Star-studded player entry list for Wuhan and British Opens, including Ronnie O'Sullivan and Zhao Xintong

The new World Snooker Tour campaign starts on Sunday 22nd June with the three-day 'qualifiers' for the Wuhan Open. That's followed by four days of British Open qualifying action, and then the beginning of the latest edition of the Championship League where the first trophy of the season will be lifted. The full calendar can be viewed here.

After the chaos of Q School where 12 cueists each won two-year professional tour cards from the events held in Thailand and England, the professional player roster for the 2025/26 season is nearly complete, with only the winner of this year's African Snooker Championship (due to be held later this month in Saidia, Morocco) to be discovered.

Both the 2025 Wuhan and British Open tournaments feature 128 players in a flat-draw format, meaning all entrants start in the opening round. Contestants have been seeded for the Wuhan Open, but the British Open continues to use a random draw for all rounds. The draws for both of these events were sent out to the players on Monday.

Basically, the vast majority of first round matches for both tournaments will be held in Leicester, before the main venue stages are hosted later in the year. For both, several first round fixtures have been held over to the main venue in Wuhan and Cheltenham, respectively, guaranteeing the organisers that the sport's top names will be in front of the television cameras.

The draw for the 2025 Wuhan Open snooker qualifiers

The 128-player draw consists of 124 professionals and four wildcards. All matches across the opening rounds of the 2025 Wuhan Open are the best of nine frames.

Eight first round matches will not be played in Leicester but held over to the main venue stages which take place between August 24-30. Included in this set of ties is reigning and defending champion Xiao Guodong who is drawn to play the world women's tour number one ranked player Mink Nutcharut from Thailand.

Newly-minted World Champion Zhao Xintong is the tournament's number two seed and is located at the bottom of the draw. Zhao has been drawn against Ukrainian youngster Iulian Boiko, who is also back on the sport's top tier this season.

World number one Judd Trump - winner of the inaugural Wuhan Open in 2023 - is up against Farakh Ajaib. Seven-time World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan has entered the competition, and just like Xiao, Zhao and Trump, he will have his first assignment of the event in Wuhan itself when he shares the baize with Allan Taylor.

All four round one matches featuring the local wildcards will also be played in the Far East in August; the professionals playing these amateurs are Ding Junhui, Mark Allen, Hossein Vafaei and Robbie Williams, so those four won't need to be in Leicester for the preliminary action.

The cueists who are set to be at the Mattioli to start their seasons include world number two Kyren Wilson who plays recent Q School graduate and rookie professional Connor Benzey.

Class of 92 members Mark Williams and John Higgins - who start the new term ranked third and fourth, respectively - will need to go to Leicester. Williams is due to play another main tour newbie in Chatchapong Nasa, while Higgins - winner of the last ranking event in China earlier this year - is pitched with Huang Jiahao.

Former World Champions Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson are up against teenagers Michal Szubarczyk and Leone Crowley - both of whom will be playing their maiden matches as professionals - respectively. Having turned 14-years-old earlier this year, Szubarczyk is set to become snooker's youngest-ever professional.

Four-time World Champion Mark Selby plays on home soil against Alexander Ursenbacher, while 63-year-old Jimmy White will begin another year on the sport's premier circuit when he meets Anthony McGill.

Supporters of the tiered draw format will point towards the brutal first round draws for several rookies.

Visit the World Snooker Tour website here for the schedule for the 2025 Wuhan Open qualifying matches.

The draw for the 2025 British Open snooker qualifiers

A total of 123 pro tour card holders elected to enter the 2025 British Open. Five amateur 'top-up' players will be invited to join them and fill the 128-player capacity.

As mentioned earlier, the British Open uses a completely random draw for each round of the event, meaning the world's top ranked stars can draw each other from the very start.

16 round one matches will be held over and played at The Centaur in Cheltenham during the main venue, televised stages which are penned in for between September 22-28 - these fixtures involve the highest ranked players who entered. All opening round matches are the best of seven frames.

With the exception of Ding Junhui, it is shaping up to be a star cast in Gloucestershire. Title holder Mark Selby starts his defence against David Grace. Zhao, Trump, Higgins and O'Sullivan are just a selection of the other big names who have put their names into the hat.

Several standout first round ties in Cheltenham include an all top-16 clash between Williams and Si. Other eyebrow-raising match-ups are Kyren Wilson v Chris Wakelin, Tom Ford v Neil Robertson, Gary Wilson v Vafaei, and Pang Junxu v Wu Yize.

However, there are several mouth-watering ties for the 'qualifying' phase at the Mattioli in Leicester with 2023 World Champion Luca Brecel - who starts the season ranked outside the world's top 32 - meeting Ursenbacher, Marco Fu v Stephen Maguire, and Ryan Day - champion in 2022 - v Stuart Bingham.

Other very notable round one games set to be decided in June include Elliot Slessor v Jackson Page, Matthew Selt v David Gilbert, Bai Yulu v Artemijs Zizins, and White v Liam Davies.

Visit the World Snooker Tour website here for the schedule for the 2025 British Open qualifying matches.

The draw for the 2025 Championship League Ranking Event has yet to be released.