Nine of the World’s top ten ranked snooker stars are among the 32 players who have qualified to contest the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals in Galway in March, World Snooker have confirmed.
World number one and Masters champion Mark Selby, World number two Mark Williams, World champion John Higgins, potting sensation Judd Trump, Asia’s top player Ding Junhui and Ireland’s Ken Doherty are among the star names who will appear at the Bailey Allen Hall at NUI Galway from March 12 to 17.
Also qualified for Galway is Neil Robertson who was beaten by Selby 10-6 in a Masters final watched by a record TV audience on Sunday.
One of snooker’s richest prizes, €119,000, will be up for grabs in the Eurosport-televised snooker spectacular, which is expected to attract up to 40m viewers worldwide.
Tickets go on sale today for the tournament which has been expanded to six days this year, with the number of players increasing from 24 to 32.
The PTC series has seen players battling for Order of Merit points over the past six months in locations including China, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, Belgium and the UK.
The top 25 players from the Order of Merit plus the top seven from the Asian Order of Merit have qualified for Galway to battle for the world ranking title.
Now the eyes of the snooker world will be on Ireland in St Patrick’s week for the showpiece conclusion.
“We are urging fans to book their seats as soon as possible as this event will be in high demand and many sessions will sell out quickly,” said World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn.
“There is so much passion for snooker in Ireland and the atmosphere in Galway is going to be magical!”
Tickets from €10 per session are available from www.worldsnooker.com/tickets.
TPC Grand Final qualifiers:Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Stephen Maguire, John Higgins, Neil Robertson, Rod Lawler, Mark Allen, Martin Gould, Ben Woollaston, Graeme Dott, Jamie Burnett, Jack Lisowski, Andrew Higginson, Barry Hawkins, Ken Doherty, Anthony McGill, Joe Swail, Ali Carter, Joe Perry, Marco Fu, Mark Williams, Kurt Maflin, Mark Davis, Alfie Burden, Mark Joyce, Stuart Bingham, Stephen Lee, Ding Junhui, Li Hang, Robert Milkins, Tom Ford, Cao Yupeng.
