The 2024 World Grand Prix commences on Monday with the top 32 money-earners from this season’s ranking events in the draw.
The Masters only concluded on Sunday evening with Ronnie O’Sullivan emerging with the Paul Hunter Trophy and the £250,000 champion’s cheque.
But it’s straight onto the next event, with the World Grand Prix marking the first opportunity of the new calendar year to earn ranking points.
Prize, history, and format
The World Grand Prix has been on the calendar since 2015, and it has been contested as a ranking event since 2016.
Mark Allen is the reigning champion following his 10-9 success over Judd Trump in the final twelve months ago.
Trump is a record three-time winner – most recently capturing glory in 2020 when the tournament was staged behind closed doors in Milton Keynes.
Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy, and Barry Hawkins have each won the event once, while Ronnie O’Sullivan has triumphed in it twice.
There have been several venues used over the years, but the tournament heads to the Morningside Arena in Leicester for the 2024 edition.
There’s a top prize of £100,000, and the format is a straight knockout with the first two rounds lasting seven frames, the quarter-finals nine, semi-finals eleven, and the final contested over 19 frames.
2024 World Grand Prix draw
While the World Grand Prix features a lot of marquee names, there are several heavy hitters absent from the draw.
Disappointing seasons for Neil Robertson, Luca Brecel, and Kyren Wilson have seen them fail to qualify for what is the first tournament on the Players Series.
The likes of Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Allen, and Mark Selby are all involved, though.
The draw comprises the top 32 players from the one-year rankings list, with top seed Trump in action against 32nd seed Jamie Jones.
Trump is the betting favourite at 7/2 ahead of second seed O’Sullivan, who plays Pang Junxu and is 9/2 to capture the title.
There are plenty of snooker betting options online with Cheekypunter providing a top ten list of the best sites for free bets.
As always, there will be full coverage, reports, and news from the event throughout the week right here on SnookerHQ.com
2024 World Grand Prix draw and schedule
Round of 32 (bo7)
Judd Trump 4-2 Jamie Jones
Lyu Haotian 4-3 Chris Wakelin
Mark Selby 4-3 Yuan Sijun
Ali Carter 4-3 Wu Yize
Barry Hawkins 3-4 Cao Yupeng
John Higgins 0-4 Shaun Murphy
Hossein Vafaei 4-3 Matthew Selt
Mark Williams 4-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Zhang Anda 4-2 Dominic Dale
Mark Allen 4-2 Jack Lisowski
Noppon Saengkham 4-1 Xiao Guodong
Ding Junhui 4-3 Ricky Walden
Tom Ford 4-1 Jordan Brown
Gary Wilson 4-2 David Gilbert
Zhou Yuelong 4-1 Stephen Maguire
Ronnie O’Sullivan 4-2 Pang Junxu
Round of 16 (bo7)
Judd Trump 4-0 Lyu Haotian
Mark Selby 4-3 Ali Carter
Cao Yupeng 4-0 Shaun Murphy
Hossein Vafaei 1-4 Mark Williams
Zhang Anda 4-2 Mark Allen
Noppon Saengkham 1-4 Ding Junhui
Tom Ford 2-4 Gary Wilson
Zhou Yuelong 3-4 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
Judd Trump 5-1 Mark Selby
Cao Yupeng 5-4 Mark Williams
Zhang Anda 2-5 Ding Junhui
Gary Wilson 1-5 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Judd Trump 6-2 Cao Yupeng
Ding Junhui 1-6 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Final (bo19)
Judd Trump 7-10 Ronnie O’Sullivan
How to watch the World Grand Prix
Live coverage of the 2024 World Grand Prix will be on ITV Sport throughout the week, with Eurosport and discovery+ also broadcasting the event outside the United Kingdom and Ireland.
There are other options available for viewers around the world, which you can view by clicking here.
Featured photo credit: WST
Motivation could be why Trump is favourite with the bookies as O’Sullivan has won the last two events he’s entered. I’d argue O’Sullivan has now displaced Trump as the Player of the Season so far. They’ve both won three big events but O’Sullivan’s trio of titles were more prestigious and he’s got the better strike rate of the pair.
This is the sixth venue in just ten editions.
We’ve had six winners so far.
The 2016 final between Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham is the best I’ve watched at this event.
O’Sullivan’s match tonight with Pang is match number 1500 of his pro career.