World Series of Snooker

World Series of Snooker

Tournament information
Venue	Pavilhão Arena
Location	Portimão
Country	Portugal
Established	1987
Organisation(s)	FSTC Sports Management
Format	non-ranking event
Final year	2009/2010
Final champion(s)	Shaun Murphy

The Sportingbet.com World Series of Snooker was a series of invitational snooker tournaments set up as a complement to the WPBSA's tour^[1] Its first season was played in 2008/2009, consisting of four two-day tournaments in St. Helier, Berlin, Moscow and Warsaw and the three-day Grand Final in Portimão.

It featured ten leading players — each tournament featured four of these taking on four wild cards. Points were awarded for reaching at least the semi-finals. The winner of each tournament received five points, the runner-up three and losing semi-finalists one each. These points determined seeding positions for the Grand Final.

There was a previous incarnation of the event organised by Matchroom Sport, that ran in the 1987/88 season, and from 1990/91 until 1992/93.^[2]

Management and purpose

The tour was set up by FSTC Sports Management, who managed leading snooker players John Higgins and Graeme Dott, as well as Eurosport (who screened the events alongside the coverage of the WPBSA tour), Higgins,^[3] and leading referee Michaela Tabb. Higgins felt that the game's attendances were too low, and that potential new venues outside the game's traditional United Kingdom and recently developed Far East markets were not being utilised,^[4] and wanted to give something back to the sport.^[5] After conducting exploratory tours and playing a trial event 2007 in Warsaw (the Warsaw Snooker Tour), the first season was arranged. There were also plans for future seasons to feature as many as ten events, running during the game's traditional off-season from May to August.^[6]

Results

1987/1988

Date	Name	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	Score[7]	Ref.
1987	Hong Kong Masters	Hong Kong	Steve Davis	Stephen Hendry	9–3	[8]
1987	Tokyo Masters	Tokyo	Dennis Taylor	Terry Griffiths	6–3	[8]
1987	Canadian Masters	Toronto	Dennis Taylor	Jimmy White	9–7	[9]

1990/1991

Date	Name	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	Score	Ref.
1990	Hong Kong Challenge	Hong Kong	James Wattana	Jimmy White	9–3	[10]
1990	Scottish Masters	Motherwell	Stephen Hendry	Terry Griffiths	10–6	[11]
1990	Humo Masters	Antwerp	John Parrott	Jimmy White	9–6	[10]

1991/1992

Date	Name	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	Score[12]	Ref.
1991	Thailand Masters	Bangkok	Steve Davis	Stephen Hendry	6–3	[13]
1991	Hong Kong Challenge	Hong Kong	Stephen Hendry	James Wattana	9–1	[10]
1991	Indian Challenge	Delhi	Stephen Hendry	John Parrott	9–5	[10]
1991	Scottish Masters	Motherwell	Mike Hallett	Steve Davis	10–6	[11]
1991	Humo Masters	Antwerp	Mike Hallett	Neal Foulds	9–7	[10]
1991	Belgian Challenge	Antwerp	Steve Davis	Stephen Hendry	10–9	[10]

1992/1993

Date	Name	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	Score[14]	Ref.
1992	Kent Classic	Beijing	John Parrott	Stephen Hendry	6–5	[10]
1992	Scottish Masters	Motherwell	Neal Foulds	Gary Wilkinson	10–8	[11]
1992	Humo Masters	Antwerp	James Wattana	John Parrott	10–5	[10]
1992	World Matchplay	Doncaster	James Wattana	Steve Davis	9–4	[15]

2008/2009

Date	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	Score[16]
21–22 June 2008	Fort Regent, St. Helier	John Higgins	Mark Selby	6–3
12–13 July 2008	Tempodrom, Berlin	Graeme Dott	Shaun Murphy	6–1
25–26 October 2008	EXPO XXI, Warsaw	Ding Junhui	Ken Doherty	6–4
22–23 November 2008	Krilya Sovetov Sports Arena, Moscow	John Higgins	Ding Junhui	5–0
8–10 May 2009	Pavilhão Arena, Portimão	Shaun Murphy	John Higgins	6–2

2009/2010

Date	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	Score[16]
16–17 May 2009	INEC, Killarney	Shaun Murphy	Jimmy White	5–1
17–18 October 2009	Aréna Sparta Podvinný Mlýn, Prague	Jimmy White	Graeme Dott	5–3

References

1. "Eurosport announce World Series". Eurosport UK. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
2. Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Suffolk: Rose Villa Publications. pp. 154–164. ISBN 978-0-9548549-0-4.
3. Everton, Clive (16 January 2008). "Higgins backs new world series". London: guardian.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
4. "Higgins excited about World Series". Setanta Sports. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
5. "Higgins relishing World Series". Eurosport UK. 17 June 2008. Archived from the original on 10 October 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
6. "New Snooker World League for 2008". sportbusiness.com. Archived from the original on 24 August 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
7. Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. p. 155. ISBN 0-9548549-0-X.
8. Turner, Chris. "Other Non-Ranking and Invitation Events First held 1980–1989". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
9. Turner, Chris. "Canadian Masters". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
10. Turner, Chris. "Other Non-Ranking and Invitation Events First held 1990–1999". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
11. Turner, Chris. "Scottish Masters". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
12. Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. p. 63. ISBN 0-9548549-0-X.
13. Turner, Chris. "Thailand Open, Thailand Classic, Thailand Masters". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chri Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
14. Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. p. 66. ISBN 0-9548549-0-X.
15. Turner, Chris. "World Matchplay". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 28 February 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2011.
16. Turner, Chris (2008). "World Series of Snooker". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2010.