2025 UK Championship snooker qualifying information: Cueists aim to reach televised stages in York
The qualifying rounds for the 2025 UK Championship take place at the Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan between November 22-27, with 16 cueists to emerge from the gauntlet and reach the main draw.
First held in 1977 and staged every year since, the UK Championship is professional snooker’s second-most prestigious ranking title, only behind the World Championship in the pecking order.
Since 2011 (with the exception of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic) each edition of the tournament has been held at the Barbican Centre in York, and it will return there this year with the main venue, televised stages to be played between Saturday 29th November to Sunday 6th December.
The reigning champion is world number one Judd Trump who claimed his second UK title in 2024 after a 10-8 victory over Barry Hawkins in the final.
What is the format for the 2025 UK Snooker Championship?
In total, 144 players are set to contest the 2025 UK Championship. The competition uses a ‘tiered draw’ format, meaning players enter the fray depending on their world ranking position/seeding.
The world’s top 16 - following the conclusion of the 2025 International Championship - all go straight through to the 32-player main draw in York and will be seeds there. Therefore, they won’t be involved at the qualifiers.
The other 128 entrants will head to Wigan for the qualification phase where there are four rounds in total and 16 tickets up for grabs to join the seeds in the main draw on BBC television.
As well as the professionals - who were all permitted to enter the event - there are 16 amateur players who have been invited due to their recent results on the sport’s secondary tier.
The lowest ranked professionals and amateurs will start in the opening qualifying round. Players higher up the world rankings will enter in qualifying round two, and those further up the ladder again will begin their campaigns in qualifying round three.
All matches in all rounds of the tournament - both during the qualifiers and the main draw - are the best of 11 frames, except for the final that is the best of 19 frames across two sessions.
Who are the top 16 seeds for the 2025 UK Championship?
1: Judd Trump (reigning UK champion), 2: Zhao Xintong (reigning world champion), 3: Kyren Wilson, 4: Neil Robertson, 5: Mark Williams, 6: Ronnie O’Sullivan, 7: John Higgins, 8: Mark Allen, 9: Ding Junhui, 10: Shaun Murphy, 11: Mark Selby, 12: Xiao Guodong, 13: Wu Yize, 14: Barry Hawkins, 15: Gary Wilson, 16: Si Jiahui.
Who is playing in the 2025 UK Championship qualifiers and what is the draw?
Qualifying will feel like an event in itself with those 16 places on offer in Wigan, and there is a plethora of star names on the programme.
Coming in at qualifying round three - meaning they have to win two matches to get to York - includes world number 17 Chris Wakelin, and former Crucible finalist Jak Jones. Wakelin just missed the automatic cut, being dislodged at the last possible juncture by Wu Yize’s maiden ranking event title win in Nanjing a few weeks ago.
2023 World Champion Luca Brecel and 2004 UK Champion Stephen Maguire also begin their title tilts in the penultimate round - they would face each other on ‘Judgement Day’ for a spot at the Barbican if they navigate their opening assignments.
Joe O’Connor, Ali Carter, Zhou Yuelong, Anthony McGill - all event finalists this season - are scheduled for Wigan, as too is Northern Ireland Open champion Jack Lisowski, Shoot Out champion Tom Ford and Scottish Open champion Lei Peifan.
World champion in 2015 and Masters champion in 2020, Stuart Bingham begins his latest quest to complete a Career Triple Crown against either Liam Pullen, Kaylan Patel or Farakh Ajaib.
UK Champion in 2003 Matthew Stevens starts out in the second qualifying round, while 1992 UK Champion Jimmy White comes in at the very beginning where he faces 14-year-old rookie Michal Szubarczyk in an intriguing match where there is a 49-year age gap between the players.
Three times a runner-up in this tournament (1994, 2001, 2002) Ken Doherty must jump all four hurdles to qualify, as too does 2008 finalist Marco Fu.
Fu, who had a fantastic start to the season and was named as June’s ‘Player of the Month’, will be returning to action after fracturing his elbow and missing several weeks of action. He has been drawn against Hong Kong compatriot Ng On Yee.