The final piece of action on the World Snooker Tour for 2023 will take place this week with the German Masters qualifiers in Sheffield.
There will be five days of qualifying at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre to wrap up the calendar year.
A change to the German Masters this season means that there will be only one round in the qualifiers, rather than two.
Following several seasons when a lot of the marquee names had been absent from the Tempodrom in Berlin, an update was required.
The venue in the capital city remains one of the best on the snooker schedule, but fans and promoters had been disappointed by the lack of stars in the main draw.
For the 2024 edition, the top eight seeds have had their initial fixtures in the German Masters qualifiers held over to the venue stages.
That means defending champion Ali Carter won’t begin the defence of his title until the tournament commences properly at the end of January.
Luca Brecel, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Allen, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, and Shaun Murphy are also set to enter the fray at the Tempodrom.
The remaining competitors will contest their round of 128 encounters in Sheffield this week, with play beginning on Monday.
Former German Masters champions Mark Williams, Ding Junhui, Kyren Wilson, Anthony Hamilton, and Martin Gould will be hoping to secure returns to Berlin.
The likes of John Higgins, Barry Hawkins, Zhang Anda, and Sunday’s Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson will also be involved.
A best-of-nine format ensures that there is a more traditional feel to this ranking event.
Live coverage will be available on discovery+ in Europe and Matchroom.Live in other territories except China, where the snooker will be shown on Migu and Huya.com.
German Masters qualifiers (bo9)
– draw and schedule –
Monday, Dec 18
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-1 Jamie Jones
Ken Doherty 5-0 Jenson Kendrick
Oliver Brown 5-0 Andres Petrov
Si Jiahui 5-4 Lyu Haotian
Mark Williams 5-3 David Grace
Ricky Walden 5-1 Adam Duffy
Rory Thor 3-5 Ben Mertens
Dominic Dale 0-5 Liu Hongyu
Elliot Slessor 5-2 Iulian Boiko
John Higgins 5-3 Daniel Wells
Jackson Page 3-5 Robbie Williams
Barry Hawkins 5-2 Stuart Carrington
Tuesday, Dec 19
Sam Craigie 5-2 Sean O’Sullivan
He Guoqiang 5-4 John Astley
Aaron Hill 5-3 Muhammad Asif
Ding Junhui 2-5 Yuan Sijun
Jack Lisowski 3-5 Zak Surety
Andy Lee 1-5 Louis Heathcote
Robert Milkins 5-4 Allan Taylor
Ian Burns 1-5 Xiao Guodong
Martin Gould 5-4 James Cahill
Martin O’Donnell 5-2 Himanshu Jain
Matthew Selt 5-4 Dylan Emery
Kyren Wilson 5-3 Oliver Lines
Wednesday, Dec 20
Andrew Higginson 5-4 Jiang Jun
Zhang Anda 5-3 Mostafa Dorgham
Jordan Brown 5-4 Long Zehuang
Fan Zhengyi 5-1 Cao Yupeng
Alfie Burden 4-5 Peng Yisong
Stuart Bingham 1-5 Liam Pullen
Andy Hicks 2-5 Joe O’Connor
Hammad Miah 3-5 Jamie Clarke
Pang Junxu 5-2 Jimmy White
Haydon Pinhey 5-3 Rod Lawler
Gary Wilson 4-5 Scott Donaldson
Anton Kazakov 3-5 Matthew Stevens
Thursday, Dec 21
Alexander Ursenbacher 5-0 Ma Hailong
Zhou Yuelong 5-4 Jak Jones
Chris Wakelin 5-3 Mohamed Ibrahim
Mark Joyce 5-1 Wu Yize
Hossein Vafaei 5-0 Mink Nutcharut
Stephen Maguire 5-1 Rebecca Kenna
Liam Highfield 3-5 Jimmy Robertson
Mark Davis 5-2 Ashley Hugill
Graeme Dott 5-3 Victor Sarkis
Ryan Day 5-3 Stan Moody
Anthony Hamilton 1-5 Ben Woollaston
Liam Graham 2-5 David Lilley
Friday, Dec 22
David Gilbert 5-0 Dean Young
Ahmed Aly Elsayed 3-5 Andrew Pagett
Xing Zihao 5-1 Ross Muir
Tom Ford 5-0 Baipat Siripaporn
Noppon Saengkham 2-5 Ashley Carty
Tian Pengfei 5-4 Reanne Evans
Alfie Davies 5-4 Sydney Wilson
Joe Perry 5-0 Ryan Thomerson
Held over fixtures
Monday, Jan 29
Ali Carter vs Michael White
Shaun Murphy vs Xu Si
Mark Allen vs Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Judd Trump vs Lukas Kleckers
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Julien Leclercq
Mark Selby vs Marco Fu
Neil Robertson vs Sanderson Lam
Luca Brecel vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Featured photo credit: WST