The 2023 WST Classic was a professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

tournament that took place from 16 to 22 March 2023 at the Morningside Arena in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, England. It was the 13th

ranking event The snooker world rankings are the official system of ranking professional snooker players to determine automatic qualification and seeding for tournaments on the World Snooker Tour. The ranking lists are maintained by the sport's governing body, ...

of the 2022–23 season and the inaugural staging of the WST Classic, which the World Snooker Tour added to the calendar midway through the season to replace the cancelled 2023 Turkish Masters. The last qualifying event before the

2023 Tour Championship The 2023 Tour Championship (officially the 2023 Duelbits Tour Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 27 March to 2 April 2023 at the Bonus Arena in Hull, England. Organised by the World Snooker Tour, it wa ...

, the tournament was streamed on Matchroom.live in all territories apart from China, Hong Kong, and Thailand, where it was carried by local broadcasters. The winner received £80,000 from a total prize fund of £427,000. Pang Junxu reached the first ranking final of his career, where he faced Mark Selby. Competing in his home city, Selby defeated Pang 6–2 to win his 22nd ranking title. There were 88 century breaks made during the event. Judd Trump made his 900th century break in professional competition during his first-round match against

David Lilley David William Lilley (born 31 October 1977 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire) is a Scottish former professional footballer who usually plays at centre back but has also played at right back. Lilley was most recently the manager of Bellshill ...

, becoming the third player—after Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins—to reach that milestone. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh made the highest break of the tournament, a maximum break in the fifth frame of his last-64 match against Xu Si. This was Un-Nooh's fourth competitive maximum break.

Format

The tournament featured 128 players. The top 64 players in the snooker world rankings after the Players Championship were seeded in the draw, with the remaining 64 players drawn at random against them. Matches were played as the best of seven up to and including the quarter-finals. The semi-finals were played over the best of nine frames. The final was played over the best of 11 frames. The last three rounds were all played on the final day.

Prize fund

The event featured a prize fund of £427,000, with the winner receiving £80,000. The breakdown of prize money for this event is shown below: * Winner: £80,000 * Runner-up: £35,000 * Semi-final: £17,500 * Quarter-final: £11,000 * Last 16: £7,500 * Last 32: £4,500 * Last 64: £3,000 * Highest break: £5,000 * Total: £427,000

Tournament draw

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Bottom half

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Finals

Final

Century breaks

A total of 88 century breaks were made during the event. *

147 147 may refer to: * 147 (number), a natural number * AD 147, a year of the Julian calendar, in the second century * 147 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar * 147 AH, a year in the Islamic calendar that corresponds to 764 – 765 CE ...

, 115 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh * 143, 140 Shaun Murphy * 141, 123 Daniel Wells * 140 Mark Joyce * 139 Pang Junxu * 138, 138, 120, 105, 104 Mark Selby * 138, 130, 104 Xu Si * 137, 104 Ronnie O'Sullivan * 137 Stephen Maguire * 136, 135, 126, 126, 121, 102 John Higgins * 136 Andrew Higginson * 135, 135, 121, 107, 103 Gary Wilson * 135, 104, 103 Hossein Vafaei * 135 Anthony McGill * 133 Ding Junhui * 132 Jimmy White * 131, 113 Judd Trump * 131

Jamie Jones Jamie Jones may refer to: * Jamie Jones (DJ), Welsh DJ, producer and two-time DJ Awards winner * Jamie Jones (footballer) (born 1989), English professional footballer for Wigan Athletic * Jamie Jones (snooker player) (born 1988), Welsh professional ...

* 131 Andrew Pagett * 130 Graeme Dott * 129, 112 Barry Hawkins * 129, 106, 101 Ali Carter * 129, 101 Jack Lisowski * 128, 102, 102 Zhou Yuelong * 128 John J. Astley * 127 Tom Ford * 126 Noppon Saengkham * 123 Si Jiahui * 122 Xiao Guodong * 120, 118, 117 Lyu Haotian * 120 David Grace * 115, 113 Haydon Pinhey * 115, 103 Chris Wakelin * 113, 100 David Gilbert * 110 Jackson Page * 109, 100 Stuart Bingham * 109 Lukas Kleckers * 109 Matthew Selt * 107 Anton Kazakov * 107

Ben Mertens Ben Mertens (born 13 October 2004) is a Belgian professional snooker player. He won the World Open Under-16 Snooker Championships in 2018. Career Ben Mertens is from Wetteren. When he was 12 years old, he reached the 2nd round of the 2017 EBSA Eu ...

* 105, 101 Kyren Wilson * 105

Jenson Kendrick Jenson Kendrick (born 3 February 2001) is an English snooker player. He turned professional at the start of the 2022/2023 season. He earned a two-year tour card after defeating Haydon Pinhey 4–1 in the final round of the third 2022 Q School ...

* 104, 103 Jamie Clarke * 104 Anthony Hamilton * 103, 100 Neil Robertson * 102 Mark Davis * 101 James Cahill * 101 Dechawat Poomjaeng * 100 Fan Zhengyi * 100 Liam Highfield * 100 Yuan Sijun

Notes

References

{{2022–23 snooker season

WST Classic The 2023 WST Classic was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 16 to 22 March 2023 at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, England. It was the 13th ranking event of the 2022–23 season and the inaugural staging of the WST Classic ...

Snooker competitions in England Sport in Leicester