We’re about halfway through the month of August, but there hasn’t been that much snooker during the recent period on the main tour.
That’s set to change in the upcoming couple of weeks with a pair of new ranking events boasting monster prize funds.
There has only been one completed ranking tournament on the 2024/25 calendar so far.
Ali Carter beat Jackson Page to capture the Championship League Snooker title at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester last month.
The invitational Shanghai Masters competition was also staged in July with Judd Trump romping to glory in China.
Since then, there has been a batch of qualifiers before a respite in the schedule over the last couple of weeks.
It’ll be back to the green baize on Monday, though, with the action for the rest of August and beyond subsequently coming thick and fast on the World Snooker Tour.
Xi’an Grand Prix
August 19 to August 25
China’s newest ranking event will see the Xi’an Grand Prix take place next week and a whopping top prize of £177,000 up for grabs.
A preliminary phase was held at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester, which whittled down the field somewhat.
Several first-round matches have been held over to the venue, including those involving world champion Kyren Wilson, world number one Mark Allen, and fan favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy, who contested the Shanghai Masters final when the players were last in China, safely made it through to the last 64 from the qualifiers.
The Xi’an Grand Prix will be available to watch live and for free on Matchroom.Live with commentary available from Fergal O’Brien and Steven Hallworth.
2024 Xi’an Grand Prix draw
Round of 128 (bo9)
Top Half
Kyren Wilson vs Haris Tahir (Aug 19)
He Guoqiang 5-4 Ashley Carty
Anthony McGill 5-0 Xing Zihao
Ricky Walden 5-3 Liam Davies
John Higgins 5-2 Alexander Ursenbacher
Sunny Akani 5-2 Fan Zhengyi
Dean Young 5-3 Robert Milkins
Jimmy Robertson 5-1 Huang Jiahao
Elliot Slessor 5-0 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Chris Wakelin 5-4 Rory Thor
Mark Davis 5-3 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Mark Williams 5-0 Liam Graham
Jamie Jones 5-2 Mostafa Dorgham
Stuart Bingham vs TBC Wildcard (Aug 19)
Xu Si 5-4 Jiang Jun
Ding Junhui vs Alfie Burden (Aug 19)
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Wang Yuchen (Aug 19)
Révész Bulcsú 5-0 David Grace
Neil Robertson 5-2 Allan Taylor
Yuan Sijun 5-1 Bai Yulu
Zhang Anda vs Oliver Lines (Aug 19)
Graeme Dott vs TBC Wildcard (Aug 19)
Hossein Vafaei 5-1 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Dylan Emery 5-2 Jackson Page
Amir Sarkhosh 5-3 Joshua Thomond
Si Jiahui 5-4 Jimmy White
Gong Chenzhi 5-4 Anthony Hamilton
Tom Ford 5-3 Stan Moody
Matthew Selt 5-2 Ian Burns
Joe O’Connor 5-3 Duane Jones
Zak Surety 5-2 Sanderson Lam
Hammad Miah w/o Luca Brecel
Bottom Half
Judd Trump 5-2 Antony Kowalski
Ma Hailong 5-3 Martin O’Donnell
Lyu Haotian 5-2 Baipat Siripaporn
Artemijs Zizins 5-3 Robbie Williams
Jak Jones 5-4 Robbie McGuigan
Tian Pengfei 5-0 Farakh Ajaib
Jack Lisowski 5-1 Ross Muir
Joe Perry 5-0 Mink Nutcharut
Jordan Brown 5-2 Liam Pullen
David Gilbert 5-1 Reanne Evans
Ben Mertens 5-4 Simon Blackwell
Gary Wilson 5-4 Long Zehuang
Paul Deaville 5-3 Wu Yize
Pang Junxu 5-2 Michael Holt
Aaron Hill 5-2 Chris Totten
Mark Selby vs TBC Wildcard (Aug 19)
Shaun Murphy 5-1 Mitchell Mann
Jamie Clarke vs TBC Wildcard (Aug 19)
Noppon Saengkham 5-3 Andrew Pagett
Dominic Dale 5-4 Mohammed Shehab
Daniel Wells 5-4 Ali Carter
Julien Leclercq 5-4 Ben Woollaston
Zhou Yuelong 5-1 Haydon Pinhey
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-3 Lei Peifan
Matthew Stevens 5-0 Andrew Higginson
Ryan Day 5-4 Cheung Ka Wai
Scott Donaldson w/o Lim Kok Leong
Barry Hawkins 5-1 Kreishh Gurbaxani
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Iulian Boiko
Stephen Maguire 5-1 Ken Doherty
David Lilley 5-3 Louis Heathcote
Mark Allen vs Liu Hongyu (Aust 19)
Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters
August 30th to September 7th
Following the play in Xi’an, there will be an even bigger new ranking tournament hosted in Saudi Arabia.
The highly anticipated, not to mention controversial, Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters begins on August 30th and runs into the first week of September.
A mega prize fund of around £2.3 million is on offer for the 144 competitors who will be participating at the venue.
From that, £500,000 will be awarded to the winner which takes it line with the cheque currently on offer at the World Championship in Sheffield.
Already dubbed the “fourth major” by the World Snooker Tour, the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters carries a staggered draw with tiered seeding similar to the one adopted for the World and UK Championships.
That means the top 16 seeds will be seeded through to the last 32 of the event.
Details of the final draw and on how to watch the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters are yet to be announced.
What other snooker events are in August 2024?
Last weekend, Ng On Yee beat Anupama Ramachandran to claim glory at the 2024 US Women’s Snooker Open in Seattle.
Victory for the Hong Kong cueist brought her career tally of ranking titles on the World Women’s Snooker Tour to 21.
Ranked number two in the women’s game, Ng dominated the tournament in America without losing a single frame.
Elsewhere, the first Q Tour event of the season in Europe will take place this week from August 15th to August 18th in Leeds.
This season, there will again be pro tickets available through the feeder amateur circuit.
Earlier in the month, Vinnie Calabrese captured a fourth successive title on the Asia Pacific Q Tour series.
If you know of any more interesting tournaments being staged around the world in August, let us know in the comments section below.
2024/25 WST calendar
Note: Dates are provisional and subject to change
COMPLETED
Championship League Snooker
Champion: Ali Carter
Shanghai Masters
Champion: Judd Trump
JULY
25th to August 3rd
– Xian Grand Prix qualifiers
– British Open qualifiers
– Wuhan Open qualifiers
(Mattioli Arena, Leicester)
AUGUST
19th to 25th
Xi’an Grand Prix
(Xi’an, China)
30th to September 7th
Saudi Masters
(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
SEPTEMBER
12th to 22nd
English Open (including qualifiers)
(Brentwood Centre, Brentwood)
23rd to 29th
British Open
(The Centaur, Cheltenham)
28th to 30th
Northern Ireland Open qualifiers
(Ponds Forge, Sheffield)
OCTOBER
1st to 3rd
International Championship qualifiers
(Ponds Forge, Sheffield)
6th to 12th
Wuhan Open
(Wuhan, China)
20th to 27th
Northern Ireland Open
(Waterfront Hall, Belfast)
28th to 30th
Scottish Open qualifiers
(Canon Medical Arena, Sheffield)
NOVEMBER
3rd to 10th
International Championship
(Tianjin, China)
11th to 17th
Champion of Champions
(Toughsheet Community Stadium, Bolton)
16th to 21st
UK Championship qualifiers
(Mattioli Arena, Leicester)
23rd to December 1st
UK Championship
(York Barbican, York)
DECEMBER
4th to 7th
Shoot Out
(Mattioli Arena, Leicester)
9th to 15th
Scottish Open
(Meadowbank Sports Centre, Edinburgh)
16th to 22nd
– German Masters qualifiers
– World Open qualifiers
(Canon Medical Arena, Sheffield)
JANUARY
12th to 19th
The Masters
(Alexandra Palace, London)
27th to February 2nd
German Masters
(Tempodrom, Berlin)
FEBRUARY
10th to 16th
Welsh Open
(Venue Cymru, Llandudno)
MARCH
TBC
World Grand Prix
(TBC)
3rd to 9th
World Open
(Yushan, China)
17th to 23rd
Players Championship
(Telford, England)
31st to April 6th
Tour Championship
(Manchester Central, Manchester)
APRIL
7th to 16th
World Championship qualifiers
(EIS, Sheffield)
19th to May 5th
World Snooker Championship
(Crucible Theatre, Sheffield)
Featured photo credit: WST
Source link : https://snookerhq.com/2024/08/14/snooker-august-2024-what-events-are-on-this-month/
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Publish date : 2024-08-14 05:22:54
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