2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters

The 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters is a professional snooker tournament that is taking place from 8 to 16 August 2025 at Green Halls, Prince Abdullah AlFaisal Sports City, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.^[1][2] The second consecutive edition of the tournament since it was first staged in Riyadh in 2024, it is the second ranking event of the 2025–26 snooker season, following the 2025 Championship League and preceding the 2025 Wuhan Open.^[3] It features 144 participants, including 16 regional wildcard players.^[2] The winner will receive £500,000 from a total prize fund of £2,302,000.

Judd Trump is the defending champion, having defeated Mark Williams 10‍–‍9 in the 2024 final.^[4]

Organised in collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Billiard & Snooker Federation (SABSF), the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters is held under the supervision of the Ministry of Sport for Saudi Arabia.^[2] First staged in September 2024 in Riyadh, it is the first ranking tournament held in Saudi Arabia, and has been promoted as snooker's "fourth major" alongside the three Triple Crown events—the World Snooker Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters.^[5] As of 2025, its prize fund of over £2 million is the second-largest after the World Championship,^[6] while its winner's prize of £500,000 is equivalent to that at the World Championship.^[7] Judd Trump won the inaugural event, where he came from 62 points behind in the deciding frame of the final to defeat Mark Williams on the last black ball.^[4] In May 2025, it was announced that the tournament would move from Riyadh to Jeddah, beginning with the 2025 edition.^[8]

Due to a fixture clash with the 2025 World Games, which are taking place from 7 to 17 August in Chengdu, China, the world number 13 Xiao Guodong and the reigning World Women's Champion Bai Yulu did not enter the tournament.^[9]

Sixteen regional wildcard players were invited to compete in the tournament, including eleven from Saudi Arabia (Omar Alajlani, Ayman Alamri, Saud Albaker, Fahad Alghamdi, Musaad Almisfir, Abdullah Alotayyani, Ziyad Alqabbani, Abdullah Alshammari, Ahmed Aseeri, Abdulraouf Saigh, and Musab Sayegh); two from Pakistan (Adeel Aqdus and Asif Mukhtar); and one each from Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (Habib Subah Humood, Hesham Shawky, and Mohammed Al Joker respectively).^[2]

The tournament uses a tiered format similar to the World Snooker Championship and UK Championship, with the top 16 players in the snooker world rankings, as they stood after the 2025 Championship League, being seeded through to the last 32, the fifth round of the tournament.^[a] The first four rounds feature all lower-ranked players as well as the invited regional wildcards and Q School top-ups. Players seeded 49 to 80 received byes into the second round, and players seeded 17 to 48 received byes into the third round.^[10]

The first three rounds are played as the best of 7 frames. The fourth and fifth rounds will be the best of 9 frames. The last 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals will be the best of 11 frames. The final will be the best of 19 frames, played over two sessions.^[10]

The tournament is broadcast by Saudi Sports Company (SSC) and Shahid domestically in Saudi Arabia. It is broadcast by TNT Sports and Discovery+ in the United Kingdom and Ireland; by Eurosport in mainland Europe; by Discovery+ in Germany, Italy, and Austria; and by HBO Max in other European territories. It is broadcast by Migu, Huya, the CBSA-WPBSA Academy WeChat channel, and the CBSA-WPBSA Academy Douyin in mainland China; by Now TV in Hong Kong; by TrueSports in Thailand; by Sportcast in Taiwan; and by TAP Sports in the Philippines. In all other territories, it is broadcast by WST Play.^[11]

The prize fund for the tournament is detailed below.^[2] In addition, during the 2025–26 snooker season, a player who makes two maximum breaks across the four qualifying events—the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, the 2025 UK Championship (including qualifiers), the 2026 Masters, and the 2026 World Snooker Championship (including qualifiers)—will win a bonus of £147,000. The bonus can be won up to three times, including multiple times by the same player.^[12]

• Total: £2,302,000

Over 34 years since they first played each other at a ranking event, in the quarter-finals of the 1991 Classic, veteran players Ken Doherty, aged 55, and Jimmy White, aged 63, faced each other in the first round.^[13] They had last met in professional competition over 15 years previously, during the 2010 World Snooker Championship qualifying rounds.^[14] Doherty won the match 4–1, making three half-century breaks of 96, 59, and 64.^[15][16] Reanne Evans, a 12-time World Women's Champion, won her third consecutive professional match of the season in knock-out tournaments, following her wins in the qualifying rounds of the 2025 Wuhan Open and the 2025 British Open. She defeated Kreishh Gurbaxani 4–2.^[17] Evans was the only female player to reach the second round, as Mink Nutcharut lost 1–4 to amateur player Umut Dikme and Ng On-yee lost 3–4 to Hatem Yassen.^[15] Sahil Nayyar, who had earned a two-year tour card by winning the 2024 Pan-American Open Championship, secured his first professional victory with a 4–1 win over wildcard player Habib Subah Humood.^[18][17] Michał Szubarczyk, aged 14, who had recently become the youngest ever professional snooker player, also recorded his first win on the tour by defeating Ryan Davies 4–2.^[17] Dylan Emery led Florian Nüßle 3–0. Nüßle recovered to tie the scores, but Emery won the deciding frame on the colours.^[17]

Hesham Shawky defeated Jiang Jun 4–2, becoming the only wildcard player to reach the second round. Steven Hallworth recorded a whitewash victory over wildcard player Omar Alajlani, Saudi Arabia's top-ranked amateur.^[17] Chang Bingyu defeated Marco Fu in a deciding frame, while Iulian Boiko advanced with a 4–2 win over Liu Wenwei.^[15]

The draw for the final rounds is shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding. Players in bold denote match winners.^[10][19]

The draw for the early rounds is shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding, an "a" indicates amateur players who were not on the main World Snooker Tour. Players in bold denote match winners.^[10][19]

Note: w/d=withdrawn; w/o=walkover

A total of 21 century breaks have been made during the tournament.^[21]