The draw for the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters was announced by the World Snooker Tour on Wednesday.
One of the sport’s richest ever ranking tournaments will take place in a couple of weeks at the Green Halls in Riyadh.
A total prize fund of just over £2.3 million means it comes second only to the blue-riband World Snooker Championship itself.
But the jackpot £500,000 champion’s cheque will match the one awarded to Kyren Wilson for capturing glory at the Crucible Theatre in May.
It is the first time that there will be a ranking event held in Saudi Arabia, coming just a few months after the country staged the invitational World Masters won by Ronnie O’Sullivan.
On this occasion, every professional will have the opportunity to participate as snooker takes further groundbreaking steps into a new lucrative market.
Some fans have expressed disappointment that snooker authorities have joined a range of other sports in striking a partnership with Saudi Arabia.
The country has a questionable human rights record and has been accused in the past of sportswashing.
On the other side of the coin, however, players now have an increased chance to earn more from the game – especially important for those further down the rankings.
It’s expected that this tournament will act as a gateway to others in Saudi Arabia in the future.
The 2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters draw has a similar outlook to the one adopted for the World and UK Championships.
Amateur wildcards – 17 from the Middle Eastern region and seven from Saudi Arabia itself – help to make up the 144-strong field.
Players will enter the fray in staggered tiered rounds based on their rankings, with the top 16 seeded through to the last 32 like in Sheffield.
All matches will take place at the venue, with the tournament running from August 30th to September 7th.
The action will be broadcast live on Eurosport, Matchroom Live and a range of other broadcasters to be announced soon.
2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters Draw
Round 1 (Aug 30th)
(Seeds 81-112 v seeds 113-144)
1. Rory Thor vs Omar Alajlani
2. Baipat Siripaporn vs Mohamed Elkhayat
3. Chris Totten vs Haris Tahir
4. Michael Holt vs Ahmad Abul
5. Mink Nutcharut vs Kusai Hamed
6. Reanne Evans vs Simon Blackwell
7. Artemijs Zizins vs Lim Kok Leong
8. Robbie McGuigan vs Abdulraouf Saigh
9. Liam Graham vs Ali Hussain Ali
10. Oliver Lines vs Faisal Bahashwan
11. Cheung Ka Wait vs Joshua Thomand
12. Lei Peifan vs Bai Yulu
13. Allan Taylor vs Adeel Aqdus
14. Farakh Ajaib vs Haitham Al Mahri
15. Julien Leclercq vs Dylan Emery
16. Jimmy White vs Mohamed Shehab
17. Andrew Pagett vs Wang Yuchen
18. Huang Jiahao vs Ahmed Elsayed
19. Ben Mertens vs Abdullah Alotayyani
20. Antoni Kowalski vs Habib Sabah
21. Gong Chenzhi vs Ali Jalil Ali
22. Mitchell Mann vs Paul Deaville
23. Bulcsú Révész vs Iulian Boiko
24. Dean Young vs Saleh Alamoudi
25. Mostafa Dorgham vs Jonas Luz
26. Haydon Pinhey vs Ayman Alamri
27. Manasawin Phetmalaikul vs Amir Sarkhosh
28. Zak Surety vs Ali Alobaidli
29. Duane Jones vs Khalid Alkamali
30. Liam Davies vs Ken Doherty
31. Kreishh Gurbaxani vs Sunny Akani
32. Stan Moody vs Ziyad Alqabbani
Round 2 (Aug 31st)
(Winners of R1 vs seeds 49-80)
33. Hammad Miah vs Winner of match 1
34. Jimmy Robertson vs Winner of match 2
35. Ashley Carty vs Winner of match 3
36. Liu Hongyu vs Winner of match 4
37. Anthony Hamilton vs Winner of match 5
38. Xing Zihao vs Winner of match 6
39. Xu Si vs Winner of match 7
40. Ma Hailong vs Winner of match 8
41. Ishpreet Singh Chadha vs Winner of match 9
42. Ben Woollaston vs Winner of match 10
43. Louis Heathcote vs Winner of match 11
44. Jamie Clarke vs Winner of match 12
45. Aaron Hill vs Winner of match 13
46. Stuart Carrington vs Winner of match 14
47. Graeme Dott vs Winner of match 15
48. Andrew Higginson vs Winner of match 16
49. Alexander Ursenbacher vs Winner of match 17
50. Martin O’Donnell vs Winner of match 18
51. Long Zehuang vs Winner of match 19
52. He Guoqiang vs winner of match 20
53. David Grace vs Winner of match 21
54. Ian Burns vs Winner of match 22
55. Mark Davis vs Winner of match 23
56. Alfie Burden vs Winner of match 24
57. Jiang Jun vs Winner of match 25
58. David Lilley vs Winner of match 26
59. Ross Muir vs Winner of match 27
60. Sanderson Lam vs Winner of match 28
61. Daniel Wells vs Winner of match 29
62. Marco Fu vs Winner of match 30
63. Tian Pengfei vs Winner of match 31
64. Liam Pullen vs Winner of match 32
Round 3 (Sept 1st)
(Winners of R2 vs seeds 17-48)
65. Robert Milkins vs Winner of match 33
66. Fan Zhengyi vs Winner of match 34
67. Anthony McGill vs Winner of match 35
68. Ricky Walden vs Winner of match 36
69. Jamie Jones vs Winner of match 37
70. Stuart Bingham vs Winner of match 38
71. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs Winner of match 39
72. Chris Wakelin vs Winner of match 40
73. Hossein Vafaei vs Winner of match 41
74. Joe Perry vs Winner of match 42
75. Joe O’Connor vs Winner of match 43
76. Robbie Williams vs Winner of match 44
77. Matthew Selt vs Winner of match 45
78. Pang Junxu vs Winner of match 46
79. Sam Craigie vs Winner of match 47
80. Si Jiahui vs Winner of match 48
81. Jack Lisowski vs Winner of match 49
82. Matthew Stevens vs Winner of match 50
83. Stephen Maguire vs Winner of match 51
84. Wu Yize vs Winner of match 52
85. Jackson Page vs Winner of match 53
86. Neil Robertson vs Winner of match 54
87. Jordan Brown vs Winner of match 55
88. David Gilbert vs Winner of match 56
89. Zhou Yuelong vs Winner of match 57
90. Elliot Slessor vs Winner of match 58
91. Noppon Saengkham vs Winner of match 59
92. Yuan Sijun vs winner of match 60
93. Xiao Guodong vs winner of match 61
94. Lyu Haotian vs Winner of match 62
95. Scott Donaldson vs Winner of match 63
96. Ryan Day vs Winner of match 64
Round 4 (Sept 2nd)
(Winners of R3 play each other)
97. Winner of match 65 vs winner of match 66
98. Winner of match 67 vs winner of match 68
99. Winner of match 69 vs winner of match 70
100. Winner of match 71 vs winner of match 72
101. Winner of match 73 vs winner of match 74
102. Winner of match 75 vs winner of match 76
103. Winner of match 77 vs winner of match 78
104. Winner of match 79 vs winner of match 80
105. Winner of match 81 vs winner of match 82
106. Winner of match 83 vs winner of match 84
107. Winner of match 85 vs winner of match 86
108. Winner of match 87 vs winner of match 88
109. Winner of match 89 vs winner of match 90
110. Winner of match 91 vs winner of match 92
111. Winner of match 93 vs winner of match 94
112. Winner of match 95 vs winner of match 96
Round 5 (Sept 3rd)
(Winners of R4 vs Top 16 seeds)
Kyren Wilson vs Winner of match 97
John Higgins vs Winner of match 98
Mark Williams vs Winner of match 99
Ding Junhui vs Winner of match 100
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Winner of match 101
Zhang Anda vs Winner of match 102
Tom Ford vs Winner of match 103
Luca Brecel vs Winner of match 104
Judd Trump vs Winner of match 105
Jak Jones vs Winner of match 106
Gary Wilson vs Winner of match 107
Mark Selby vs Winner of match 108
Shaun Murphy vs Winner of match 109
Ali Carter vs Winner of match 110
Barry Hawkins vs Winner of match 111
Mark Allen vs Winner of match 112
What else about the format?
Matches will be the best of seven frames in the first three rounds, the best of nine in the following two, and the best of 11 thereafter until the best-of-19 frame final.
World number two Judd Trump said: “Everyone is really excited to have an opportunity to play in an event which compares with the World Championship.”
“To have something so early on and not just rely on the World Championship at the end of the season is really good.”
“It is nice for everyone to be playing for big money and you feel that all the work you’ve put in over the years pays off if you do well.”
“There are more and more tournaments around the world.
“Now is the time where all eyes are on snooker and now is the time to expand and take tournaments to different places.
“It is great to be able to travel more doing what we love.”
Featured photo credit: WST
Their human rights record is more than questionable. A woman only a few weeks back was sent to prison for 11 years just for wearing casual clothing and making a few mild remarks online.
Trump says take the game to.different places but very few countries are actually staging events. World Snooker has failed to take advantage of Eurosport popularising snooker on the continent. We had several PTC events in Europe years ago and a few became major ranking events but only with a best-of-7 format and none of those events exist now. We’ve even just recently lost the European Masters from the schedule. I’m all for a more global tour but I think the future is actually just going to feature three nations primarily hosting tournaments: Britain, China and Saudi Arabia. The British involvement could even become diminished if the World Championship is taken to Saudi Arabia from Sheffield.
Trump’s comparison to the World Championship is valid in terms of money but the format is actually like the UK Championship in terms of frame length.
Politics and sport dont mix well,if at all, but considering these two countries historically dubious HR record one could say in the case of Saudi Arabia especially ,that oil (SA) and water(Snooker and other sports like boxing) certainly dont,but hey its all about the money as usual.You can bet the Hearns are happy though,