The 2017–18 snooker season was a series of professional
snooker
Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...
tournaments played between 4 May 2017 and 7 May 2018. The season began with the
pro–am
Pro–am (or pro/am, pro am, ProAm; a contraction of professional–amateur) refers to a sporting event where both professional career athletes and amateurs compete. It could also refer to a collaboration between professionals and amateu ...
Vienna Snooker Open
The Vienna Snooker Open is a pro–am 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 t ...
in May 2017 and ended with the
2018 World Snooker Championship
The 2018 World Snooker Championship (officially the 2018 Betfred World Snooker Championship) was a professional snooker tournament held from 21 April to 7 May 2018 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Hosted by the World Prof ...
in April the following year.
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...
earned a joint-record five ranking titles in the season. He joined
Stephen Hendry
Stephen Gordon Hendry (born 13 January 1969) is a Scottish professional snooker player who dominated the sport during the 1990s, becoming one of the most successful players in its history. After turning professional in 1985 at age 16, Hendry ...
(
1990/1991),
Ding Junhui
Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 14 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (200 ...
(
2013/2014), and
Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the a ...
(
2016/2017) in winning five ranking titles in the same season.
The
China Championship became a ranking event and was brought forward to a mid-August date, ahead of the
Paul Hunter Classic
The Paul Hunter Classic is a non-ranking snooker tournament. It changed from a ranking event to a 16-man invitational event in 2019. From 2010 to 2015 it was part of the Players Tour Championship. Barry Hawkins is the reigning champion. After los ...
. The
Shanghai Masters was initially withdrawn from the season calendar, but was later rescheduled for November 2017. The biennial
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
team event was played in July 2017. Another event not held every year returning in 2017 was the
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
IWGA
The International World Games Association, abbreviated as IWGA, is an international association, recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), that organises every four years, beginning in 1981, the multi-sport event called The World Ga ...
World Games
The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 ...
. The
Snooker Shoot Out was brought forward to the start of February, ahead of both the
World Grand Prix and
Welsh Open.
A new
World Seniors Tour was formed by
Snooker Legends for players over 40 years of age, comprising four events, including the
World Seniors Championship
The World Seniors Championship is an invitational seniors snooker tournament which has been played under different formats. As of 2020 the minimum age is 40, but it was 45 in 2011 and 2012.
History
The event was first held in 1991 with 16 pla ...
which has returned to Scunthorpe in 2018.
The second edition of the
Home Nations Series
The Home Nations Series is a snooker tournament series in the four home nations of the United Kingdom. It began in the 2016–17 snooker season, combining two existing tournaments, the Scottish Open and Welsh Open, with two newly created tourname ...
was being held in this season with the
English Open,
Northern Ireland Open,
Scottish Open and
Welsh Open tournaments. For a single winner of all four tournaments would earn a bonus of £1 million.
Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player who is the current world champion and world number one. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in the sport's history, ...
won five ranking events during the season, with
Mark Williams winning three times and
Ryan Day,
John Higgins
John Higgins, (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won 31 career ranking titles, placing him in third position on the all-time list of ranking event winners, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan (39) and Stephen Hendry ( ...
and
Mark Selby
Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player, who is a four-time World Snooker Champion. Ranked world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 21 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the a ...
each winning twice.
Shaun Murphy
Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting.
Born in Harlow, Essex and ra ...
reached four ranking event finals during the season but lost them all.
Players
The top 64 players from the
prize money rankings after the
2017 World Championship, and the 31 players earning a
two-year card the previous year automatically qualified for the season (
Rouzi Maimaiti has resigned his membership). Next, eight places were allocated to the top 8 on the One Year Ranking List who have not already qualified for the Main Tour. Another two players came from the EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs, and a further 12 places were available through the
Q School (four
Event 1 winners, four
Event 2
''Event 2'' is the second album by hip hop supergroup Deltron 3030. The album was released on September 30, 2013. It is the group's first album since their 2000 debut, ''Deltron 3030'' and a narrative sequel.
Production history
Production beg ...
winners, and four best-ranked players in the Order of Merit). The rest of the places on to the tour came from amateur events and national governing body (NGB) nominations.
Hamza Akbar
Hamza Akbar (Urdu:حمزه اكبر ; born 12 November 1993) is a Pakistani professional snooker player who won the 31st Asian Snooker Championship held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2015. He is also the Pakistan national champion 2015.
Career ...
received a tour card as a special dispensation in place of America's nomination.
The list of all professional players in the 2017/2018 season consist of
131 players, including the standard field of the 128 players and three invitational tour cards (
James Wattana
James Wattana (; born January 17, 1970, as วัฒนา ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Wattana Pu-Ob-Orm'', then renamed รัชพล ภู่โอบอ้อม ''Ratchapol Pu-Ob-Orm'' in 2003) is a Thai former professional snooker pl ...
has second year of a two-year invitational tour card while
Jimmy White
James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...
and
Ken Doherty
Ken Doherty (born 17 September 1969) is an Irish professional snooker player, commentator and radio presenter.
As an amateur, Doherty won the Irish Amateur Championship twice, the World Under-21 Amateur Championship and the World Amateur C ...
were awarded the new two-year permission).
[ Beginning from this season, players with invitational tour cards are eligible to compete in any ranking event. These players are seeded after main tour professionals, but above amateur top ups taken from the Q School ranking list.][
]
New professional players
All players listed below received a tour card for two seasons.[
;International champions][
# IBSF World Championship winner: ]Soheil Vahedi
Soheil Vahedi ( fa, سهیل واحدی, born March 15, 1989) is an Iranian former professional snooker player.
Career
In 2009 Vahedi entered the World Amateur Under-21 Snooker Championships in his home country in Kish, Iran in which he reached ...
#IBSF World Under-21 Championship The IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship (also known as the World Amateur Under-21 Snooker Championship) is the premier non-professional junior snooker tournament in the world. The event series is sanctioned by the International Billiards and S ...
winner: Xu Si
Xu Si (; born 24 January 1998) is a Chinese professional snooker player.
Career
Xu Si first started playing snooker aged 12 at his local club in Jieyang during the school holidays. After a few weeks he became determined to become a snooker pla ...
# EBSA European Championship winner: Chris Totten
#
# ACBS Asian Championship winner: Lyu Haotian
Lyu Haotian (, born 29 November 1997) is a snooker player from the People's Republic of China, notable for being one of the youngest snooker players to have played in professional tournaments, aged only 14. He reached the quarter-finals of the ...
# ACBS Asian Under-21 Championship winner: Yuan Sijun
# ABSF African Championships winner: Basem Eltahhan
# Oceania Championship winner: Matthew Bolton
Matthew Bolton (born 7 July 1979 in Perth, WA) is an Australian billiards player. He is one of the most successful English billiards players of his country. Internationally, he is also successful as a snooker player where he became professi ...
;One Year Ranking List[
;EBSA Qualifying Tour Play-Offs
; Q School
;Event 1]
;Event 2
;Order of Merit
;CBSA China Tour[
;]
;[
]
Calendar
The following tables outline the dates and results of all events of the World Snooker Tour
The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...
, World Women's Snooker
World Women's Snooker, founded as the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association (WLBSA) in 1981, and known as World Ladies Billiards and Snooker (WLBS) from 2015 to 2018, is a subsidiary company of the World Professional Billiards and Snoo ...
, the World Seniors Tour, and other events.
World Snooker Tour
World Ladies Billiards and Snooker
World Seniors Tour
Other events
Points distribution
2017/2018 points distribution for World Snooker Tour
The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...
ranking events:
Notes
References
External links
Snooker season 2017/2018
at Snooker.org
{{Snooker tournaments
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
*Season 2017
*Season 2018