The 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters commenced on Friday but technical issues led to the postponement of several matches.
The opening round at the Green Halls in Jeddah saw the likes of Ken Doherty and Reanne Evans earn victories.
Doherty defeated old pal Jimmy White 4-1 while Evans continued her impressive start to the 2025/26 snooker season with a 4-2 triumph over Kreishh Gurbaxani.
Among some of the other names to make it through were Sam Craigie, Liam Highfield, and Chang Bingyu – the latter edging Marco Fu in a deciding frame.
It was a hectic first day in the lucrative ranking event with most of the first-round matches taking place.
But several ties on the schedule were delayed until Saturday as a result of technical issues that were experienced at the venue.
“During the evening session of Friday August 8th at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, we have experienced technical issues,” a World Snooker Tour statement revealed.
“We have therefore postponed all matches in this session which were yet to start until Saturday morning.”
“These matches will commence at 10am on Saturday and play to a finish in an untelevised session.
“We are now working on resolving the technical issues before play resumes. We would like to thank all of the players involved for their understanding.”
It’s another somewhat embarrassing episode in a Saudi Arabian event, especially considering the riches that are on offer and this particular event’s billing as the sport’s fourth major.
At the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship last December, Zhang Anda’s opening-day contest with Ahmed Aseeri was suspended amid a sudden blackout inside the arena.
Considering the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters has all 144 competitors featuring at the venue, WST will be desperate for the technical issues to be resolved to avoid any further delays that could wreak havoc with the scheduling.
Matches postponed until Saturday
Farakh Ajaib v Saud Albaker
Louis Heathcote v Ayman Alamri
Mohamed Shehab v Abdullah Alotayyani
Liam Graham v Asif Mukhtar
Oliver Brown v Patrick Whelan
Yao Pengcheng v Alexander Ursenbacher
Fergal Quinn v Mahmoud El Hareedy
Elsewhere on Friday, there was a first victory on the main tour for 14 year-old Michal Szubarczyk.
The teenager from Poland beat Ryan Davies 4-2 to set up an intriguing battle with 18 year-old Bulcsu Revesz in round two.
David Grace, Steven Hallworth, and Dylan Emery were some of the others to advance.
A few amateurs also qualified for the next round, including Egyptian wildcard Hesham Shawky who overcame Jiang Jun.
All of the Saudi Arabian wildcards involved in the tournament who were in action on day one lost, however.
Technical issues aside, the event launched in similar fashion to last year’s inaugural edition in Riyadh.
Unfortunately, there were scores of empty seats and a poor atmosphere inside the arena – even for a crowd-pleasing tie involving Doherty and White.
It will be interesting to see to what level crowd numbers improve next week when the game’s leading players enter the fray.
The top 16, including reigning Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters champion Judd Trump and world champion Zhao Xintong, will join the action on Tuesday.
In addition to the delayed first-round fixtures concluding on Saturday, day two will see the second round take place and the players seeded from 49 to 80 coming into the running.
Click here to view the updated draw (snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
