World Snooker Championship 2025

First round of qualifying begins on Monday 7th April.

Matches to look out for in the first qualifying round include.......

Bai Yulu v Liam Highfield
Haydon Pinhey v Ken Doherty
Ka Wai Cheung v Zhou Xintong
Jimmy White v Anton Kazakov

Sadly Ng On-Yee didn't get a wildcard invitation, but I'm glad she's back on the tour next season. Good to see Zhao Xintong and 14 year old Michal Szubarczyk get an invitation. I think it'll be just about worth it to get a 1 month susbscription to TNT Sport from April 7th for the snooker qualifiers and the European football.

Other ties I'm keeping an eye on.

Artemijs Zizins (Latvia) v Dylan Emery (Wales)
Antoni Kowalski (Poland) v Reanne Evans (England)
Duane Jones (Wales) v Florian Nuessle (Austria)
Sunny Akani (Thailand) v Kreishh Gurbaxani (India)
Liam Pullen (England) v Gao Yang (China)
Bulcsu Revesz (Hungary) v Steven Hallworth (England)
Dean Young (Scotland) v Michal Szubarczyk (Poland)
Ian Burns (England) v Mink Nutcharut (Thailand)

(02-04-2025 21:57 )Snooks Wrote:  First round of qualifying begins on Monday 7th April.

Matches to look out for in the first qualifying round include.......

Bai Yulu v Liam Highfield
Haydon Pinhey v Ken Doherty
Ka Wai Cheung v Zhou Xintong
Jimmy White v Anton Kazakov

It sould be nice to see both Jimmy & Ken make through to the Crucible one last time

It's been announced that Desislava Bozhilova will referee the world championship final for the first time. Congrats to her.

https://www.wst.tv/news/2025/april/02/bo...irst-time/

Should have been Tatiana Woollaston for me as she is the best ref on the snooker circuit.
Even a certain Ronnie O'Sullivan thinks so and he hates referees .

Do we all remember the Carling Black Label ad with the top referee at the time Len Ganley....

(03-04-2025 19:06 )Snooks Wrote:  Should have been Tatiana Woollaston for me as she is the best ref on the snooker circuit.
Even a certain Ronnie O'Sullivan thinks so and he hates referees .

Would Ronnie even contest the Apponitment and get it changed?

(03-04-2025 18:00 )Stemmw Wrote:  It's been announced that Desislava Bozhilova will referee the world championship final for the first time. Congrats to her.

Hooray! My favourite referee 100% the best choice for me. Although Tatiana would be my 2nd choice, and if the World Championship was ever played in China or Hong Kong, I'd love to see Queenie Lyu referee the final.

The Tour Championship final result makes a significant difference with John Higgins now moving up to third seed for The Crucible.
It now places him in the bottom half of the draw where he is seeded to play Judd Trump in the last four assuming they both get there.
Selby goes into the top half of the draw with Neil Robertson lurking and a possible semi final against defending champion Kyren Wilson.

1. Kyren Wilson
2. Judd Trump
3. John Higgins
4. Mark Selby
5. Ronnie O'Sullivan
6. Mark Williams
7. Luca Brecel
8. Mark Allen
9. Neil Robertson
10. Ding Junhui
11. Barry Hawkins
12. Zhang Anda
13. Si Jiahui
14. Xiao Guodong
15. Shaun Murphy
16. Jak Jones

Potential matches to look out for if all matches go with seedings

R2: Kyren Wilson v Jak Jones (repeat of 2024 final)
R2: Judd Trump v Shaun Murphy
R2: Mark Allen v Neil Robertson

QF: Kyren Wilson v Allen/Robertson
QF: Mark Selby v Ronnie O'Sullivan (assuming he plays)
QF: John Higgins v Mark Williams (class of 92)
QF: Judd Trump v Luca Brecel

This could be the greatest ever World Championship with so many unbelievably ridiculous quality matches on the cards.

Zhao Xintong made a flying start to his World Championship campaign making 3 centuries in taking an 8-1 lead over Ka Wai Cheung in the first session. The match continues tomorrow afternoon.

Reanne Evans was holding her own against Anton Kowalski, only 5-4 down at the end of the afternoon session. However, Kowalski took all 5 frames in the evening to win 10-4. Baipat Siripaporn trails 6-2 to Farakh Ajaib at the end of their first session. The real fate of Reanne and Baipat on the tour lies in the WWS Womens World Championship, May 20-27. Both lose their tour card after the World Championship and have to win the Women's event to guarantee remaining on the tour.

Good result for highly regarded amateur Dylan Emery, beating Latvian professional Artemijs Zizins 10-4.