New Snooker Season Begins Today

zack01

It's just over four weeks since The Rocket's win in Sheffield and believe it or not the new snooker season begins today.
Gone are the days when the first event was the Grand Prix in October, now with all the new events qualifying begins today for the Wuxi Classic in China next month followed by qualifiers next week for the Austrailian Open again to be held next month.

However with all the new events the first main ranking tournament to be held this side of the world will be the UK Championship in December. There will of course be several PTC events in the UK and in between these will be several Premier League nights. Along with the five ranking events in China there will be Asian PTC events held the week before each tournament, this will give the Chinese and Asian player more opportunities to improve their game whilst also giving the European based players a chance to get some match practice and shake off the jet lag before the main event the following week.

With this new calendar and the ammount of traveling involved there will of course be several names missing from each tournament. This is fine if your a top ranked player but if your loitering around the 16th position you may want to reconsider your schedule because with three ranking updates throughout the season players may find themselves out of the top 16 and miss lucrative invites to the Masters and more importantly having to qualify for ranking tournaments.

Twelve new pros along with the wild cards will join the tour this year but the Republic will only have two players on the main tour and they are veterans Ken Doherty and Fergal O'Brien and with both players the wrong side of the top 32 it may be a case of having no players from the Republic by next season.

No worry about missing the events in China Austraila etc as Eurosport will again be providing live coverage.

So here we go again until the final of the worlds next May, there are bound to be some twists and turns and if the snooker is anyway as good as last season we are in for a treat and with over £7 million pounds on offer it's shaping up to be a busy season of snooker.

Isotonik

Ronnie O'Sullivan has refused to sign Barry Hearne's WPBSA charter which effectively means he is at the moment excluded from all world ranking events. I think this isn't altogether unexpected to be honest as he had hinted in Sheffield that he fancied a few months off before "reassessing" things.

cherryghost

Joe Jogia is also out, he's suspended over a betting investigation.

zack01

I wouldn't worry too much about O'Sullivan, I'd expect him back for the UK in December if not earlier than that at the Shanghai Masters in Sept.

chainsawman

Ronnie O Sullivan is no bigger than Snooker but his brand name could not be ignored by the Snooker world.. I'm worried his ranking will not be so good next year because of his pull out of Many Tournament... I hope Ronnie will be around for the next 10 years.. Jimmy White and Alex Higgins was the ones who brought Snooker to the top level, And Ronnie too. They should be rewarded for making Snooker very popular, Hearne should aknowledge that... Alex Higgins was troublesome in his Snooker years but he was the man who brought Snooker to the top level in the seventies and the eighties, and Jimmy carried that on to the nineties and then Ronnie to twenties... I cant see anyone who will carry the baton from Ronnie to the next decades.. I dont like Judd Trump and Mark Selby (They are great players) because they dont have a right character to represent Snooker to the snooker world... Anyway, i must stop my rant, Sorry if i pissed you off...I sincerely hope I am wrong and hope this season will be a success...

Silvio.Dante

Ken and Fergal are both through today. Great start for both.

Also a little mention for Rod Lawlor who beat Jamie Jones. I watched the last frame online and Rod ground out the win as only he can...:)

Isotonik

I've had the pleasure of meeting Ken Doherty a couple of times. An absolute gentleman and I wish him every success.

Pighead

Nice 147 from Ronnie in an exhibition match against Jimmy the other night.

Never ceases to amaze me how relaxed and calm he stays when on the verge of getting a maximum. I know that this was only an exhibition but he's like that all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8MQMYaMTE&feature=player_embedded

chainsawman

Pighead wrote: »

Nice 147 from Ronnie in an exhibition match against Jimmy the other night.

Never ceases to amaze me how relaxed and calm he stays when on the verge of getting a maximum. I know that this was only an exhibition but he's like that all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8MQMYaMTE&feature=player_embedded[/QUOTE]



Thanks for sharing... I enjoyed watching his every shot, Amazing man ,Rocket, I am blessed to watch him in my lifetime, I doubt if there will be a player like him in the future.

Omega28

he's a genuis

zack01

Dylanmc111 wrote: »

he's a genuis

Was at Jimmy White's testimonial in London a few weeks back, they had a table set up for a best of five frame exhibition, our table was about 10 feet from the snooker table and watching O'Sullivan that close was quite simply breathtaking. His touch and awareness around the table is without doubt the finest I've ever seen. Yes I've seen him countless times like us all on tv but when you see him play in the flesh it's in my opinion a completely different story.

oneillMan999

chainsawman wrote: »

Ronnie O Sullivan is no bigger than Snooker but his brand name could not be ignored by the Snooker world.. I'm worried his ranking will not be so good next year because of his pull out of Many Tournament... I hope Ronnie will be around for the next 10 years.. Jimmy White and Alex Higgins was the ones who brought Snooker to the top level, And Ronnie too. They should be rewarded for making Snooker very popular, Hearne should aknowledge that... Alex Higgins was troublesome in his Snooker years but he was the man who brought Snooker to the top level in the seventies and the eighties, and Jimmy carried that on to the nineties and then Ronnie to twenties... I cant see anyone who will carry the baton from Ronnie to the next decades.. I dont like Judd Trump and Mark Selby (They are great players) because they dont have a right character to represent Snooker to the snooker world... Anyway, i must stop my rant, Sorry if i pissed you off...I sincerely hope I am wrong and hope this season will be a success...

Judd will slowly take over Ronnies mantle, i mean, he plays fast and loose, exciting snooker, is honest and interacts with the fans, whats not to like?

chainsawman

oneillMan999 wrote: »

Judd will slowly take over Ronnies mantle, i mean, he plays fast and loose, exciting snooker, is honest and interacts with the fans, whats not to like?

Great player but dont like his attitude,,,, Played againist Ali Carter last april/May, He never apologies for the lucky shot. No respect for fellow professionals..