The snooker tour resumes tomorrow with the start of this year’s Haining Open, an event won last season by Stuart Bingham who now has an impressive four Asian Tour titles to his name.
Although Stuart will not be returning to defend his title in 2015, the tournament remains one that is deceptively important for many players, more so than ever in 2015 as eight Players Championship places and two main tour cards could effectively be up for grabs this week…
As the nights draw in and the clocks go back, it is also that time of the year when I take a close look at the battle for tour places from the start of the 2016/17 season. As regular readers will be well aware, to fully understand how each of the current tour players are currently placed, it is necessary to analyse a number of different ranking lists and orders of merit.
With two of the biggest money events to come in the International Championship and UK Championship tournaments, today I take my first player-by-player look at the current state of play and flag up some of the surprise names with work to do if they are to remain on tour for another season…
The WPBSA were today alerted to unusual betting patterns regarding the match between Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon and Martin O’Donnell at the Paul Hunter Classic in Germany.
The WPBSA monitor betting on ALL professional snooker and have the most sophisticated methods available today. Working with their partners worldwide and by liaising with the Gambling Commission, the WPBSA will review the available facts surrounding betting on this match. A decision will then be taken on whether any further action is necessary.
A couple of lines of important news today from World Snooker, who have confirmed that last week’s Asian U-21 champion Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon will be awarded a two-year tour card from the 2014/15 season following his victory, while Iran’s Hossein Vafaei Ayouri will also be awarded an extended tour card for the season.
Click below for more, or here to view my updated look at who will make up the main tour field for this season…
Following the conclusion of Q School and the qualifying events for the Wuxi Classic and Australian Goldfields Open, there are still another couple of weeks to go until professional snooker returns to our screens with the venue stages of Wuxi towards the end of the month.
That said, there have been a number of smaller news stories to come out during the last few days, so click below for a round-up of what you need to know…
Ok so it’s not technically called a PTC any more, but it will very much be squeaky bum time at this weekend’s Gdynia Open event in Poland, with far more on the line for some than might appear at first sight.
Click below for my thoughts on the battles that will be decided this week and for some of the key matches to keep an eye on from the eighth and final event of the 2013/14 European Tour…
News today from the WPBSA that no further action will be taken against either Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon or Passakorn Suwannawat, after the governing body found no evidence to show any link between the pair and suspicious betting patterns prior to their respective matches at the Shanghai Masters qualifiers back in August last year…
