Record Entry for WSF Championships!
The upcoming World Snooker Federation Championships will be one of the largest international snooker competitions staged in recent history with 319 individual players from 44 different countries set to compete for places on the World Snooker Tour.
To be held at the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy in Sheffield, England, from 15-26 February 2022, the event will include two major mixed gender tournaments, the WSF Junior Championship (15-18 February) and the WSF Open Championship (19-26 February*).
*This is a change to the previously announced dates due to the unprecedented number of entries received for the Open Championship, which will now start a day earlier on Saturday 19 February.
The winner of each competition will earn a two-year professional tour card from the 2022/23 season.
Junior Championship
The event will begin with the second staging of the WSF Junior Championship, open to players aged 17 or under up to and including 31 December 2021.
With 68 players entered – up from 56 in 2020 – from 20 different countries, the competition welcomes many of the world’s brightest young talents including:
- Liam Davies – Former Q Tour Event Semi-Finalist
- Paul Deaville – 2021 WST English Open Last 16
- Anton Kazakov – Former Ukrainian National Champion
- Antoni Kowalski – Former Polish National Champion
- Robbie McGuigan – Youngest ever Northern Ireland Championship winner
- Ben Mertens – Youngest player to win a match at the professional World Championship
- Stan Moody – 2022 WST Shoot Out Last 64
- Bulcsú Révész – Former Hungarian National Championship winner
The event was won previously by China’s Gao Yang.
Open Championship
Now set to start a day earlier on 19 February, the Open Championships have also seen an incredible number of entries with 280 players of 43 nationalities set to contest the title won previously by Luo Honghao and Ashley Hugill.
The entry is significantly higher than the numbers in both 2018 (89) and 2020 (152) and is a diverse field with representation from all over the world, as well as leading players from the World Women’s Snooker Tour and World Disability Billiards and Snooker circuit.
Following the close of entries yesterday (Monday 31 January), it is now anticipated that the draw and format will be released by no later than Thursday 10 February. All players will also be contacted with information as to practice facilities, including an online booking form for available sessions during the tournament.
