Asian Tour postponed, Shoot-Out moving to ITV and more...

Joe Perry (r) - now a Ranking Event winner - won his 1st title at the Asian Tour in 2013

In the last few weeks World Snooker made some interesting announcements, and I have decided to comment here about them, the first is the Asian Tour 1 being postponed. Well, what really happened is that the event was cancelled and the Asian Tour that pretended to be the second will now be the first. In the World Snooker calendar, there's no other Asian Tour dated, so we're not sure if we're gonna have more than one. The Asian Tour series qualifies 8 players to the PC Final in the end of the season, and World Snooker must do anything about it, wouldn't be fair to qualify 8 players from a single event while the 24 qualified via European Tour's had to come through 6 events.
I'm really disappointed with some Asian Tour being postponed in the last seasons, I personally enjoy them a lot, mostly because China makes a great reception to the players, the crowd recognize them and the online broadcast for some is free and good, it has a quality image, replays and varied camera angles; Although I know why it's struggling in the calendar, it's simple, the price isn't big and the calendar is too busy that the players are forced to skip some events, so for it being in the far east most of the times the players decide to have a rest while it's on, they usually play only the first event trying to qualify in an easier way to the PC Final, but weather is their result, they don't get another trip to China to play it, what is a shame. Some really good players have been successful in this event, Joe Perry won multiple Asian Tour events and he's now a Ranking Event winner as well as the reigning World Champion Bingham, who has also won it multiple times. But what should be changed in this event? Well, other than the introduction of more prize money, it should be an amateur tour that qualify a few players to the professional circuit rather than a professional tour full of amateurs that qualify players for a World Ranking event.

Meanwhile a very positive news was announced as ITV signed a deal with the Shoot-Out. ITV is a free channel and obviously it's always good to have more events on free TV, and the Shoot-Out have an interesting format that attracts a lot of new fans to the sport, so bringing both things together is great, it will for sure bring a lot of new fans to Snooker. By the way, Snooker is getting a tremendous feedback and becoming even more popular every time, we now have 7 events on British free TV, apart from the ones we have on free channels around the World, like China and India. The Shoot-Out was previously shown by Sky Sports, I've heard people that unlike the fact Sky Sports left a Snooker event, but in my opinion it doesn't matter that much, they might keep the World Seniors and as long as every tournament is shown on TV, I wouldn't miss Sky Sports, though I recognize they are good in the making, but so do ITV, for me only behind BBC on showing Snooker, and they seem to be grateful with it as nearly three years ago only, they started showing the Champion of Champions - their first event -, this year they got the World Grand Prix and now they have the Shoot-Out until 2018.

In the past week, World Snooker also released the draws for the Paul Hunter Classic(ET2) and the 6 Reds World Championship. As usual as ever Ronnie O`Sullivan won't attend the 6 Reds in Thailand, but the UK Champion decided to skip the Paul Hunter Classic this time, tournament that he won two years ago. Recent Pink Ribbon Champion, O`Sullivan haven't yet started his season, he has said he'll be playing the International Championship in October (he would have to play the Qualifiers) and intends to play a smaller event in September as a way of getting prepared to the big one, the only problem I see is where he'll find this "small" one, as there will be only two events in September, the Shanghai Masters and the 6 Reds World Championship, and his name isn't in any of their draws. So O`Sullivan's return is probably dated for October in China, for the International Championship.
Another player who failed to attend to these events is Neil Robertson, and his decision isn't as usual as Ronnie's, I don't think he's ever missed any of these events, and I wonder what's happening with him, hopefully not something seriously and he's just taking some holidays. Neil Robertson helped Australia to reach the last 8 of the World Cup earlier this season in China, but overall his form haven't been satisfying, he is a prolific century maker, but he potentially fails to win any scrappy frame, he could lose a match 17-18 compiling 17 centuries, but somehow he struggles in the scrappy frames, might be because he's lost a bit of motivation since completing his Triple Crown - nearly two years back now - and his only aim is becoming the all time Century record holder.
But well, talking about the tournaments, I expect things to have settled now for Stuart Bingham and the World Champion would be the last man standing in the Paul Hunter Classic, the most important European Tour in the calendar, the only called by it's own name (and not European Tour 1,3,4...) and personally one of my favorites events. As for the 6 Reds, I think it's all about a mix of safety game and potting, there's few balls on the table, you don't have many to make your rescue and leaving your opponent on the table once would be enough to lose any frame at any time, and the strongest player in this mix for me and favorite for this tournament is Judd Trump, who is hungry for trophies. Despite the absence of Neil Robertson and Ronnie O`Sullivan I think this year will see the strongest ever field in Thailand for the 6 Reds World Championship, with Stephen Maguire defending his title against the likes of John Higgins, Graeme Dott, Stuart Bingham, Mark Williams, Mark Selby, Ken Doherty, Yan Bingtao, Mark Allen, Anthony McGill, Judd Trump, Michael White, Ding Junhui, Mark Davis, Joe Perry, Matthew Stevens, James Wattana, Marco Fu and others.

Maguire beat Ricky Walden 8-7 in last year's final

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