English youngster Oliver Sykes earns pro snooker tour card after European final appearance
Oliver Sykes has realised a dream of becoming a professional snooker player following his run to the final of the 2026 European Amateur Championship.
The 20-year-old from England earns a two-season World Snooker Tour card for the sport’s top flight, starting later in the year with the 2026/27 campaign.
A regular on the English domestic circuit over the past several seasons, Hampshire cueist Sykes qualified for this year’s European Billiards and Snooker Association (EBSA) Championships - being held in Spain for the first time - due to his seasonal ranking positions on the national junior and amateur tours.
However, there was initial disappointment for Sykes at the Palace Hotel in Gandia during the first half of his trip to the Iberian Peninsula.
Despite winning all three of his group games, finishing top of the standings and qualifying for the knockout rounds, he was defeated 4-3 by 15-year-old Matvei Lagodzinschii (Ukraine) in the round of 32 of the European Under-21 Championship.
But Sykes had the opportunity to immediately bounce back in the open-aged main amateur championship event that was staged at the same venue.
The youngster once again comfortably progressed from the round robin phase with a 100% match-winning record before eliminating former professional and winner of this title in 2022, Andres Petrov (Estonia) 4-0 in the last 64.
Sykes compiled five half-centuries during a 4-2 win over Rodion Judin (Latvia), and then dismissed one of the title favourites in Ashley Carty - another ex-pro - 4-2 in the last 16.
Multiple-time Belgian national amateur champion Kevin Hanssens was seen off by four frames to one in the quarter-finals before efforts of 93 and 79 aided Sykes to a 4-1 semi-final victory over Germany’s Umut Dikme - the number one player on the latest Q School order of merit top-up list.
That last four win over Dikme was particularly significant for Sykes. That’s because his opponent in the final, Ukraine’s Anton Kazakov, had already won the European Under-21 Championship title only a few days before, thus claiming a return to the professional ranks by taking the professional tour card on offer for that specific event.
The equation meant that, regardless of the result in the final, Sykes would pocket the tour card allocated to the main European amateur event, due to Kazakov already having earned promotion.
In the final, Sykes twice led early on (65 break, frame three) but was pegged back each time.
A 72 from Kazakov helped him in taking the lead for the first time at 3-2 up, but Sykes levelled following an effort of 67, and was first to reach the hill at 4-3 ahead.
But Kazakov was not to be denied an historic double; he made a 60 in frame eight on his way to restoring parity and force a deciding frame which he won for a 5-4 victory.
Sykes will feel disappointment in getting so close to becoming the European champion, but relief and pride in securing a berth within snooker’s big time having come so agonisingly close last year when he lost 5-4 to Iulian Boiko in the final of the European under-21s held in Turkiye.
The youngster will now prepare to make the sport’s big step up, and can look back on a very fruitful junior career that saw him finish top of the English rankings in back-to-back years (2024, 2025).
He also twice reached the English under-21, and under-18 championship finals, and was a semi-finalist at the 2024 World Snooker Federation Junior Championship.
For news and the full results from Gandia, visit the EBSA website here.