Riyadh Season Snooker Championship

The Saudi event with the golden ball has rebranded as the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship so I have started a new thread for it. The event has been moved from March 2025 and is now from December 18-20 2024 to take into account the Players series of events taking place in March 2025.

The event takes place in Boulevard City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It is scheduled to feature the top 10 following the UK Championship, and 2 asian wildcards chosen by the sponsors. The event beings back the golden ball. This time the prize for making a 167 break is $1million. It is an invitational, non-ranking event like the Masters.

The participants from the WPBSA side are set to be:

Judd Trump
Kyren Wilson
Mark Selby
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Mark Allen
Mark Williams
Luca Brecel
Shaun Murphy
Ding Junhui
Zhang Anda

They will all be gunning like mad for the max with that bonus in play.

Nice to see moralist Murphy going for the gold. It's not like the Middle East is about as dangerous right now as it has been in years.

Last week there was a qualifying tournament for the 2 wildcard spots at the Ronnie O'Sullivan Snooker Academy in Riyadh. The 2 qualifiers were Ahmed Aseeri and Abdulraouf Saigh.

Qualifying round 1 today and predictably Ding Jinhui beat Abdulraouf Saigh 4-0, Zhang Anda beat Ahmed Aseeri 4-0.

Qualifying round 2 and Ding Jinhui made 2 centuries disposing of Tubbs 4-0
Luca Brecel also made 2 centuries in beating Zhang Anda 4-0.

Tomorrow's Quarter final line up:

Mark Selby v Mark Allen
Kyren Wilson v Luca Brecel
Judd Trump v Mark Williams
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Ding Jinhui

Mark Allen came back from 2-1 down to beat Selby 4-2.
Luca Brecel got a decisive 58 break in the decider to beat Kyren 4-3.
Mark Williams got some revenge for losing to Judd last time he was in Riyadh by winning the last 2 frames in positive fashion to win 4-3. However, while he was making his decisive 68 break in the decider, he tripped and appeared to injure his groin. I hope he's OK to carry on tomorrow.
Ronnie was in red hot form, and almost did to Ding what he did to John Higgins last year. Ding scored 49 points in the 2nd frame and could have won but missed the brown. Ronnie potted brown, blue and pink to take the frame. Apart from that it was total Ronnie dominance, and he made 2 centuries in the last 2 frames in winning 4-0.

The Riyadh Championship is shown free as part of the freemium content on the DAZN app, though if they make it too hard to work out how to get the free content these days you can always get the 7 day free trial and cancel before the subscription fee becomes payable.

Semi finals:
Mark Williams v Luca Brecel
Ronnie O'Sullivan v (Edit) Mark Allen

Some surprises there, and probably half the final will be too.

Mark Williams made a 103 break in frame 2, but I don't know how much yeaterday's injury affected him as Brecel looked like the stronger player in the later stages as he coasted to a 4-2 victory over Williams.

Despite a 56 break by Allen in frame 1, Ronnie won it on the black. Allen repaid the compliment in frame 2, coming back from 52 behind with a 53 clearance to level the scores. Allen won the safety exchanges and kept Ronnie out for the next 2 frames, extending his lead to 3-1. Ronnie rallied with a break of 75 to reduce his arrears, but Allen prevented a comeback by making a 134 break to win 4-2.

It's Luca Brecel v Mark Allen in tonight's final. No one's got the golden ball for the 167 break as yet. One last chance.

(20-12-2024 00:41 )Joannis Wrote:  Mark Williams got some revenge for losing to Judd last time he was in Riyadh by winning the last 2 frames in positive fashion to win 4-3. However, while he was making his decisive 68 break in the decider, he tripped and appeared to injure his groin. I hope he's OK to carry on tomorrow.

You've got to go some to get a groin strain in a snooker match

Good for Luca to make a final, at least both men have the motive for the win.

Mark Allen got the snooker he needed in the 1st frame, but Luca still won the frame. After that it was total Mark Allen dominance! Strong safety play, tough, gritty matchplay, 2 centuries and 2 80+ breaks, all contributed to his 5-1 victory. Mark took home the 250K 1st prize, Luca got the 125K runner up prize.

No one made a 167 break, so the golden ball will have to wait for another time. On day 1, Zhang Anda made a 97 break, 12 reds and 11 blacks, but missed on the 12th black.

I thought that would be it until after Christmas, but not so. Apparently there are World Open qualifiers going on today and tomorrow in Sheffield. All the top seeds have to play a qualifier, but only the players who have sway with the Chinese snooker authorities get their qualifier held over until February in Yushan. 3 of the 4 semi-finalists, Marks Allen and Williams, and Luca, all have to get to Sheffield to play their World Open qualifier on Sunday.

Think Jimmy White mentioned last week what a busy week was ahead, if he's in those qualifiers.

Well done to Mallen.