The 2025-26 snooker season gets underway inside the Mattioli Arena in Leicester on Sunday when the qualifying event for the Wuhan Open begins with a whole bunch of players taking to the baize looking to open up their campaign with a win.
It is the best of nine throughout the three sessions of action in Leicester with the winners of each match booking an early season flight out to China for the main draw in August so we should see some competitive snooker.
Morning Session
Often we have to wait until deeper in a qualification event for the big names to come out to play but that isn’t the case on Sunday, although we do have to wait until later in the day for the top 16 players to make their bow. Wu Yize is the highest ranked player up in the morning session. He has a clash with Louis Heathcote to negotiate if he is to reach his home event. Joe O’Connor is another member of the top 32 on show and he meets Jiang Jun here. Zhou Yuelong is the other top 32 player on show and if he is to make his home event he’ll need to beat his countryman Lan Yuhao who makes his tour debut here.
Four other matches take place in the morning session with Noppon Saengkham among those looking to make it into the main draw when he meets Robbie McGuigan while Ishpreet Singh Chadha gets his season underway in the first session. The tour newcomer Yao Pengcheng will be his opponent. Matthew Selt ended last season at the Crucible Theatre and he’ll begin the new one in the morning session when he takes on Sunny Akani while Jamie Jones is also on show first up when he faces another of the Chinese debutants in Liu Wenwei.
Afternoon Session
The first two top 16 players to begin their season do so in the afternoon session. John Higgins is the highest ranked player on show in the afternoon and he has a date with Huang Jiahao to navigate if he is to make the main draw. Si Jiahui is the other top 16 player and he’ll be motivated to get the better of Bulcsu Revesz and qualify for his home event. Elliot Slessor is the other member of the top 32 getting his season underway in this session. He faces Oliver Lines.
Luca Brecel has dropped well down the rankings since the World Championship and he’ll look to begin the climb back up when he takes on Haris Tahir in this session while Ricky Walden gets his campaign up and running when he faces David Grace who won his card back at Q-School. Long Zehuang will be out to qualify for his home event when he faces the talented Welsh player Dylan Emery with the other match seeing Fan Zhengyi going up against Ben Mertens.
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Evening Session
The World Championship finalist Mark Williams is the leading light on show in the evening session. The veteran Welsh ace gets his new season up and running against the Thai tour debutant Chatchapong Nasa. He is the only top 32 player on show in the session but another match which catches the eye is the one between David Lilley and the female star Reanne Evans while Martin O’Donnell will look to get off to a winning start to the season when he takes on Haydon Pinhey.
Mark Davis is another veteran player who gets yet another campaign on the circuit underway. He meets Liam Davies for a place in the main draw while Michael Holt will look to kick on in the second year of his tour card when he goes up against Liam Graham. Sanderson Lam had a decent season by his standards a year ago and he’ll start another campaign against Zhao Hanyang while the other match looks a competitive affair as Jordan Brown takes on Duane Jones.
Betting
Ricky Walden ended last season getting thumped by Zak Surety in World Championship qualifying but around all of that he was struggling with injury again and he automatically looks vulnerable against a David Grace who should be bouncing around the table after he went and earned his tour card back at Q-School earlier in the month. We often find that players who do that have a bit of a bounce in the early part of the season and I fancy that could be the case here too.
Grace has played plenty of competitive snooker just three weeks ago whereas Walden hasn’t played a competitive frame since the middle of April, more than two months ago. That often makes a difference at this time of a season but when you throw into play the potential health issues of Walden who has suffered with his back for years now, then it is fairly easy to think that Grace could be overpriced at around the 9/5 mark.
Tips
Back D.Grace to beat R.Walden for a 3/10 stake at 2.80 with Coral
