From Xi'an to Riyadh - highlights and previews

With a week full of snooker behind us from the Chinese Xi’an Grand Prix, and another week of snooker ahead in the Saudi Arabia Masters in Riyadh, it’s time to wrap things up in the 7th edition of Snooker Weekly.

🇨🇳 Xi’an Grand Prix
In a week where snooker fans clustered around their laptop screens to watch matches on Matchroom Live (if they were lucky enough), Kyren Wilson secured victory in the first event in Xi’An, China, against runner-up Judd Trump. While Judd hadn’t lost a best-of-nine match since December 2022, Kyren proved too strong in this best-of-nineteen final.

After congratulating Kyren off-camera, both players celebrated their spectacular final following a week where not everything went smoothly in all frames. This wasn’t the only celebration, as Judd’s birthday also fell during the same week. By reaching the Xi’an final, Judd Trump has become the new number one on the WST ranking list, meaning Mark Allen will need to work hard to reclaim the top spot this season.

🎙️ Snooker Podcasts
In this week’s Totally Snookered vodcast, top professional Leo Scullion is featured as a guest, answering listeners’ questions about snooker rules.

In WST’s Snooker Club, Allan Taylor is the co-host this week, and discusses his Q School experience, China’s humid conditions and their impact on the game, as well as Chinese food.

The Snooker Scene podcast is on a roll, airing two episodes this week. First, Dave counts down his picks for the ten best non-UK players of all time, with one choice per country. After the Xi’an event, he salutes Kyren in a new episode, goes through listener feedback, and provides a short preview of the Saudi Arabia Masters.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Masters
The new event in Riyadh runs from August 30th to September 7th. The draw can, of course, be found on snooker.org. The format is similar to the World Champion draw, including the prize money 🤑, but in this case, there’s no new draw at the last 32 stage.

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Thanks for reading, and see you next week!