Everything you need to know about the Players Championship
There isn’t much time to catch your breath on the World Snooker Tour this season.
As the dust settles on the Masters and German Masters, we now head to Wolverhampton for the Players Championship inside the Aldersley Leisure Village.
The tournament will feature the top 16 ranked players on the one-year ranking list with Zhao Xintong leading the seeds after amassing a whopping 291,000 ranking points.
Let’s take a closer look at the tournament:
When is the Players Championship 2022?
The Players Championship starts this Monday 7 February from inside the Aldersley Leisure Village.
It marks the tenth ranking event of the 2021–22 season, and the second event of the Cazoo Cup, following the World Grand Prix, and preceding the Tour Championship.
John Higgins is the reigning champion from the 2021 edition after sweeping Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-3 in the final.
Tournament Schedule
7 February – 1st Round (Best of 11 frames)
8 February – 1st Round (Best of 11 frames)
9 February – 1st Round (Best of 11 frames)
10 February – Quarter-finals (Best of 11 frames)
11 February – Quarter-finals (Best of 11 frames)
12 February – Semi-finals (Best of 11 frames)
13 February – Final (Best of 19 frames)
Who is the defending Players Championship champion?
John Higgins won the 2021 Players Championship after a dominant week where he lost just four frames across his four matches.
Higgins beat Jordan Brown and Mark Selby 6-0 before dropping one frame to Kyren Wilson in the semi-final and beating Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-3 in the final.
The final marked the 31st ranking title of Higgins’s career, and his first in three years.
Higgins also made eight century breaks over the week (142, 138, 133, 127, 122, 121, 108, 100) in one of the best and clinical performances in a ranking event.
Who is missing from the 2022 Players Championship?
World number one Mark Selby and Triple Crown winner Shaun Murphy are the two big notable omissions from this year’s line-up.
Stephen Maguire, Stuart Bingham and Anthony McGill make up three other players in the world’s top 16 that won’t be making the trip to Wolverhampton.
Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump – ranked number two and three in the world – are set to meet in the opening round after sitting at different ends of the seeding list.
When was the Players Championship first held?
After the establishment of the Players Tour Championship, the Players Tour Championship Finals was first held in 2011 at The Helix in Dublin.
Until 2015, the final was over a best-of-7 final, before morphing into best-of-19 in 2016.
It enjoyed six successful years across Ireland, Thailand and England, before a revamp to the Players Championship in 2017.
It has since taken place in Llandudno, Preston, Stockport, Milton Keynes and now Wolverhampton, with nine different champions lifting the title.
Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan both hold the most titles (2) having shared the crown in four of the last five editions.
How much prize money is on the line?
The prize fund for the event is £385,000, with the winner receiving £125,000
Winner – £125,000
Runner-up – £50,000
Semi-final – £30,000
Quarter-final – £15,000
Round 1 – £10,000
Highest Break – £10,000
How to Watch the Players Championship
Most major betting sites will have streams available for account holders as well as live coverage on Eurosport and ITV in the UK.
