Only two tournaments remain before this year’s World Championship and the top sixteen players in accordance with World Snooker’s one year rankings will head to Telford in England for the 2025 Players Championship.
Mark Allen will start the week as the defending champion and he will hope to get his hands on the £150,000 first place prize that he won last year.
With the quality set to be high from the off, fireworks can be expected and there are plenty of interesting storylines to keep an eye on. Here is our preview of this year’s tournament.
Trump will hope to put down belated marker ahead of 2025 World Championship
We are about to head into the most vital part of the season for Judd Trump.
Only once has Trump been able to call himself a World Champion and he will be desperate to try and put that record straight this year.
For so long the undisputed best player in the sport, it’s often been a tale of heartbreak at the Crucible for Trump and despite often coming into the Worlds with several ranking events in his pocket, it simply hasn’t clicked when he has needed it too.
The dominant player in 2024, Trump created history for winning the most amount of prize money in one season, but his 2025 has gotten off to a slow start.
Falling in the semifinals of the Masters, early exits were suffered at the German Masters and World Open and the Englishman would have been disappointed that he couldn’t make the most of a decent draw when losing in the semifinals of the World Grand Prix to Stuart Bingham.
Plagued by inconsistencies, he hasn’t quite been able to get back to his fluid best and he will want to bring his best game this week.
Wanting to find his feet ahead of his Crucible challenge, he will open up against Lei Peifan and if he were to come through that challenge he would be confident of beating the winner of Shaun Murphy or Barry Hawkins.
Arguably in the right side of the draw, Trump will be wanting to make his first final of the year, once he does that, titles usually follow and he will want that to be the case here.
Allen will hope a return to familiar territory sees a boost in form
2025 has been a funny year so far as so many of the game’s big guns have had slow starts to their campaigns. One man who has arguably suffered the worst start is Mark Allen.
Coming into 2025 ranked in the top five in the world Allen comes into this week ranked eighth and in desperate need of a shift in momentum.
His year started brightly with a run to the semifinals of the Masters but since then he has fallen way off the required standard and hasn’t advanced past the second round of the four other events he has played.
Whilst Allen certainly isn’t shy when it comes to his own abilities, he looks like he is struggling for confidence when in amongst the balls and he will be desperately wanting to rediscover his game this week, but it won’t be easy.
In a tournament reserved for the best, Allen has been handed the toughest of starts when he squares off against Kyren Wilson in the opening round.
Wilson has already added to his World Championship credentials when winning the German Masters but the world number two will hope to get back to winning ways himself following an early exit at the World Grand Prix. However, all of the pressure will be on Allen.
Needing to get his game trending in the right direction before his Crucible mission, it’s essential that he gets back to winning ways quickly. He won this tournament last year and will be hoping that the cosy confines of Telford can help him find that little bit extra.
John Higgins and Neil Robertson aim to cash in on recent victories
Coming into the Players Championship two players who will be hoping to carry on their positive momentum are John Higgins and Neil Robertson.
Higgins was a great winner of the World Open and performed well at the World Grand Prix where he was able to reach the quarterfinals.
Despite almost being 50, Higgins certainly believes that he is capable of winning yet another World Championship and he is rounding into form to do exactly that.
Looking back to his brilliant and consistent best, Higgins made the most of a kind draw at the World Open, but left his opponents with little to no chance as he rattled off impressive break after impressive break.
Fatigue perhaps played a part in his loss to Shaun Murphy at the World Grand Prix, but rested for another tilt at victory this week he will be a man that nobody wants to face.
It’s been a whirlwind of a year for Neil Robertson. Just over a year ago he suffered heartache when he failed to qualify for the World Championship but a year later, the ‘Thunder from Down Under’ will head to the Crucible as a likely top ten seed and with a real chance of adding a second World Championship title.
Despite finding himself well down the rankings, Robertson showed signs of recovery when winning the English Open and he has kept his momentum building.
At the World Grand Prix he was superior as he beat the likes of Guodong Xiao, David Gilbert and Shaun Murphy. In the final he faced off against Stuart Bingham and he produced one of the greatest matches of his career to dispatch the former World Champion 10-0.
He will head to Telford as a man on a mission and he will be hopeful of repeating the same result against Bingham in the first round before a potential blockbuster against Mark Selby in the quarterfinals.
Andrew Blakely
At 35, Andrew Blakely stands as a seasoned expert in both snooker and its betting intricacies. A dedicated player and analyst, he offers keen insights derived from years in the field. Through his writings, Andrew aspires to guide enthusiasts navigating the captivating world of snooker betting.
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