Mark Allen has hit out at the World Snooker Tour for allowing replacements to fill the spots of those who have withdrawn from the World Grand Prix.
The lucrative ranking event gets under way on Tuesday at the newly built Kai Tak Sports Arena in Hong Kong.
Although the tournament has moved to a new location this year, the qualification process has been the same as in previous seasons.
Only the top 32 from the one-year snooker rankings gain a spot in the draw, with the cut-off point having come after the conclusion of last month’s Welsh Open.
The World Grand Prix draw pits the top seed against the 32nd seed, the 2nd highest earned against the 31st, and so on.
But the 2024 lineup has already been impacted twice in the days leading up to the event’s launch.
On Saturday, it was announced that Ronnie O’Sullivan would be absent from the tournament despite being the defending World Grand Prix champion.
The Rocket has only competed once in 2025 so far, at the Championship League Snooker invitational in January when he lost four out of the five games he played before snapping his cue in frustration of his form.
Stephen Maguire, whose run to the semi-finals in Llandudno a couple of weeks helped him to secure a last-gasp ticket to Hong Kong, joined O’Sullivan on the sidelines on Monday while also citing medical reasons.
Hossein Vafaei and Ben Woollaston, who were ranked 33rd and 34th on the one-year list after the week in Wales, have replaced O’Sullivan and Maguire in the World Grand Prix draw.
Yet that is something that former champion Mark Allen disagrees with, claiming that it is wrong for them to be allocated spots considering they effectively failed in the qualifying process.
“Nothing against Ben or Hossein but really don’t agree with guys being replaced by those who have technically failed to qualify,” Mark Allen wrote on X.
“Imagine number 17 doesn’t qualify for Sheffield, a top 16 player withdraws, does 17 get back in as next in line??? Both Ronnie and Mags have earned their 10k.”
Normally in ranking events, absent players are only able to be replaced by top-ups at the start of an event.
So, for example, O’Sullivan was replaced in the Daniel Womersley in last week’s World Open as he was due to enter in the opening round of 128 in the competition.
But the 49 year-old’s scheduled last-64 opponents in the Home Nations events and the German Masters, for instance, were given byes as earlier rounds in those tournaments had already taken place.
While there haven’t been any previous rounds conducted at the World Grand Prix, there is an argument to say a qualification process has already been undertaken.
Players have been given more than two-thirds of the season to earn enough ranking points and qualify for the competition in Hong Kong.
Vafaei and Woollaston will now be awarded the prize money on offer – £10,000 just for participating in the last 32 – instead of O’Sullivan and Maguire.
Considering the prestige attached to the World Grand Prix – particularly this year with its move to a new mega venue that can house 4,000 people – giving byes isn’t an ideal scenario either.
WST, tournament organisers, the broadcasters, and local fans would not be happy with having an opportunity to see live snooker wasted.
This is especially true for Hong Kong, an important destination which is staging a ranking event for the first time since 1989.
Allen continued on social media that players next in line could be let in and “they can win the prize money but no rankings points. Fans and broadcasters don’t lose out.”
Vafaei and Woollaston, meanwhile, will face Si Jiahui and Shaun Murphy respectively in the first round, and it’ll be interesting to see how they fare after being given lifelines to compete in the event.
Mark Allen, the champion two years ago in Cheltenham, begins his 2025 World Grand Prix campaign against Jimmy Robertson on Wednesday.
2025 World Grand Prix Draw
Round of 32 (bo7)
Matches to be played on Tuesday, March 4th and Wednesday, March 5th
Judd Trump (1) vs Gary Wilson (32)
Jack Lisowski (16) vs Zhang Anda (17)
Si Jiahui (9) vs Hossein Vafaei (33)
Ding Junhui (8) vs Xu Si (25)
Mark Williams (5) vs Stuart Bingham (28)
Wu Yize (12) vs Pang Junxu (21)
Mark Allen (13) vs Jimmy Robertson (20)
Mark Selby (4) vs Jackson Page (29)
Xiao Guodong (3) vs Jak Jones (30)
Lei Peifan (14) vs Elliot Slessor (19)
Chris Wakelin (11) vs David Gilbert (22)
Neil Robertson (6) vs Yuan Sijun (27)
Barry Hawkins (7) vs Tom Ford (26)
Shaun Murphy (10) vs Ben Woollaston (34)
John Higgins (15) vs Ali Carter (18)
Kyren Wilson (2) vs Matthew Selt (31)
Click here to view the latest scores and results
(snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
