It’s the annual highs and lows snooker review with many talking points over the course of 2024 to recall.
In part one on Tuesday, we took a look back at some of the low talking points from the last twelve months in the sport.
For part two today, let’s review just a few of the best and most memorable snooker moments from 2024.
The Highs
The big three
There were important events to be won all the way from January to December, but the main focus as ever was on the Triple Crown tournaments.
The year was launched with the 2024 Masters at the Alexandra Palace in London where Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed a record-extending eighth title at the prestigious invitational.
The subsequent World Championship in April and May may not have represented a classic edition of the sport’s blue-riband showpiece.
Yet the action at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield still resulted in a worthy winner being crowned, with Kyren Wilson beating Jak Jones in the final.
Towards the end of 2024, the UK Championship returned to York and saw Judd Trump emerge with the silverware at the Barbican Centre.
Trump, Wilson, and O’Sullivan combined to claim 11 trophies during 2024, and the world numbers one, two, and three fittingly managed to share the big three titles among themselves as well.
Welsh winning machine
Another player who excelled in big moments during 2024 was Mark Williams, who picked up two of the other most prestigious prizes on the calendar.
The 49 year-old became the second-oldest winner of a ranking event with his success at the Tour Championship in April.
Williams produced a miraculous clearance in the deciding frame of his first-round match with Tom Ford before proceeding to beat Judd Trump, Mark Allen, and Ronnie O’Sullivan for glory.
The success earned him an invitation to the Champion of Champions in November, which he duly went on to win for the first time as well.
In between those two triumphs, Williams narrowly missed out on becoming the inaugural champion of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
The Welshman botched what essentially was championship ball in the deciding frame of his dramatic final in Riyadh with Trump.
Still, all indications are that the current world number six will be challenging for honours well into his 50s.
Next up for Williams will be the prestigious Masters in the New Year with snooker betting at BetMGM giving him odds of 16/1 to emerge triumphantly at the Alexandra Palace.
Young guns
The likes of O’Sullivan and Williams understandably receive plenty of plaudits for their career longevity.
However, any sport needs young blood in order to stay fresh and attract a newer generation of fans.
In that sense, 2024 was a pretty good year with some positive signs that budding talent, from various different backgrounds, is emerging.
The 2024/25 roster of professionals includes 17 year-old Hungarian Bulcsú Révész and 25 year-old Hong Kong potter Cheung Ka Wai, who won the WSF international amateur events.
Poland’s Antoni Kowalski, 20, and 18 year-old Artemijs Zizins of Latvia each progressed from the tough Q School competition to gain promotion to the main tour for the first time.
All four rookies produced several positive results in their early months on the tour to indicate that they have bright futures ahead.
There was promise shown by players from the traditional home of the sport, too.
English teenager Stan Moody has reached the last 16 of three ranking tournaments this season, Scottish 20 year-old Liam Graham went all the way to the final of the Snooker Shoot Out, while Northern Ireland’s Robbie McGuigan and Welshman Liam Davies won the major European amateur titles.
Chinese takeover
Of course, the greatest impact of the young players on the main tour has come from the ever-strengthening contingent from China.
Coming off the back of a year that was undoubtedly the worst for Chinese snooker, 2024 has arguably been its best.
Si Jiahui and Wu Yize both made giant strides up the rankings by each reaching a brace of ranking event finals during 2024.
Their young countryman Lei Peifan pipped them to the post, though, in terms of becoming the newest ranking event winner from China.
Lei, ranked 84, stunned fellow 21 year-old Wu in the final of the recent Scottish Open in Edinburgh.
The established members of the Chinese stable made sure to get in on the act too, with Ding Junhui back in the winners’ enclosure following his triumph at the International Championship.
Xiao Guodong was possibly the Chinese player of the year, the 35 year-old landing the Wuhan Open trophy before contesting the Champion of Champions final to boot.
A word too for Bai Yulu, the women’s world champion who has impressed with a series of victories on the World Snooker Tour – including a memorable run to the final round of qualifiers for the UK Championship.
Several other Chinese players reached the latter stages of events, too.
There has been talk of a Chinese takeover at the top of the game for two decades, but there are clear indications now more than ever that any such eventuality is imminent.
Increased prize money
Saudi Arabia was mentioned in yesterday’s article on the 2024 lows, but it would be remiss to ignore its influence on the growing pool of money available to the players.
Whether people like it or not, it’s a fact that professional sport is a business. Players want to compete and win, but they also want to get paid.
The introduction of Saudi-backed events to the calendar has had an obvious effect on the overall prize fund, which now exceeds £20 million.
The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters had its critics, yet it was a rare example of a ranking event where every single player received prize money – even those who lost in the opening round.
This powerful injection of capital has forced other tournaments to up their game.
The Home Nations events, in addition to the German Masters, have all seen their total prize funds significantly increase, while it was announced that the Masters at Ally Pally will carry a record champion’s cheque worth £350,000.
With the Chinese tournaments still battling with each other to see who can offer the most lucrative sum, and Hong Kong being introduced as a new rich destination, snooker’s long-term ambition to be respected as a global game with monetary clout has been strengthened.
The 2024 snooker review will continue on Thursday with our next quiz. If you missed the first quiz, click here.
Featured photo credit: WST
