snooker September
Amateur Snooker, Snooker Headlines, Women's Snooker

What snooker is taking place in September?

The 2023/24 snooker season is gaining momentum and September will be a busier period again for the sport.

Even though the new campaign launched in June, there has still only been a couple of completed ranking events on the schedule.

Shaun Murphy secured the season-opening Championship League before Barry Hawkins claimed last week’s European Masters crown.

There’ll only be one ranking snooker tournament during the month of September too, but there is a prestigious invitational and lots more going on nevertheless.

Shanghai Masters

September 11-17

Returning to the annual calendar for the first time since 2019 as a result of the pandemic is the Shanghai Masters.

Once held as a ranking event, the tournament’s status shifted to invitational in 2018 and it has only been won by Ronnie O’Sullivan since.

The Rocket has twice pulled out of events already this season but is unlikely to skip the long overdue defence of his title in China.

There will be 24 competitors in total competing in what will be the first World Snooker Tour event on mainland China in almost four years.

The field comprises the top 16 from the world rankings list (backdated), the four next highest ranked Chinese cueists, and four young qualifiers from the CBSA Tour.

A bumper prize of £210,000 is on offer for the last person standing in Shanghai.

British Open

September 25 – October 1

Although its champion will be crowned in October, the majority of this year’s British Open will be played out this month.

The preliminary stage for the campaign’s third ranking event has already taken place with several contenders having already negotiated their round of 128 fixtures.

The top 16 seeds – including reigning champion Ryan Day, O’Sullivan, and world champion Luca Brecel – have all had their initial ties held over to the venue.

There will be £100,000 up for grabs for the champion, marking the biggest cheque to be awarded in a ranking event so far this term.

Staged at The Centaur in Cheltenham, the British Open will be broadcast live on ITV Sport.

British Open qualifiers
Day beat Mark Allen to win the British Open in 2022. Photo credit: WST

Qualifiers

In recent years, the World Snooker Tour has made a habit of filling the calendar with as many days of qualifying rounds as possible.

That is evident in September with almost half of the month dedicated to life in the cubicles, and 14 days in total of snooker prelim action.

The Wuhan Open qualifiers (Sept 1-5) get under way on Friday and run for five days at the Morningside Arena.

Following that will be the early stage of the English Open (Sept 6-8), while the International Championship qualifiers (Sept 18-23) are also pencilled in for this time period.

UK Women’s Championship

September 23-24

Elsewhere, there will be action on the World Women’s Snooker Tour with the second tournament on its 2023/24 calendar in September.

Mink Nutcharut triumphed in August’s US Women’s Open and will hope to make it back-to-back successes at the UK Women’s Championship.

Reigning champion Reanne Evans, who has lost her world number one spot to Nutcharut, and Ng On Yee are other familiar names expected to be in the draw.

Q Tour

September 15-17

Finally, the amateur Q Tour will continue with its second event taking place at the Snookerhallen in Stockholm.

Liam Davies triumphed in the first event last week to take an early lead in the order of merit standings.

The top-ranked amateur at the end of the series will gain an automatic two-year professional card.

Featured photo credit: WST

5 Comments

  1. Jay Brannon

    Ronnie O’Sullivan has drawn Ken Doherty in the first two Chinese ranking events of the season. It would be pretty long odds in 128 player fields on that happening.

    Stephen Hendry seems to be entering a few more events this term.

  2. You say 4 young ‘qualifiers’ from the CBSA tour, but they appear to classed as ‘wildcards’ by WST, who blocked Gao Yang because ex-pros cannot be given wildcards (a little-known rule). Gong Chenzhi and Gao Yang were the finalists in the Dongguan U21 event, which was billed as a ‘qualifier’ for the Shanghai Masters. Instead, CBSA have nominated someone with no tournament pedigree to play a top-16 player and receive £10000 prize-money, just for turning up. Besides that, no-one can argue with Deng Haohui (China’s top ranked junior) and Bai Yulu, who last week outclassed the field in an international amateur event in Siberia – a notable result for a woman, even against a largely weak field of men.

    But if ex-professionals are excluded from an elite event like the Shanghai Masters, should they be permitted to play as top-ups in ranking events? It does seem like an inconsistency.

    • Yes, that’s par for the course for WST. It’s hardly surprising at this stage when they make it up as they go along. Impossible to keep up.

      • It’s because ex-professionals were allowed to play and qualify via the 1-year list that Gao Yang got relegated – by £500. He’d be justified in thinking WST have got it in for him. He’s still only 18. I hope his career doesn’t get wrecked like Luo Honghao.

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