We are lucky to see new and intriguing ranking events over the past decade. WST introduced the brand-new Tour Championship as the final tournament of the Coral Cup in 2019. Let’s not forget we have the incredibly lucrative yet controversial Saudi Arabia Masters to look forward to once the pandemic finally ends.
So when the organisation introduced the WST Pro Series, there was a fair amount of scepticism.
Tournament Format – From Old to New
Initially, it was going to start with 16 groups of eight, competing in a round-robin format. All matches would be best of three frames with only group winners proceeding to the next round. Those two group winners will contest the final. Basically like the Championship League when Kyren Wilson won the event earlier this season.
The format changed three weeks later. The new format was slightly amended to include a second stage. The top two players from each eight-man group qualify for the next round, leaving 32 players to split into four groups of eight. The final group would feature eight players and the finishing leader of the group will walk away with the trophy. It will be played in late January and the majority of March.
My Thoughts on the Scepticism
If you look at the tournament itself, the scepticism is fully justified.
But that’s the thing. The pandemic resulted in a loss of potential earnings from lucrative, Chinese events. This tournament is not ideal but its most important function right now is giving the entire tour the chance to earn money rather than none at all. That is something we have to thank everyone within the WST and WPBSA for once again. Allan Taylor described the WSF Pro Series as a “godsend” and added that “this a great chance for the lower-ranked players to pit themselves against the top guys.”
But it feels as those WST hasn’t learned from its mistakes from the most recent Championship League. The schedule looks too long-winded because the entire event isn’t played in one go. It will take a total of sixteen days just to finish the first stage of the tournament. This will turn off many viewers who would struggle to keep up with its repetitiveness the dragging format. I do worry if events with shorter and shorter matches are being normalised.
Between The Lines
There are two main stories in this tournament: the father vs. son tie and Stephen Hendry’s anticipated comeback that’s now been put on hold again.
It is perhaps inevitable that we see Oliver Lines be up against his father Peter Lines. With the number of tournaments and the number of years both players have been professional, it was just a matter of time! I’m just glad that they didn’t meet in a Triple Crown, where the stake would be higher. As Oliver said in the last World Championship qualifiers, at least this would stop people asking about it!
It was September when Hendry was lured away from retirement and lockdown prevented him from making his season debut in the UK Championship. Hendry admitted that this is probably the worst anticipated comeback in sport. After news that he has decided to withdraw from the WST Pro Series, it is becoming harder and harder to disagree with him. Former professional John Astley replaces him in the draw.
Many fans are still excited to watch him play again professionally for the first time since 2012. Indeed, the extended pandemic hasn’t helped and his desire to play in front of a crowd is understandable. But that long wait may be fruitless under the circumstances. Hendry had chances to play on tour this season already. Impatient fans are starting to believe that he is taking liberties with a tour card that another budding amateur would’ve made better use of instead. Let’s just hope good things come to those who wait.
DRAW
The following draw is published on the World Snooker Tour website:
Group A
Shaun Murphy
Michael Holt
Alan McManus
Louis Heathcote
Xu Si
Ken Doherty
Fraser Patrick
Brian Ochoiski (a)
Group B
Kyren Wilson
Li Hang
Yuan Sijun
Sunny Akani
Pang Junxu
Kacper Filipiak
Dean Young (a)
Fan Zhengyi
Group C
Stuart Bingham
Scott Donaldson
Sam Craigie
Chris Wakelin
Jamie Clarke
Ashley Carty
Billy Castle
Jamie Curtis-Barrett (a)
Group D
Barry Hawkins
Ricky Walden
Jimmy Robertson
Alexander Ursenbacher
Gerard Greene
Duane Jones
Farakh Ajaib
Paul Davison (a)
Group E
Mark Selby
Matthew Selt
Joe O’Connor
Stuart Carrington
Eden Sharav
Soheil Vahedi
Lukas Kleckers
Daniel Womersley (a)
Group F
Mark Allen
Ben Woollaston
Noppon Saengkham
David Grace
Igor Figueiredo
Jordan Brown
Riley Parsons
Fergal O’Brien
Group G
Gary Wilson
Lu Ning
Martin O’Donnell
Liam Highfield
Jamie O’Neill
Zhao Jianbo
Rory McLeod
John Astley (a)
Group H
Yan Bingtao
Ali Carter
Mark Davis
Tian Pengfei
Chang Bingyu
Simon Lichtenberg
Amine Amiri
Kuldesh Johal (a)
Group I
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Tom Ford
Lyu Hoatian
Mark Joyce
Chen Zifan
David Lilley
Ben Hancorn
Jamie Wilson
Group J
David Gilbert
Martin Gould
Elliot Slessor
Ian Burns
James Cahill
Peter Lines
Oliver Lines
Iulian Boiko
Group K
Anthony McGill
Zhao Xintong
Mark King
Dominic Dale
Andy Hicks
Si Jiahui
Peter Devlin
Lee Walker
Group L
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Zhou Yuelong
Anthony Hamilton
Luo Honghao
Mitchell Mann
Lei Peifan
Ashley Hugill
Leo Fernandez (a)
Group M
Joe Perry
Xiao Guodong
Matthew Stevens
Daniel Wells
Jak Jones
Rod Lawler
Allan Taylor
Haydon Pinhey (a)
Group N
Jack Lisowski
Graeme Dott
Luca Brecel
Andrew Higginson
Jackson Page
Brandon Sargeant
Zak Surety
Michael White (a)
Group O
Judd Trump
Hossein Vafaei
Ryan Day
Jamie Jones
Barry Pinches
Jimmy White
Steven Hallworth
Sean Maddocks
Group P
Mark Williams
Kurt Maflin
Robert Milkins
Nigel Bond
Robbie Williams
Gao Yang
Alex Borg
Oliver Brown (a)
The WSF Pro Series will take place between 18th – 25th January and 9th – 21st March 2021 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England.
Yes, I’ve been critical about these leagues. The main purpose is to spread snooker over a larger number of days, to fill the calendar, but without requiring the same prize fund as 3 or 4 separate tournaments.
It’s absolutely vital that the broadcasters make the Pro Series seem exciting, day-by-day. Unfortunately, we’ve come to expect very unimaginative coverage: mundane commentary and the set-piece pundit Q & A between matches.
They need a massively more dynamic approach: switching between tables, whistle-stop interviews, sparkling graphics indicating group positions, possibly audience participation (cricket is currently doing mass Zoom meets). You could have mascots (e.g. a 10-year old child) supporting each player (that’s more suitable for the Shoot-out).
My biggest criticism of the format is actually the prizemoney structure. There will be many ‘dead’ matches in terms of qualification, but also some matches towards the end might not affect a player’s position, which is UNFAIR, and provides a corrupt incentive, albeit for tiny amounts. THEY SHOULD PAY THEM BY MATCH, NOT BY GROUP POSITION! If WST really are serious about avoiding match-fixing suspicions, they have to think about things like this. They seem blind…
Actually, I do think there is a place for different formats in snooker, but it has to be carefully thought through, by WST and broadcasters. If the tournament is a flop (or a mess) it will be the fault of the implementation, but I do admit that everything is difficult during lockdown. But we’ve had 6 months of lockdowns now.