Snooker legend and youngest-ever professional learn opening match fate for new World Snooker Tour season

Zhao Xintong’s historic World Championship victory at the Crucible Theatre near the start of May brought down the curtain on the 2024/25 top tier campaign.

Since then, Alfie Burden won the World Seniors Snooker Championship in Sheffield, and 12 amateur players graduated from the Q Schools held in Thailand and England, each earning themselves a two-year ticket for the World Snooker Tour.

The opening action from the new 2025/26 professional snooker season will begin in the second half of June, as three world ranking events get underway at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester: Wuhan Open, British Open, Championship League.

The draws for both the Wuhan and British Opens have now been released.

In terms of the professional player roster for the 2025/26 term, the cast is almost complete, with only the winner of this month’s African Snooker Championship held in Morocco yet to be revealed.

Two cueists who are set to receive many headlines throughout the upcoming season are 63-year-old Jimmy White - the oldest professional on tour - and 14-year-old Michal Szubarczyk - who is soon to be the sport’s youngest-ever professional player.

One of snooker’s most influential and popular players of all-time, White is preparing for an incredible 46th consecutive season as a professional, having made his top-flight debut in 1980.

The ten-time ranking event champion - who has won both the UK Championship and Masters - was relegated from the pro tour following a second qualifying round defeat at the World Championship in April, but was subsequently awarded with another invitational tour card because of his impact in the sport.

Marco Fu - who was instrumental in bringing back ranking event action to his home of Hong Kong with the World Grand Prix last season - also received an invitational tour card. 1997 World Champion Ken Doherty is also on the tour via this route, although he will be on the second year of his card this upcoming season.

Despite his end-of-season ranking, White did register several match victories on the circuit last term, including one over Hossein Vafaei in front of the live television cameras in Belfast as he reached the last 32 of the Northern Ireland Open.

In his opening match of the new season, White will face two-time ranking event winner Anthony McGill on the afternoon of Tuesday 24th June in round one of the 2025 Wuhan Open. The winner of that match will advance to the last 64 and a berth for the main venue stages held in the Far East at the end of August.

The following day (Wednesday 25th June), White is scheduled for action again as he begins his 2025 British Open title tilt - a tournament he won in 1987 and 1992. He has been drawn against teenager and second season professional Liam Davies - an opponent nearly 45 years his junior.

The victor of that tie can then make plans for the final rounds hosted by The Centaur in Cheltenham in the second half of September.

Teenage snooker sensation Szubarczyk will make history when he lines up to play his Wuhan Open first round match against former World Champion Shaun Murphy on the afternoon of Monday 23rd June at the Mattioli.

Szubarczyk - who only turned 14-years-old earlier this year - is set to become snooker's youngest-ever professional player. He would eclipse Ukrainian Iulian Boiko's record when he came on to the World Snooker Tour in 2020 also aged 14 (but slightly older).

The Polish star was already being marked as a future professional having won several big junior titles, but he earned a World Snooker Tour card - well ahead of schedule - after reaching the final of the open-aged European Amateur Snooker Championship in Antalya, Türkiye back in March.

Szubarczyk - who will be joined by compatriots Antoni Kowalski and fellow rookie Mateusz Baranowski in the pro ranks for the 2025/26 schedule - played in the recent World Championship qualifiers where he narrowly lost 10-8 in the first round to Dean Young.

A brutally tough opening assignment as a fully-fledged professional, it is ironic that Szubarczyk will play Career Triple Crown winner and current Masters Champion Murphy first up.

Another child prodigy, Murphy was given special dispensation (member rules were different then) to turn professional at the age of 15 for the 1998/99 season.

In the British Open, Szubarczyk is set to share the baize with a ‘to be announced’ amateur player from the Q School top-up list. This match is arranged for the afternoon of Thursday 26th June.