
35. Liang Wenbo
36. Mark King
37. Ryan Day
38. Luca Brecel
39. Mark Davis
40. Anthony Hamilton
41. Hossein Vafaei
42. Ben Woollaston
43. Lyu Haotian
44. Li Hang
45. Yuan Sijun
46. Ricky Walden
47. Stuart Carrington
48. Alan McManus
49. Robert Milkins
50. Marco Fu
51. Lu Ning
52. Sunny Akani
53. Martin Gould
54. Tian Pengfei
55. Mei Xiwen
56. Daniel Wells
57. Chris Wakelin
58. Sam Craigie
59. Andrew Higginson
60. Elliot Slessor
61. Luo Honghao
62. Joe O’Connor
63. Liam Highfield
64. Mark Joyce (Second Year Card)
65. Ian Burns (Second Year Card)
66. Alexander Ursenbacher (Second Year Card)
67. Louis Heathcote (Second Year Card)
68. Nigel Bond (Second Year Card)
69. David Grace (Second Year Card)
70. Dominic Dale (Second Year Card)
71. Eden Sharav (Second Year Card)
72. Jackson Page (Second Year Card)
73. Mitchell Mann (Second Year Card)
74. Gerard Greene (Second Year Card)
75. Barry Pinches (Second Year Card)
76. Kacper Filipiak (Second Year Card)
77. Si Jiahui (Second Year Card)
78. Chang Bingyu (Second Year Card)
79. Chen Zifan (Second Year Card)
80. Soheil Vahedi (Second Year Card)
81. Rod Lawler (Second Year Card)
82. Igor Figueiredo (Second Year Card)
83. James Cahill (Second Year Card)
84. Xu Si (Second Year Card)
85. Jimmy White (Second Year ITC)
86. Billy Joe Castle (Second Year Card)
87. Jamie O’Neill (Second Year Card)
88. Duane Jones (Second Year Card)
89. Peter Lines (Second Year Card)
90. David Lilley (Second Year Card)
91. Brandon Sargeant (Second Year Card)
92. Fraser Patrick (Second Year Card)
93. Bai Langning (Second Year Card)
94. Andy Hicks (Second Year Card)
95. Amine Amiri (Second Year Card)
96. Lei Peifan (Second Year Card)
97. Alex Borg (Second Year Card)
98. Riley Parsons (Second Year Card)
99. Steve Mifsud (Second Year Card)
100. Jamie Clarke (World Championship Qualifier)
101. Ashley Carty (World Championship Qualifier)
102. Jordan Brown (Top 4 from One-Year List)
103. Jak Jones (Top 4 from One-Year List)
104. Robbie Williams (Top 4 from One-Year List)
105. Fergal O’Brien (Top 4 from One-Year List)
106. Zhao Jianbo (CBSA China Tour)
107. Pang Junxu (CBSA China Tour)
108. Lee Walker (Q School)
109. Peter Devlin (Q School)
110. Simon Lichtenberg (Q School)
111. Fan Zhengyi (Q School)
112. Jamie Jones (Q School)
113. Zak Surety (Q School)
114. Oliver Lines (Q School)
115. Ben Hancorn (Q School)
116. Rory McLeod (Q School)
117. Jamie Wilson (Q School)
118. Farakh Ajaib (Q School)
119. Steven Hallworth (Q School)
120. Ashley Hugill (WSF Open Winner)
121. Gao Yang (WSF Junior Open Winner)
122. Andrew Pagett (EBSA European Championship Winner)
123. Aaron Hill (EBSA European Under-21 Champion)
124. Lukas Kleckers (Challenge Tour)
125. Allan Taylor (Challenge Tour)
126. Iulian Boiko (WSF Open Runner-up)
127. Sean Maddocks (WSF Junior Open Runner-up)
128. Ken Doherty (ITC)
129. Stephen Hendry (ITC)

Featured photo credit: WST