The 2024 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters concluded on Saturday with Judd Trump emerging with the title at the Green Halls in Riyadh.
The self-proclaimed fourth major ended with two of the game’s best ever players contesting a barnstorming title-deciding battle worthy of any big event.
Trump produced one of the best clearances of his career in the deciding frame to pip Williams to glory on the final black, snatching the ยฃ500,000 champion’s cheque in the process.
Tournaments, particularly new ones that boast enormous prize funds, are often judged by moments that befit the occasion, and in that sense Saudi Arabia delivered when it mattered the most.
The World Snooker Tour will be thankful that there were a couple of excellent encounters involving its world number one in the last two days of the event.
Before his last-gasp heroics against Williams, Trump had similarly pipped Shaun Murphy in a dramatic semi-final that also went the distance.
Exhilarating moments like these on the table will always help to paper over any cracks that might exist off of it.
Whether the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, boasting a ยฃ2.3 million prize fund and with a ten-year contract on the World Snooker Tour calendar, has been deemed a success overall remains controversial and up for debate.
Many people, wrongly, had their minds entirely made up before a shot was even struck, but that’s not to say several of their preconceived concerns weren’t evident.
It’s fair to say that the players have seemed happy with the opportunity to be luxuriously pampered while competing for one of the sport’s most lucrative ever prizes, though.
Indeed, it would be difficult to find a single negative comment from those who participated, which is pretty unusual given how snooker players are frequently among the biggest complainers in sport.
The propaganda-levels of support for the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters didn’t do much to quell the widespread opinion among some fans that the lavish event was another exercise in the host country’s reputed act of sportswashing.
Some of what was said was so eye-rollingly absurd that it would make one wonder if the players had been forced to sign a contract not to say anything negative about the event.
Either that or they were on a commission for every positive remark made!
Let’s be honest. If this had been any other tournament, there is no way that the players would have been waxing lyrical about the atmosphere.
Although it improved towards the end of the week, with respectable enough numbers in to watch both semi-finals and the final, most of the nine days were practically empty – particularly if Ronnie O’Sullivan wasn’t in action.
“There is a different kind of buzz similar to the Crucible here,” Judd Trump was outlandishly quoted as saying by the BBC at the start of the week.
Ridiculous comments like those – and there were many from multiple parties – reflect a growing sense that there is an increasing disparity and divide between the sport and its long-term fans.
The moral issues related to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record are one thing, and it would be unfair to expect the players to call out a regime they ultimately have nothing to do with.
But in terms of the venue and the tournament itself – aspects they are directly linked to – are the players (and others connected to the event) that ignorant to think that we’ll not see with our own eyes what it’s like there?
The behind-the-scenes buzz may be present, and that’s important too, but for fans all around the world there’s little inspiration watching a supposedly prestigious event with rows upon rows of empty seats.
Having viewed the general lack of atmosphere – not once now but twice following the invitational Riyadh Season World Masters in March – continued rumours of the World Championship’s potential move to the country appear even more concerning.
At the end of the day, though, money talks. And professional sport is a business.
It’s difficult to completely chastise players who just want to earn a good living from a game which, let’s remember, they are the best in the world at playing.
When an opportunity like Saudi Arabia comes along, snooker would be stupid to completely ignore it, and WST would have been ridiculed had it failed to follow through on its promise to deliver more.
A lot of people, however, would probably have more understanding of the situation and garner greater respect for the players if they would just be brutally honest about the fact that they’re happy not because of the new tournament in a new region, but because of the enormous riches associated with it.
Either way, snooker in Saudi Arabia looks set to stay and be a regular fixture on the calendar in the years to come.
Whether or not its lasting impact for the sport will be a positive or negative one, and whether or not the game truly can develop in the region across the next decade like WST claims, remains to be seen.
Twelve years ago, there was a dramatic conclusion to the inaugural International Championship in Chengdu that saw Trump beat Neil Robertson in the final to become the world number one for the first time in his career.
The talk at the time was that the International Championship was set to become the sport’s fourth major, but a year later crowd numbers plummetted and the event was deemed a disaster.
It’s taken several more years – and this can be said for most Chinese events on the calendar despite the widespread interest in the game there – for the tournament to become properly established.
Only in that way can an event be properly judged, especially when it comes to attributing it with possible major status.
Time will only tell regarding Saudi Arabia and its developing influence in snooker, but the Kingdom’s first ever ranking event has potentially left us with more questions than answers.
Featured photo credit: WST
I think many were right to have issues with this event as the ethical issues are clearly a huge turn off as we knew that the players would be cosying up to the Saudi establishment regardless of what the crowds were like.
I’m of the view that players could say something as Lewis Hamilton has criticised their stance on LGBT rights. While tennis greats Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert have been outspoken in their criticism of the WTA Finals moving to Jeddah.
This is Trump’s fifth major but I’m not convinced this event, despite the prize fund, merits such branding. I’ve always felt history is an important part of which tournaments deserve such acclaim. Many events come and go but the Triple Crown events have maintained their place on the calendar.
This disconnect between fans and players is a worry as one of snooker’s great strengths is the accessibility of the players to the general public.
I’m just relieved the event is over and I can now focus on the season that promises much.
The hypocrisy of the players on the atmosphere is irritating. They’re more than happy to criticise events in the UK when the crowds are low. While those who say it picked up for the latter stages after a slow start like the UK are talking nonsense. The BBC tournaments have big crowds from the outset. Home Nations events also have Respectable crowds for a working day on the opening Mondays.
For me without showing it on the usual Eurosport channels,I regret it was not normal to watch it on my laptop with different commentaries and languages, though Ron wants to move it from The Crucible ,where the support is more crowded as usual and more supportive.