Everyone is aware which are the best three events in the snooker calendar. Even though the ‘Triple Crown’ label may be a contrived idea to some. They are the World Championship, the Masters and the UK Championship.
That leaves the question to which event is THE best outside of the ‘Triple Crown’ label. There are many tournaments that popped up around the world, including some recent creations that are trying to muscle in. What makes a snooker event so special is subjective. But we can agree that the format, the quality of players, the venue, its history and the prize money are the basics of what makes a high-quality tourney.
But first, we must briefly look into what makes The Triple Crown special.
The Triple Crown
The Triple Crown events are all broadcasted by the BBC, hence why they get so much coverage and notice compared to other tournaments. It dates back to the 1969 World Snooker Championship, when it changed to the knockout format we are familiar with today. The UK Championship only became a ranking event in 1984.
So far, 11 players have won all three of these events. Steve Davis became the first Triple Crown winner and Judd Trump is the latest player to join the exclusive club. Ronnie O’Sullivan has won the most, winning 20 titles from 1993 to lifting the 2020 World Championship trophy. Not entirely sure why the new badge or icon is necessary but I suppose it makes it more classy.
It is so obvious that the World Snooker Championship is the most important event. The Masters is the second most important event for me. Alexandra Palace is a fantastic venue with a sizeable capacity and we watch sixteen on the best players on the circuit. With a very glitzy trophy, what’s not to like?
The Curious Case of the UK Championship
Then we come to the UK Championship. It’s a funny one. It seems that some of its magic was lost over the past decade. In 2011, the matches until the quarter-finals were reduced to BO11 from BO17 frames. This controversial move angered many players and Mark Allen called for Barry Hearn to resign as chairman and was later fined for bringing the game into disrepute. The format changed again in 2014 when all 128 players started in Round 1, ditching the qualifying format altogether. Some fans feel that its traditions have vanished, despite recent high-quality finals and that its total prize fund for the event was over £1,000,000 for the first time last year.
Some have even gone as far to say the UK Championship isn’t even in the top three events anymore. Which event could threaten its position?
The ‘Fourth’ Contenders
Champion of Champions
The Champion of Champions is one of the obvious showpiece events. The tournament comes in at the stage where the season really starts to heat up. This is an event where all the champions gather against each other to win an ultimate trophy. The Ricoh Arena in Coventry proved very popular among players and fans since Matchroom Sport revived the series in 2013.
There were some cracking finals over the past seven years. The most famous ones include Ronnie O’Sullivan beating Stuart Bingham (2013) and Kyren Wilson (2018) and Shaun Murphy defeating the Rocket (2017). The final between Judd Trump and Neil Robertson in 2019 is regarded as one of the best finals in recent times.
But there are some issues. The invitation criteria seems to change every year, so there’s unfairness about it. The 2019 & 2020 World Seniors champion (Jimmy White) was invited to the Champion of Champions in the last two years. But the 2017 & 2018 Seniors champion (Peter Lines & Aaron Canavan) weren’t invited. So the quality of invitees is a complete lottery as sometimes legendary status takes precedent over achievement. The presence of short BO7 matches doesn’t quite help. One could argue the growing number of invitations events dilutes its importance and talking about ‘groups’ is annoyingly unnecessary for me.
China Open
There needs to be a prestigious event overseas, considering the ‘Triple Crown’ is based in the UK. Especially of the influence and interest China has on our game today. The China Open is a very good contender.
The event was revived during the 2004/05 season and it has gone from strength to strength. Throwing in local wildcards in such a big tournament was welcome. This proved to be the vitally important in its history. One wildcard went on to win the tournament in 2005 and he happened to be 18 year-old Ding Junhui! That 2005 final was watched by 110 million people on China’s national sports channel CCTV-5. My goodness gracious me.
The total prize money recently leapt from £510,000 (2017) to £1,000,000 (2018). The winner’s kitty jumped from £85,000 (2017) to £225,000 (2018). The semi-finals are now BO19s and the final is a BO21. Barry Hearn described it as a “flagship tournament” and this shows how far it has come.
Tour Championship
It is far too soon for the Tour Championship to be considered to be the best event outside of the Triple Crown. The Tour Championship only started in 2019 and became the third and final event of the Coral Cup. The Tour Championship represents the tournament in the series were the best of the best participate. Just the leading eight players from the one-year ranking list participate for the top prize of £150,000. Whoever won the Tour Championship is also most likely to win the Coral Cup for earning the most in prize money over the series (and earning an extra £100,000 by doing so).
So far, Ronnie O’Sullivan (2019) and Stephen Maguire (2020) have done exactly that, winning the Coral Cup largely by winning the Tour Championship. But it’s not just about money. Llandudno is a highly-rated place among snooker fans. Also the match length is very long. The first round is a BO17, the second is BO19 and the final is BO25. This is something that will satisfy the purists! It’s one for the future.
Conclusion
It’s obvious for me which is the best event outside of the Triple Crown – the China Open. It’s in the capital; it has the excitement of the Race to the Crucible; it’s the last ranking title before the World Championships; has a fantastic range of winners. This is THE event where one of China’s sporting heroes pulled off a miracle win.
Some people have their own ideas: the Shanghai Masters, the China Championship, the Welsh Open and the German Masters. But will any future events overtake the China Open?
Back in December 2019, World Snooker Tour made a 10-year agreement that Saudi Arabia will be hosting a world ranking snooker event for the first time in its history: the Saudi Arabia Masters. The prize fund will be a whopping £2.5 million, with the winner of the tournament pocketing £500,000. Though this event is held back by the coronavirus outbreak, it does feel like a matter of time before it becomes the must-watch event. Whether it will have a significant influence in making snooker more globally successful in newer territories remains to be seen.
We will see how it goes we finally return to normal, whatever that is.
