 | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 4–6 March 2024 (2024-03-04 –2024-03-06) |
| Venue | Global Theatre |
| City | Boulevard City,Riyadh |
| Country | Saudi Arabia |
| Organisation | World Snooker Tour |
| Format | Non-ranking event |
| Total prize fund | £785,000 |
| Winner's share | £250,000 |
| Highest break |  Ding Junhui (CHN) (138) |
| Final | |
| Champion |  Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) |
| Runner-up |  Luca Brecel (BEL) |
| Score | 5–2 |
The2024 World Masters of Snooker (officially the2024 Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker) was a professional non-rankingsnooker tournament that took place from 4 to 6 March 2024 at the Global Theatre inRiyadh, Saudi Arabia. Organised by theWorld Snooker Tour and part of theRiyadh Season festival in the entertainment districtBoulevard City within Riyadh, the event was the first professional snooker tournament held in Saudi Arabia, and the inaugural staging of theWorld Masters of Snooker. It introduced a new 20-point gold ball called the "Riyadh Season ball", which could only bepotted after a player had completed amaximum break of 147 to extend the break to 167. The event was broadcast locally in theMiddle East and North Africa and worldwide. The winner received £250,000 from a total prize fund of £785,000.
The event featured 12 players, including the top ten players on thesnooker world rankings, with thereigning World Champion,Luca Brecel, as the topseed, as well as two localwildcard players, Ali Alobaidli from Qatar and Omar Alajlani from Saudi Arabia.
World number one playerRonnie O'Sullivan won the event, defeating Brecel 5–2 in the final, capturing his fifth professional title of the2023–24 season.[1]
The tournament produced 16century breaks. O'Sullivan made six, the most of any player. The highest break was a 138 made byDing Junhui. No player successfully compiled amaximum break for a chance to pot the new "Riyadh Season" gold ball.John Higgins made an attempt in his second-round match againstMark Williams, potting all 15reds withblacks, but lostposition and missed theyellow to end the break at 120.[2] Higgins was defeated in the quarter-finals by eventual winner O'Sullivan 0–4. Despite the match starting at 1:48 am local time, O'Sullivan made breaks of 135, 129, 102, and 82 to complete thewhitewash, with Higgins having not potted a single ball in the whole match. In another quarter-final match,Mark Allen recovered from 0–2 and 1–3 behind to beatMark Selby 4–3, winning thedeciding frame on the last black.[3]
In December 2019,World Snooker Tour (WST) announced a 10-year deal with Saudi Arabia, including ranking tournaments that will be hosted in the country.[4] However, nosnooker tournaments were held in Saudi Arabia in the next four years due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[5] In January 2024, WST announced a new non-ranking tournament called the World Masters of Snooker, to take place from 4 to 6 March 2024 at the Boulevard Arena inRiyadh, Saudi Arabia.[6] It was the first professional snooker tournament to be held in Saudi Arabia.[7]
| Colour | Value |
|---|---|
 Red | 1 point |
 Yellow | 2 points |
 Green | 3 points |
 Brown | 4 points |
 Blue | 5 points |
 Pink | 6 points |
 Black | 7 points |
 Riyadh Season ball | 20 points |
All matches were played as the best of seven frames except the final, which was played as the best of nine frames.[8]
The matches were played under regular snooker rules, but the event introduced a new gold ball worth 20 points, called the "Riyadh Season ball". The gold ball was placed on the centre of thebaulk cushion, in line with thebrown,blue,pink, andblack balls. It could only bepotted after a player had completed amaximum break of 147, to extend the break to 167. It would be a four-pointfoul if the gold ball were potted earlier in theframe, or hit before theobject ball. The gold ball stayed on the table as long as it was possible for either player to complete a maximum break, then it was removed from the table until the next frame.[9][10]
The event was originally planned to feature ten players, including the top eight players on thesnooker world rankings, with thereigning World Champion,Luca Brecel,seeded first, and the rest based on their rankings. It also features two localwildcard players, Ali Alobaidli from Qatar and Omar Alajlani from Saudi Arabia.[11][12] On 29 February, WST announced that the tournament was expanded to 12 players, with the addition of world numbers nine and ten,Ding Junhui andJohn Higgins.[10]
The tournament was broadcast locally with Arabic commentary across theMiddle East and North Africa byMBC Action,MBC Egypt,Saudi Sport, webook, andShahid. It was also broadcast byEurosport andDiscovery+ in Europe (including the United Kingdom and Ireland); by Migu andHuya in mainland China;Now TV in Hong Kong;Astro SuperSport in Malaysia;TrueVisions in Thailand; Sportcast in Taiwan; Premier Sports Network in the Philippines;Sportstars andVision+ in Indonesia;Skynet in Myanmar;Hang Meas in Cambodia; andDAZN in all other territories.[13]
The event featured a total prize pool of£785,000. An additional prize of$500,000 (about £395,000) would have been given to the first player to compile a 167 break.[10] However, no player was able to do so and the prize was not collected.[1] The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below:
Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players'seedings, and players in bold denote match winners. All matches were played as the best of seven frames except the final, which was played as the best of nine frames.[8][14]
| Round 1 Best of 7 frames | Round 2 Best of 7 frames | Quarter-finals Best of 7 frames | Semi-finals Best of 7 frames | Final Best of 9 frames | |||||||||||||||
| Luca Brecel (BEL)(1) | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ali Carter (ENG)(8) | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ali Carter (ENG)(8) | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ding Junhui (CHN)(9) | 4 | Ding Junhui (CHN)(9) | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
 Omar Alajlani (SAU) | 0 | Luca Brecel(1) | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
 Mark Allen(4) | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Mark Allen (NIR)(4) | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Mark Selby (ENG)(5) | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Luca Brecel(1) | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ronnie O'Sullivan(2) | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Judd Trump (ENG)(3) | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Shaun Murphy (ENG)(6) | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Judd Trump(3) | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
 John Higgins (SCO)(10) | 4 | Ronnie O'Sullivan(2) | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
 Ali Alobaidli (QAT) | 0 |  Mark Williams (WAL)(7) | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| John Higgins (SCO)(10) | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG)(2) | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| John Higgins (SCO)(10) | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Final: Best of 9 frames. Referee:Tatiana Woollaston Global Theatre,Boulevard City,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 6 March 2024. | ||
| Luca Brecel(1) Belgium | 2–5 | Ronnie O'Sullivan(2) England |
| Frame scores: 3–118,107–9,81–0, 29–94, 0–121 (121), 0–69, 0–131 (124) | ||
| (frame 3) 81 | Highest break | 124 (frame 7) |
| 0 | Century breaks | 2 |
The announcement of the event, hailed as a "huge breakthrough" by WST chairman, Steve Dawson, was met with criticism accusing Saudi Arabia ofsportswashing.[15]Amnesty International criticised snooker's involvement in Saudi Arabia, amid itshuman rights abuses. Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK's Economic Affairs director, said: "It was just a matter of time before Saudi Arabia's huge sportswashing machine sucked in snooker along with almost every other major world sport. If the likes ofRonnie O'Sullivan andJudd Trump play in Riyadh, they shouldn't hesitate to speak out about human rights." Some players have also criticised WST of overly focusing on events featuring the top players. Amateur playerSteven Hallworth tweeted: "Was starting to lose sleep with worry that the top eight players might run out of events and cash soon, thank God for this."[16]
The introduction of the 20-point gold ball was criticised byThe Independent journalist Luke Baker, who called it a "ludicrous gimmick" and "the sign of a desperate sport".[17]The Daily Telegraph chief sports writer Oliver Brown described the Saudi invention as "warping the very rules of the game for its own hubristic ends", calling it "frivolous, tasteless, wretched".[18]
Former World ChampionShaun Murphy, however, defended the event and the gold ball, saying: "the new promoters in Saudi will want their event to stand out and be different. At the end of the day you'd rather have the event than not." Murphy added: "if we (WST) only traded with countries with perfect human rights records, it would be a very, very small pool to pick from... We wouldn't be trading with the UK either."[19]
A total of 16century breaks were made in the tournament.[20]