It does not feel like too much time at all since Mark Selby completed the season by winning his second world title and since then of course 12 players have earned two year professional tour cards during Qualifying School, but we're now all set to go again as qualifying for the first three events of next season gets underway.
There is plenty to talk about ahead of this new term. A couple of announcements came out today from the WPBSA about Leo Fernandez and Matt Selt. A lot of exciting players have earned their tour cards for the first time and we have a whole host of new events to look forward to.
Leo Fernandez and Matt Selt
Today we heard two major pieces of news from the tour regarding a couple of it's members. First I will deal with the news regarding Matt Selt. Selt was suspended from participating in the Riga Masters and the Paul Hunter Classic for bringing the game into disrepute after some his choice language on Twitter appears to be the thing that has gotten him into trouble.
Selt has been given the right to appeal.
Then there was the news about Leo Fernandez. Fernandez earned a two year tour card for 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 via the Asian order of merit, but he was able to play in many events last season as a Q School Top up. In World Championship Qualifying he took on Gary Wilson and lost out 10-4. The match was reported to the WPBSA for suspicious betting patterns on the match and it has been decided that Fernandez has a case to answer in relation to a breach of the betting rules. The case will now go to hearing and Fernandez has been suspended until the conclusion of the hearing (date to be confirmed) and the conclusion of the case.
Indian Open, World Open and Riga Masters Qualifying
With that slightly sadder note out of the way, this weekend we have the start of the first three qualifying events of the new season and of course in this early season we have players that will have chosen their events wisely so certain top players will be missing.
Missing from the Indian Open: A lot of players decided not to enter the Indian Open when it was last played in March 2015, so Michael White will finally defend his title. However the likes of Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Mark Allen, Ding Junhui, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Joe Perry and Liang Wenbo are the most notable absentees.
Missing from the World Open: Straight after that is the World Open qualifying, last won by Shaun Murphy in March 2014, so just the two and a bit years to wait to defend his title. As the event will be in China I understand that the matches of the top two Chinese players, defending champion and world champion will be held over to the main venue as is becoming the norm. There are many less absentees from this one but nonetheless Mark Allen and Ronnie O'Sullivan will not be in qualifying for this one.
Missing from the Riga Masters: The Riga Masters for 2016 is conducted on a random draw which is the main change to note, after the European Tour disbanded at the end of last season. Opting out of this one are Shaun Murphy, Ricky Walden, Ding Junhui, Barry Hawkins, Liang Wenbo, Michael White and yet again Ronnie O'Sullivan.
New events and changes for 2016/2017
We have plenty of new events for this season to keep us all excited with the tours development and to make sure we are all on our toes. The home series is the exciting one and my pick of the changes as in addition to the Welsh Open (which retains its usual place in the calendar) we will have the English Open (October), the Irish Open (November) and the Scottish Open (December).
The European Open has also been added to the calendar and this is all set to take place in Romania in October 2016.
The World Grand Prix has been moved to February but will still be for the top 32 on a one year money list up to the German Masters (the week before the Grand Prix). The Players Championship will then take place in March for the top 16 on the one year money list, so that after the Grand Prix there is the Welsh Open and Gibraltar Open to create ranking movement in between these events, along with the Snooker Shoot-Out which has been made into a ranking event for the first time. As I understand it the reason for this is as I mentioned, to create ranking movement in between the Grand Prix and Players Championship. In coming years I can see these sort of events building snookers own end of season series, prior to the World Championship.
For an example of what I mean, take 5 minutes out of your day to read up on the "Fed Ex Cup" in Golf which is hugely successful and adds a lot more excitement to the end of the season than in the years prior to its introduction to the PGA Tour.
Players to watch
As always we have plenty of new players to the tour and a lot of young players now on the tour. I'm going to go ahead and try to pick out players to watch or players that I believe have the most potential to light up the tour in the next year or two.
Yan Bingtao
After having his tour card deferred for a year World Cup winner Yan Bingtao is now on the tour an has at least two years to make his impression and get inside the world's top 64. Based on the rise of his world cup partner Zhou Yuelong it honestly should not be a problem for him, especially given the potential he has already shown. I witnessed live at the venue Yan's win against Shaun Murphy in the Champion of Champions and the feeling you got from watching him was that he could be something special. Later on against Neil Robertson he played well again over the longer format of best-of-11 (as opposed to the best-of-7 earlier in the day). I look forward to seeing this young man's progress.
Zhao Xintong
What is there to say about Zhao Xintong? Well he's proven himself in matches against professionals a number of times already. A year ago he just missed out on qualification for the tour through Q School and earned the "IBSF nomination" for this year after losing in the IBSF amateur final to Pankaj Advani who turned down the tour card that goes with that. In World Championship qualifying no less Zhao overcame Rod Lawler before narrowly losing out to Kurt Maflin. He also beat Stuart Carrington 6-0 in International Qualifying in 2015. In the 2014 Shanghai Masters he beat Matt Selt and then Marco Fu and he is renowned for his heavy scoring which could win him a lot of matches in the next couple of years.
Sam Craigie
Sam Craigie earned his tour card for the next two years during the EBSA play-offs. I like Craigie a lot as a player after watching his held over match in the International Championship against Ding Junhui on the TV. He handled himself well and could easily have gotten over the line there in that match. At a European Tour event earlier in the year he whitewashed Peter Lines before losing 4-2 to Shaun Murphy having taken the early lead. As well as all of this he won the SnookerBacker classic earlier in the year, just prior to competing in those EBSA play-offs, against some of the best amateurs in the country and his heavy scoring helped him out there. The first three qualifying matches coming up this week could really be big, particularly if he can get wins in a couple of them to boost his confidence early on in the season, and set up some good things to come.
I'm looking forward to seeing how plenty of other players go on in addition to this including rookie of the year last year Darryl Hill and my choice in that category Rhys Clark. Also there are another couple of new Chinese players like Wang Yuchen and Fang Xiongman who have earned their tour cards. Young Thai Boonyarit Keattikun could also be worth looking out for, earning his place after winning the World Under 21 title beating Zhao Xintong 6-2 on the way and Wang Yuchen 7-0, in addition to only dropping one frame in six best-of-7 frame matches in the group stages.
That's all for now and I have to say that if some of the new players live up to their billing and these new events capture the imagination then this could be one incredible season of snooker.
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