PREVIEW: 2021 Tour Championship

We have a ranking tournament. We have some of the best players in the world. Finally, we have matches that are greater than a BO3. Lovely. ALL matches are BO19, including the final. Every match will feel like a final!

This tournament is a godsend for the purists since 2018. There are very few events with long matches nowadays. This has been exacerbated since the UK Championship was revamped almost ten years ago, as well as the promotion of former-PTC events the Paul Hunter Classic and the Riga Masters. Players need to earn an income from their trade during the pandemic and snooker adapted well in the face of difficult circumstances. But seeing the Championship League (BO5) and the WST Pro Series (BO3) being ranking events made people crave for longer and more ‘proper’ tournaments. This is the perfect antidote.

World No.1 Ronnie O'Sullivan Wins 2019 Tour Championship - SnookerHQ

The Cazoo Series

For those who don’t know, the Tour Championship is the third and final instalment of the Cazoo Series. The top eight players on the one-season ranking list qualify for this tournament. Every player except one qualified before the WSF Pro Series, but Barry Hawkins’s performances at that event were enough to keep Zhou Yuelong at bay. This also gives these players a brilliant test since the World Championship is around the corner.

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stephen Maguire are past winners of this lucrative event. But since Maguire failed to qualify this time around, he cannot defend his title. Coincidently, the winners of the Tour Championship ended up winning the Cazoo Cup.

The Cup is awarded to a player who performed the best throughout its series (World Grand Prix, Players Championship, Tour Championship). John Higgins is leading this Order of Merit, having won the Players Championship very recently. Judd Trump may have won the World Grand Prix, but lost in the first round in the second tournament, and therefore is in second place.

With £150,000 awarded to the winner and £60,000 to the losing finalist, there are HUGE bucks to be won. For more information on who else is in the running, please click here.

John Higgins: 'It's the best week I've ever had in my snooker career' | Snooker Chat

The Permutations of the World Snooker Championship

Allow me to clarify first and foremost, the 16 automatic qualifiers to the Crucible are confirmed. Done. Concrete. Set in stone. Sorted. But how those players are seeded in the draw has yet to be decided. That is very important.

After the WST Pro Series, these are the seedings of the 2021 World Championship AS IT STANDS. The key is the following:

Players who cannot be moved from their positions in the World Championship draw highlighted in green.
Those highlighted in red can be moved from their positions in the World Championship draw.
Finally, those highlighted in bold & in italics are in the draw of the 2021 Tour Championship.

Ronnie O’Sullivan (1) vs. Anthony McGill (16)

Stephen Maguire (8) vs. Ding Junhui (9)

John Higgins (5) vs. Mark Allen (12)

Neil Robertson (4) vs. Barry Hawkins (13)

Mark Selby (3) vs. Jack Lisowski (14)

Kyren Wilson (6) vs. Mark Williams (11)

Shaun Murphy (7) vs. Yan Bingtao (10)

Judd Trump (2) vs. David Gilbert (15)

A player will win £40,000 in ranking points for winning their first-round match in the Tour Championship. Just that win could bump some players up a ranking place or a few. The winner’s cheque of £150,00 will certainly do that. If you want to see the rankings table on the ‘Race to the Crucible’, please click here.