Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Williams face uphill battle to qualify for Tour Championship snooker

ByEurosport

Published 22/02/2023 at 09:37 GMT

A host of leading names are likely to sit out the eight-man Tour Championship next month, the penultimate ranking event before the World Championship in April. Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Williams need a minor miracle to qualify for the elite eight-man tournament. Stream top snooker action, including the 2023 World Championship, live on discovery+ and on eurosport.co.uk.

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Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson and Mark Williams need a minor miracle to qualify for the Tour Championship after missing out on this week's Players Championship.

The knock-on effect of failing to make the cut-off point for the Players in Wolverhampton – contested by the top 16 on the one-year list – means the world champion trio, with 11 Crucible crowns between them, only have one more counting ranking event before the eight-man Tour Championship is held in Hull (27 March-2 April).

Mark Williams is 17th on the one-year list on 71,500 points with Robertson (68,500) in 20th spot and O'Sullivan (60,500) a further place behind in 21st before the inaugural World Snooker Tour Classic is staged in Leicester (16-22 March).

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The WST Classic has replaced the Turkish Masters in Antalya which was called off due to funding problems.

Robertson missed out on qualification to defend the Players Championship and faces a similar scenario ahead of the Tour Championship after lifting the trophy in 2021 and 2022.

He is 58,500 points adrift of Shaun Murphy, who holds the eighth and final spot on 127,000 points, with the chance to strengthen his position after a 6-3 win over Mark Selby at the Players Championship on Tuesday.

Murphy meets British Open winner Ryan Day in the quarter-finals on Thursday evening.

With a WST Classic first prize of £80,000, two of the three out of O'Sullivan, Robertson and Williams are guaranteed to have another key week off with the other one needing to win the event and hope results go their way to force their way into the £380,000 Tour Championship starting line-up.

World No. 1 O'Sullivan is due to play in the Championship League (27 February-2 March) in Leicester and Six-Red World Championship (6-11 March) in Thailand, both invitational events, over the next few weeks.

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But it means his appearance at the WST Classic is likely to be his final ranking event before he defends his world title in Sheffield (15 April-1 May).

2020 Tour champion Stephen Maguire (68th on the one-year list), 2022 finalist John Higgins (47th) and 2015 world champion Stuart Bingham (36th) are unable to qualify for the prestigious tournament even if they won the WST Classic.