Draw released for 2025 Saudi Arabia Masters; superstar names to compete for snooker's fourth major

Last year, world number one Judd Trump won the inaugural edition of the big-money tournament - the first world ranking event to be held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - having pipped Mark Williams 10-9 on the final black in a thrilling climax.

This year’s staging moves from Riyadh to Jeddah, with the Green Halls in the Prince Abdullah AlFaisal Sports City playing host between August 8-16.

Promoted by the World Snooker Tour as snooker’s fourth major alongside the long-established Triple Crown events, the champion will again scoop a first prize of £500,000, the same amount that Zhao Xintong collected for winning the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre back in the spring.

What is the format for the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters?

The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters has the same tiered draw system that the UK and World Championships use, with a field of 144 players who enter the competition at different stages depending on their world ranking positions.

All current professional tour card holders were eligible to enter, and those that did will be joined by several amateur players from the Q School ‘top-up’ list, and 16 local wildcards from the host nation and Middle East region.

All 144 contestants will play at the Green Halls - there are no qualifying or early rounds held elsewhere as we see for many other events on the professional circuit.

There are nine rounds in total, with a round completed each day. The lowest ranked professionals and amateur invites will start out in round one, with the seeds 49 to 80 coming in at round two.

Those seeded 17 to 48 enter the fray in round three, with the top 16 seeds starting their campaigns in round five (the last 32) - just like they do at the York Barbican for the UK Championship and at the Crucible for the World Championship.

Matches in rounds one to three are the best of seven frames (with no interval) while rounds four and five are the best of nine frames. From the last 16 to the semi-finals it is the best of 11 frames, and the two-session final is the best of 19 frames.

Who has entered the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters?

All but one of the world’s current top 16 have entered and are in the draw for the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters - the only absentee is Xiao Guodong who has instead elected to play at the 2025 World Games in Chengdu. World women’s snooker champion Bai Yulu has also opted to play in the multi-sport spectacular on home soil in China.

Reigning champion Judd Trump is scheduled to defend his title, and he will be hoping for a less stressful opening match this time out. Last year, Trump went 4-0 down to Wu Yize in his first assignment before staging a huge 5-4 comeback victory.

This year, Trump could face either Noppon Saengkham or Matthew Selt first up, although several other players from the earlier rounds will have a say about that.

Elsewhere in that first quarter of the draw are top seeds Ali Carter, Neil Robertson and Mark Selby. Carter has been a big beneficiary of Xiao’s non-entry, as the world number 17 moves up into the top 16 bracket and skips rounds three and four.

Two members of the fabled ‘Class of 92’ are in the second quarter of the draw - last year’s runner-up Williams, and John Higgins. Shaun Murphy and Zhang Anda are the other top 16 stars in this section.

Moving on to the top of the bottom half and the biggest names are Kyren Wilson, Si Jiahui, Mark Allen and Ronnie O’Sullivan. Out of these four, Si went the furthest last year after defeating O’Sullivan 6-4 to reach the semi-finals where he bowed out to Williams. Allen lost his opening match while Wilson was eliminated in the last 16.

O’Sullivan begins the new snooker season as the world number five, but following a frustrating and disappointing 2024/25 campaign where he failed to make a final, ‘The Rocket’ has an uphill task to maintain that ranking due to a lot of points coming off his total. However, with so much prize money on offer in Jeddah, a deep run here could help alleviate any such ranking concerns.

At the bottom of the draw is world champion Zhao Xintong, who will play his first professional match in Saudi Arabia having missed out on the inaugural edition of this tournament and both stagings of the Riyadh Season ‘gold ball’ event due to serving his ban from the sport.

Zhao is joined by fellow top seeds Ding Junhui, Barry Hawkins and Chris Wakelin in this bottom quarter.

A plethora of ranking event champions join the tournament in the earlier rounds, including 2023 World Champion Luca Brecel who is currently ranked outside the world’s top 32. If the Belgian can win his opening two matches, he would face O’Sullivan in a mouth-watering last 32 clash.

Two of snooker’s all-time legends - Jimmy White and Ken Doherty - have been drawn to play each other in round one, with the winner meeting Latvian teenager Artemijs Zizins in the second round.

White and Doherty - who have a combined age of 118 years - first played each other on the professional tour in 1991.

For the full 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters draw, visit the World Snooker Tour website here.