It’s again to qualifying this week with the early phases of the Worldwide Championship draw going down at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
There might be six days of preliminary-round motion because the gamers on the principle tour hope to safe their flights again to China.
Final week’s Shanghai Masters marked the game’s return to mainland China for the primary time in 4 years, a protracted and enforced hole because of the pandemic.
Ronnie O’Sullivan emerged with the celebrated invitational title after recording an 11-9 victory over Luca Brecel in Sunday’s ultimate.
Whereas the inaugural Wuhan Open is scheduled for October, the Worldwide Championship in November will symbolize the primary of the acquainted Chinese language rating occasions reappearing on the calendar.
It’s a fine addition for the gamers, with the Chinese language competitions typically boasting a lot greater prize funds than these in Europe.
For this yr’s Worldwide Championship, there’s a whole prize fund of £825,000 and a winner’s share price £175,000.
Judd Trump is the highest seed because the reigning champion, with the Englishman lastly getting the prospect to defend the title he claimed in 2019.
Along with world primary O’Sullivan, Trump has had his Worldwide Championship qualifying fixture from the spherical of 128 held over to the venue phases in Tianjin.
World champion Brecel, China’s highest ranked stars Ding Junhui and Zhou Yuelong, and a few different gamers who’re dealing with wildcards have additionally had their encounters deferred.
Nevertheless, marquee names like Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy, and Mark Allen will all be in motion over the following few days.
Current European Masters champion Barry Hawkins, ladies’s world champion Baipat Siripaporn, and world seniors champion Jimmy White will even be competing.
Matches will happen over the perfect of 11 frames with dwell protection obtainable on discovery+ in Europe and Matchroom.Stay in different territories (aside from China).
Worldwide Championship qualifying draw and schedule
(Occasions in BST)
Monday, September 18
9:30am
Stephen Maguire vs Peng Yisong
Wu Yize vs Ross Muir
Tian Pengfei vs Stephen Hendry
Yuan Sijun vs Lengthy Zehuang
2:30pm
Michael White vs Himanshu Jain
Ryan Day vs Mink Nutcharut
Jackson Web page vs Liam Graham
Mark Joyce vs Andy Lee
7:30pm
Barry Hawkins vs Andrew Pagett
Matthew Selt vs Jimmy White
Robbie Williams vs Ben Mertens
Tuesday, September 19
9:30am
Xu Si vs Stuart Carrington
Cao Yupeng vs Ashley Hugill
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh vs Andrew Higginson
Matthew Stevens vs Liu Hongyu
2:30pm
Joe Perry vs Dylan Emery
David Grace vs Jenson Kendrick
David Gilbert vs James Cahill
Andy Hicks vs Sanderson Lam
7:30pm
Jordan Brown vs Sean O’Sullivan
Tom Ford vs Stan Moody
Anthony McGill vs Alfie Burden
Wednesday, September 20
9:30am
Xiao Guodong vs Ishpreet Singh
Sam Craigie vs Thor Chuan Leong
Stuart Bingham vs Xing Zihao
Zhang Anda vs Alexander Ursenbacher
2:30pm
Jimmy Robertson vs Anton Kazakov
Noppon Saengkham vs Victor Sarkis
Graeme Dott vs Liam Pullen
7:30pm
Hossein Vafaei vs Reanne Evans
Gary Wilson vs Mohamed Ibrahim
Mark Davis vs Rod Lawler
Thursday, September 21
9:30am
Mark Allen vs Ma Hailong
Jack Lisowski vs He Guoqiang
Lyu Haotian vs David Lilley
Fan Zhengyi vs Mostafa Dorgham
2:30pm
Elliot Slessor vs Hammad Miah
Kyren Wilson vs Adam Duffy
Mark Selby vs Muhammad Asif
7:30pm
Jamie Jones vs Ashley Carty
Mark Williams vs Rebecca Kenna
Friday, September 22
9:30am
Robert Milkins vs Maco Fu
Si Jiahui vs Julien Leclercq
Jamie Clarke vs John Astley
Dominic Dale vs Oliver Brown
2:30pm
Joe O’Connor vs Baipat Siripaporn
Ali Carter vs Allan Taylor
Shaun Murphy vs Andres Petrov
7:30pm
John Higgins vs Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Neil Robertson vs Ryan Thomerson
Chris Wakelin vs Dean Younger
Saturday, September 23
9:30am
Ricky Walden vs Jiang Jun
Scott Donaldson vs Louis Heathcote
Pang Junxu vs Zak Surety
2:30pm
Oliver Strains vs Lukas Kleckers
Jak Jones vs Aaron Hill
Liam Highfield vs Daniel Wells
Heldover Fixtures
Sunday, November 5
Judd Trump vs wildcard
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Ken Doherty
Luca Brecel vs Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Ding Junhui vs Ian Burns
Zhou Yuelong vs Martin O’Donnell
Anthony Hamilton vs wildcard
Ben Woollaston vs wildcard
Featured photograph credit score: WST
