Who is playing today on Monday 1st December at the 2025 UK Snooker Championship in York?

Afternoon session from 13:00GMT

• Ding Junhui (China) v Xu Si (China)
• Zhao Xintong (China) v Long Zehuang (China)

It's an all-Chinese affair on Monday afternoon at the Barbican with the sport's two biggest trailblazers from that country - Ding Junhui and Zhao Xintong - both set to play on different tables.

China's original snooker superstar, an 18-year-old Ding won the first of his three UK titles two decades ago. The latest of those crowns came in 2019, and he also appeared in back-to-back finals in 2022 and 2023.

The world number eight has had a quiet season, so far, having not made a semi-final from his seven tournament outings.

Ding's last ranking title came at last year’s International Championship during which he defeated Xu in the semi-finals, although Xu won their last encounter - 4-3 in the opening round of the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong earlier this year.

Reigning world champion Zhao travels to York fresh from his victory at the Riyadh Season Championship, and has been labelled by seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry as the man to beat here.

Zhao knows what it takes to win this tournament - albeit under a different format - having done so in 2021 when he collected his maiden ranking title.

World number 54 Long - a former ranking event semi-finalist - had to win three qualifying matches in Wigan to reach the main draw here. He dispatched the much improved Aaron Hill 6-1 before ousting Louis Heathcote 6-5 at the final hurdle with a brilliant clearance from yellow to pink in the deciding frame.

Zhao and Long met earlier in the year at the World Championship qualifiers with the former only coming through 10-8 - one of the few times he was made to sweat throughout his historic run to the title.

Evening session from 19:00GMT

• Gary Wilson (England) v Zhang Anda (China)
• Mark Allen (Northern Ireland) v Scott Donaldson (Scotland)

The four players on show for the evening programme have all won at least one professional title.

The feature match will be 2022 champion here Mark Allen against former Championship League Invitational winner Scott Donaldson.

Scotland's Donaldson was the standout story from the qualifiers just days ago as he completed a herculean comeback victory against former World and Masters champion Stuart Bingham in the final round, recovering from 5-0 down to record an astonishing 6-5 result.

The victory was bittersweet for a grieving Donaldson whose father passed away only a few weeks ago.

Former world number one Allen has been inconsistent this term, but he has claimed a trophy from it after showing incredible battling qualities to win the English Open in September.

In previous match-ups between the two, a commanding Allen has won nine out of the ten.

On paper, one of the closest round one matches this year could be between world numbers 15 and 23 - Gary Wilson and Zhang Anda.

The UK Championship has not been a happy competition for three-time ranking event winner Wilson having made just one last 16 appearance from 14 outings. He has lost his opening match in each of the last three years, including as a seed 12 months ago.

Like many on the World Snooker Tour this campaign his results have been up and down, although he was just one frame away from winning the Wuhan Open title. He was also a semi-finalist at the Xi'an Grand Prix.

Zhang has just fallen outside of the world's elite top 16, but responded well by qualifying at the Robin Park Leisure Centre last week.

The 2023 International Championship winner has fond memories here from last year, making a 147 maximum break in his first match before coming back from 5-1 down to deny Stuart Bingham 6-5 in the last 16. Zhang was eliminated by eventual champion Judd Trump in the quarter-finals, 6-2.

Wilson does hold a 3-0 head-to-head winning record over Zhang, though.

All matches on Monday are the best of 11 frames with a scheduled mid-session interval after the fourth frame.

For information on how to watch, visit the World Snooker Tour website here.