In Colombia four years ago Aditya Mehta beat Liang Wenbo to the gold, while Igor Figueiredo missed out on the bronze to Dechawat Poomjaeng. Nigel Bond stepped up to the podium in Taiwan as he picked up the 2009 gold, with David Grace taking silver and the bronze going to Mohammed Shehab as he edged out Soheil Vahedi.
2005 saw the World Games head to Germany where Gerard Greene picked up the gold against Ding Junhui. Bjorn Haneveer won the bronze against Mark Allen adding to the gold medal that the Belgian four years earlier in Japan.
This year there is an important change as snooker at the World Games becomes a mixed event. Women's world champion Ng On Yee is joined by Belgian Wendy Jans making up the two female players in the field. Defending gold medallist Aditya Mehta is also in the field along with English top 16 hopes Ali Carter and Kyren Wilson. 2016 world amateur champion and current tour player Soheil Vahedi is also in the field along with 2016 world under 21 champion Xu Si and runner-up Alexander Ursenbacher who are the two other tour players in the field.
2016 world amateur finalist Andrew Pagett and european men's runner-up Andres Petrov are two of the non-tour players in the field that also include Kacper Filipiak competing on home soil, the impressive Declan Brennan, former professionals Michael Judge and Peter Francisco while Australian Shaun Dalitz and Pakistan's Mohammad Bilal complete this global field.
World Games Main Event Draw:
Ali Carter Vs Shaun Dalitz
Wendy Jans Vs Declan Brennan
Aditya Mehta Vs Kacper Filipiak
Xu Si Vs Mohammad Bilal
Soheil Vahedi Vs Peter Francisco
Andrew Pagett Vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Ng On Yee Vs Michael Judge
Kyren Wilson Vs Andres Petrov
Ali Carter and Kyren Wilson will be two obvious favourites for this event but with the format being best-of-5 frame matches throughout the event, anything can happen and no results are guaranteed given such a short format.
Declan Brennan could do very well in this event and gain some valuable experience. From what I have seen and heard about him he is a quality player who can score very heavily and I expect him to make his way on to the tour inside of the next couple of years.
Defending champion Aditya Mehta will be determined to get another medal after his performance four years ago. The Indian has not necessarily had the best year or so on the table in terms of results but a good run here could give him a lot of confidence for the year ahead.
2016 world under 21 champion Xu Si is certainly a danger man. At the start of the season I picked him out as one of my players to watch for the coming season, and a medal in the World Games would be an early justification of that call and proof of his talents. Beating Mark Williams in a best-of-11 at the International Championship last year shows he can compete with the higher grade of players, so he could do very well on the big stage this week.
In the bottom half of the draw Alexander Ursenbacher is a certain dark horse. We have seen already this year that he is a heavy scorer and very talented having earned his place back on tour. In Andrew Pagett he faces an experienced ex-tour pro who could easily have a good run himself. Pagett nearly earned a place back on tour on a couple of occasions in the last year, losing in the final of the world amateur championships and the semi-finals of the european amateur championships.
Soheil Vahedi is the world amateur championships and has already made a bit of an impression as a tour pro, playing alongside Hossein Vafei in the Iranian world cup team that made the quarter-finals earlier this month. That run could inspire him to do his nation proud once again here in Poland and get himself onto the podium.
Finally, it is also worth mentioning Ng On Yee who should be inspired coming into this week straight from the Hong Kong Masters where she has played a big part. Playing exhibitions with against Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White in Hong Kong in front of a huge crowd will give her some good practice for the Games, and the motivation to make her huge crowds of supporters proud.
Declan Brennan could do very well in this event and gain some valuable experience. From what I have seen and heard about him he is a quality player who can score very heavily and I expect him to make his way on to the tour inside of the next couple of years.
Defending champion Aditya Mehta will be determined to get another medal after his performance four years ago. The Indian has not necessarily had the best year or so on the table in terms of results but a good run here could give him a lot of confidence for the year ahead.
2016 world under 21 champion Xu Si is certainly a danger man. At the start of the season I picked him out as one of my players to watch for the coming season, and a medal in the World Games would be an early justification of that call and proof of his talents. Beating Mark Williams in a best-of-11 at the International Championship last year shows he can compete with the higher grade of players, so he could do very well on the big stage this week.
In the bottom half of the draw Alexander Ursenbacher is a certain dark horse. We have seen already this year that he is a heavy scorer and very talented having earned his place back on tour. In Andrew Pagett he faces an experienced ex-tour pro who could easily have a good run himself. Pagett nearly earned a place back on tour on a couple of occasions in the last year, losing in the final of the world amateur championships and the semi-finals of the european amateur championships.
Soheil Vahedi is the world amateur championships and has already made a bit of an impression as a tour pro, playing alongside Hossein Vafei in the Iranian world cup team that made the quarter-finals earlier this month. That run could inspire him to do his nation proud once again here in Poland and get himself onto the podium.
Finally, it is also worth mentioning Ng On Yee who should be inspired coming into this week straight from the Hong Kong Masters where she has played a big part. Playing exhibitions with against Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White in Hong Kong in front of a huge crowd will give her some good practice for the Games, and the motivation to make her huge crowds of supporters proud.
All in all, it looks to me like a wide open tournament given the field and the short format. The winner will more than likely be someone who is up for the challenge and embraces everything that these games have to offer. Viewing it as a privilege rather than another week on tour could be the key to success and someone like Kyren Wilson is usually someone that fits that description, always embracing new challenges. For many others it is a great opportunity and I expect the likes of Ursenbacher and Xu to impress and potentially pick up a medal themselves, whilst Brennan could also provide an upset or two along the way.
The tournament begins on Wednesday with first round matches taking place on Wednesday and Thursday before the quarter-finals on Friday, semi-finals and the bronze medal match on Saturday and the final on Sunday with the medal ceremony to follow later on the same day.
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