Ronnie O’Sullivan will be among the snooker stars fighting it out for a bumper prize at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in Riyadh later this month.
The week-long tournament will see a whopping 144 players go head-to-head, with the winner set to be crowned in the Saudi capital on September 7.
The tournament has rightly commanded plenty of attention, especially from players, given the winning prize matches the one handed out at the World Snooker Championship.
For the second time this year, O’Sullivan and co. will have the chance to pocket an eye-catching £500,000, with the runner-up taking home a healthy £200,000 for their week’s work.
The complete purse for the Saudi event weighs in at £2,302,000, which is just below the total prize fund on offer at this year’s World Championship (£2,395,000) in Sheffield.
However, the disparity is mainly because less money is on offer in the earlier stages, with first-round losers taking home £2,000 for their troubles.
It could prove the start of a lucrative relationship between snooker and Saudi Arabia, with some predicting the sport’s future might lie in the Middle Eastern nation.
Talk about moving the World Championship away from the Crucible to Saudi Arabia dominated the April event, with promoter Eddie Hearn refusing to rule out a potential switch.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he revealed: “We can’t overlook the history and the legacy of the sport there, but we’re under pressure, as always, to provide opportunity for our members and the players, and if there is a chance to change their lives by record prizemoney it’s something we have to look at as well.
“At the moment, there are no discussions, no plans, to move the World Championship, but in three years’ time the landscape might have changed.”
Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan, who is an ambassador for snooker in Saudi, has previously thrown his weight behind the idea.
On the debate, O’Sullivan added: “I like the late nights. In the evening, the atmosphere just gets warmer and warmer. Snooker is really an evening sport, in the mornings it’s hard to get going, so when we were playing at 2.30am or 3am I was thinking ‘this is fantastic’.
“There was a full crowd there, the crowd were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and the facilities as a player are important. Everything was easy for the players and when you’re in that sort of environment, you naturally play well and enjoy just being there.”
The action at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters kicks off on August 30.
Source link : https://www.express.co.uk/sport/othersport/1936341/ronnie-osullivan-Saudi-Arabia-Masters-prize-fund
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Publish date : 2024-08-15 09:05:40
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