Neal Foulds snooker column: Tour Championship beckons as Ronnie O'Sullivan and World Snooker come to blows

Snooker is entering a crucial stage of the campaign, with two of the biggest events in our sport, the Tour Championship and World Championship, all set to put the finishing touches to a season that in many ways has been a strange one.

You only have to look at the eight-man line-up for the Tour Championship to see that, with no members of the famed Class of 92 having qualified and some of those who will be in Hull coming into the event struggling to find the excellent early-season form that got them there.

As always, it’s still a very strong field with quality and experience throughout the draw, but it will be strange to work on such a huge tournament and not see the likes of Mark Williams, John Higgins, and Ronnie O’Sullivan in the mix. More on O’Sullivan later.

Regardless, the Tour Championship is a big deal for a few reasons. It’s impossible to get away from the fact that many fans' view it as the perfect preparation for the World Championship, given its proximity to the Crucible on the calendar and even more importantly, that the multi-session matches are the closest thing to Sheffield many players will experience all year – barring a final.

But this week is so much more than a warm-up for the Crucible. The Tour Championship is a massive event its own right, one that is growing in stature every year, and just to qualify is an achievement in itself. If you make the cut for this week, you know you’ve had a good season.

Who's peaking in time for the Tour Championship?

The interesting thing about this year’s renewal is the contrasting recent fortunes of many of the players. You’ve got Mark Allen as the number one seed, and deservedly so on the back of a brilliant campaign, but just beginning to look like his early-season exertions are beginning to catch up with him.

It's the same with British Open winner Ryan Day, and then you have the likes of Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby who are seemingly peaking just in time for spring.

You can add Ali Carter to that category, and Ding Junhui too, the latter having bounced back to form with victory at the Six Reds World Championship in Thailand just a few weeks ago. When you throw into the mix Welsh Open hero Robert Milkins and European Masters winner Kyren Wilson, it makes for fascinating viewing.

One would think Selby will prove a tough nut to crack following his victory at the WST Classic on Wednesday. He played superbly on that final day, beating Higgins, Carter, and Pang Junxu with real authority. In fact, it’s the best I’ve seen him play in quite some time.

I think he’ll beat Day first up, especially when you factor in that Day hasn’t been at his best since losing to Judd Trump at the Masters. After that, we could have a semi-final to savour if Selby meets Murphy in the last four.

But it would be remiss of me not to mention Selby’s surprisingly poor record in ITV events. For a man who has won just about everything there is to win in the game, both at home and abroad, it’s remarkable to think he’s never even made a final in front of the ITV cameras. It’s not just that, he’s shown nothing like the brilliant snooker we know he is capable of, and I’m sure he’ll be keen to put that right in Hull.

I must mention the WST Classic which I thought was a real success. World Snooker get a lot of criticism, too much in my opinion, but to put on a ranking event with £80,000 to the winner at a month’s notice was a real triumph and great credit to those who worked so hard behind the scenes to make it happen.

Was it perfect? Maybe not. Three rounds on the final day was probably too much, but other than that I can only really see positives. We mustn’t forget that this tournament wasn’t on the calendar before we lost the Turkish Masters, and World Snooker did well to fill that void at such short notice.

Red-hot Murphy will fancy his chances

Another man who enjoyed himself in Leicester was Gibraltar Open winner Carter, and his quarter-final with Wilson could be a real battle, a match that could well shape up differently to the one between Murphy and Milkins.

I know he suffered an early exit last week, but overall, Murphy’s form has been breathtaking and his Players Championship demolition was just that – a total demolition job.

But he couldn’t get the better of Milkins when the pair met in the Welsh Open final a week earlier and it will be interesting to see if Milkins can sustain that form here. It should be a great match, whoever comes out on top.

Murphy ought to fancy his chances this week. The Players Series often produces multiple tournament winners and Neil Robertson filled his boots when winning this event and the Players Championship last season, along with making the final of the World Grand Prix.

With no Robertson to worry about this week, nor O’Sullivan, Higgins, or Trump, he will have high expectations.

Don't discount sleeping giant Ding

He won’t be the only one, though, and the match I’m most looking forward to is a repeat of the UK Championship final earlier in this season, with Ding looking to exact revenge on Allen having surrendered a big lead in that match.

All credit must go to Allen for the way he’s dug in this season and won matches that might have gone awry a few years ago, but he’s having to dig in because I don’t think is form is there like it was before Christmas.

Ding, on the other hand, clearly relished the big-time feel of the Six Reds and this week should offer more of the same. I think that’s what he needs nowadays, and it was no surprise to see him lose early when the TV cameras and crowds were absent at the WST Classic.

I can see Ding coming alive again at a big event that is seemingly made for him. His pedigree is not in question and if there’s a sleeping giant in the field, it’s him.

O'Sullivan and World Snooker bang heads

It should be a great week, but I can’t finish without touching on the war of words between O’Sullivan and World Snooker Tour chairman Steve Dawson that has made the headlines in recent days.

The main point I’d like to make is that for the good of the sport, and ultimately that’s what we’re all interested in, I’d like to see people come together rather than having disagreements in newspapers.

This gets you nowhere and I’ve always thought making comparisons with other sports is of little use. I see Tiger Woods’ name mentioned a lot when talking about snooker, but golf is a completely different sport, an outdoor sport, with a different audience.

I would agree with O’Sullivan in that these are worrying times for snooker. It’s been tough since the pandemic and I believe we should have done more to grow the game in Europe, where we know there is great appetite for snooker, instead of being so reliant on China.

Fingers crossed snooker can return to China in the near future, and that would be a huge boost to the sport, but as tournaments like the German Masters have shown, Europe presents a real opportunity. I do hope those in charge of the game are keeping that in mind.

I don’t doubt the people behind the scenes at World Snooker are working hard to get the sport back on track. The pandemic hit everyone hard, particularly snooker, but Dawson is a good man who I have faith it. The shoes left behind by Barry Hearn are big ones to fill, but while not anywhere near as charismatic, Dawson is smart and knows what he’s doing. He’ll do a good job.

As snooker fans, it’s hard for any of us to say with certainty what the future holds, but I remain optimistic providing people – fans, players, and officials – come together and work hard for the good of the sport.

Many of our biggest stars do lots to promote snooker, others not enough, but we have a huge month coming up where we can showcase the best of what snooker as a sport has to offer.

Next stop Hull.