The 2020–21 snooker season was a professional snooker season with tournaments played from 13 September 2020 to 9 May 2021. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was played almost entirely without a live audience with only the 2021 World Snooker Championship being played in front of a crowd. All snooker tournaments in the season were played in the United Kingdom, due to travel and quarantine restrictions preventing the tour and players from utilising usual venues.
Judd Trump won five ranking events during the season, whilst Mark Selby won the 2021 World Snooker Championship, to win his fourth world championship. Trump retained the world number one spot throughout the season, also reaching the final of the 2020 UK Championship, losing to Neil Robertson. Teenager Yan Bingtao won the other Triple Crown event, the 2021 Masters. This was the first season in a decade that Ronnie O'Sullivan failed to win a triple crown event; O'Sullivan was defeated in all 5 ranking finals he reached this season, marking the first season since 2016–17 that he had not captured a ranking title.
Overview With the exception of two events played at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales (the Welsh Open and the Tour Championship) and the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield; all snooker tournaments were played at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes. The venue was used to cooperate with restrictions caused by the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom.
Towards the end of October, World Snooker Tour had announced that the UK Championship would have the first round played at the same arena, but all televised stages would then be played at the York Barbican: on 4 November, days after the UK Government announced a lockdown for all of England, this was then revised to include the entire tournament.
Despite space being allocated for back-to-back events in China during March, WST later confirmed on 3 December 2020 that all China-based tournaments were cancelled, due to continuing travel restrictions, making it the first season in more than a decade where no tournaments would be staged in Asia. In its place, a new WST Pro Series was added, taking place between January and March 2021.
On 4 January 2021, the week prior to the event, WST announced that the Masters would be moved to the Marshall Arena, as a result of logistical challenges associated with Alexandra Palace having no on-site facilities and lengthy travel requirements from a hotel, preventing a secure 'bubble' from being formed to host the event.
On 26 January 2021, World Snooker Tour announced that the Welsh Open would become the first event that season to be played outside the Marshall Arena, at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport. This was made possible due to a Covid-bubble being able to be created with similar on-site accommodation facilities, meaning players were able to stay within the bubble while playing in the event. Later in the season, World Snooker confirmed that the 2021 Tour Championship event would be played at Celtic Manor as the final event of the season prior to the World Championship at the Crucible Theatre.
On 13 March 2021, World Snooker announced that the World Snooker Championship would welcome a limited number of fans, as part of an Events Research Programme run by the government. The programme intends to test a variety of settings to generate evidence on how fans may be safely welcomed into sporting events in future, with the Crucible Theatre providing evidence of a "theatre setting".
On 20 April 2021, towards the start of the World Championship, it was announced that Barry Hearn would step down as Chairman of the World Snooker Tour and as President of Matchroom Sport. Steve Dawson will replace Hearn as the Chairman of the World Snooker Tour after the conclusion of the season, although Hearn will remain in an advisory position on tour.
Players The World Snooker Tour in the 2020–21 season consists of a field of 128 professional players. The top 64 players from the prize money rankings after the 2020 World Championship, and the 35 players earning a two-year card the previous year automatically qualify for the season. Next, four places are allocated to the top four on the One Year Ranking List who have not already qualified for the Main Tour. Another two players came from the Challenge Tour, two players came from the CBSA China Tour, and a further 12 places were available through the Q School, four from each of the three events. Two-year tour cards were also awarded to any player outside the top 64, who qualified for the main stage of the 2020 World Snooker Championship at the Crucible. The rest of the places on to the tour came from amateur events.
New professional players All players listed below received a tour card for two seasons.
International champions EBSA European Championship winner: Andrew Pagett (deferred) : Aaron Hill WSF Open winner: Ashley Hugill WSF Open runner-up: Iulian Boiko WSF Junior Open winner: Gao Yang WSF Junior Open runner-up: Sean Maddocks
One Year Ranking List
CBSA China Tour
Challenge Tour
World Championship Wildcards
Q School
Event 1
Event 2
Event 3
Invitational Tour Card
Calendar The following tables outline the dates and results for all the events of the World Snooker Tour and the World Seniors Tour.
World Snooker Tour Start Finish Tournament Venue Winner Runner-up 21 Sep 27 Sep European Masters Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 98 12 Oct 18 Oct English Open Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 98 13 Sep 30 Oct Championship League Ballroom, Stadium MK in Milton Keynes, England 31 2 Nov 8 Nov Champion of Champions Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 106 16 Nov 22 Nov Northern Ireland Open Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 97 23 Nov 6 Dec UK Championship Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 109 7 Dec 13 Dec Scottish Open Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 93 14 Dec 20 Dec World Grand Prix Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 107 10 Jan 17 Jan Masters Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 108 27 Jan 31 Jan German Masters Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 92 4 Feb 7 Feb Shoot Out Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 10 15 Feb 21 Feb Welsh Open Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales 98 22 Feb 28 Feb Players Championship Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 103 1 Mar 7 Mar Gibraltar Open Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England 40 18 Jan 21 Mar WST Pro Series Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, England RR 22 Mar 28 Mar Tour Championship Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales 104 4 Jan 2 Apr Championship League Invitational Ballroom, Stadium MK in Milton Keynes, England 32 17 Apr 3 May World Championship Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England 1815 Ranking event Non-ranking event
European Series champion and Betvictor bonus winner: for the second year running.
World Seniors Tour Start Finish Tournament Venue Winner Runner-up 6 May 9 May World Seniors Championship Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England 53
World ranking points
The 2020–21 snooker season featured the following points distribution for World Snooker Tour ranking events:
R144 R128 R112 R96 R80 R64 R48 R32 R28 R24 R20 R16 R12 R7 R6 R5 R3 European Masters 0 3,000 4,000 6,000 11,000 17,500 35,000 80,000 English Open 0 3,000 4,000 7,500 10,000 20,000 30,000 70,000 Championship League 0 1,000 2,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 8,000 9,000 11,000 23,000 33,000 Northern Ireland Open 0 3,000 4,000 7,500 10,000 20,000 30,000 70,000 UK Championship 0 6,500 12,000 17,000 24,500 40,000 80,000 200,000 Scottish Open 0 3,000 4,000 7,500 10,000 20,000 30,000 70,000 World Grand Prix 5,000 7,500 12,500 20,000 40,000 100,000 German Masters 0 3,000 4,000 5,000 10,000 20,000 35,000 80,000 Shoot Out 250 500 1,000 2,000 4,000 8,000 20,000 50,000 Welsh Open 0 3,000 4,000 7,500 10,000 20,000 30,000 70,000 Players Championship 10,000 15,000 30,000 50,000 125,000 Gibraltar Open 0 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 20,000 50,000 WST Pro Series 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 4,0005,000 4,5005,500 5,0006,000 6,0007,000 7,0008,000 8,0009,000 11,50012,50014,00015,000 12,50013,50015,00016,000 13,50014,50016,00017,000 14,50015,50017,00018,000 15,50016,50018,00019,000 18,00019,00020,50021,500 20,50021,50023,00024,000 30,50031,50033,00034,000 Tour Championship 20,000 40,000 60,000 150,000 World Championship 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 30,000 50,000 100,000 200,000 500,000
Notes
References
External links Calendar 2020/2021 at World Snooker Calendar 2020/2021 at snooker.org WSS Tour news at seniorsnooker.com