Nick Metcalfe snooker column: Players Championship will be a proper treat as Crucible looms large

This is no time for players to be falling out of form. The business end of the 2025-26 campaign is upon us and there's some very special prizes up for grabs.

Just two months from now, all snooker's roads will lead to Sheffield for the biggest tournament of them all, the World Championship.

Leading up to that, we have a number of fine events to enjoy. That old fan favourite, the Welsh Open, will take place in Llandudno, followed soon after by the final tournament in China this season, the World Open. Then there's the prestigious Tour Championship, with its week of long-form matches and brilliant Manchester setting.

First up comes the Players Championship, which starts in Telford on Tuesday. The top 16 players on the one-year list going for glory. Frankly, if you're not relishing this line-up, this might not be the sport for you.

Kicking us off on Tuesday afternoon, we have the meeting of two big snooker beasts – Neil Robertson against John Higgins.

Higgins is in the field because Ronnie O'Sullivan decided not to play at the event. If you feel like you're going down with an acute case of deja vu, don't panic. Robertson and Higgins met when O'Sullivan pulled out of the Masters last year. That time it was Robertson benefitting.

If this match is half as good as that one at Alexandra Palace, when Robertson came back from 5-1 down to win 6-5, we're in for a treat.

The other match that afternoon hardly feels like a second billing affair either – Wu Yize against Mark Allen. It's what they invented double screening for.

I absolutely love watching Wu and was not at all surprised to hear Ronnie O'Sullivan say recently that he feels the 22-year-old is on the way to being world number one and world champion. Wu has just got that next level class about him.

Allen is of course a redoubtable character and a tough cookie – even when he's not at his best, you wouldn't put a deep run past him.

Talking of tough cookies, Mark Selby enters the fray on Tuesday night. The UK champion is currently the frontrunner to be player of the season.

Selby's opponent is the man who surely gave us the story of the season so far, Jack Lisowski. His victory at the Northern Ireland Open back in the autumn did that rare thing, it united all of snooker in happiness.

On the other table that night we'll see Chris Wakelin – a proper tournament contender these days who showed his mettle when winning the Scottish Open – against Xiao Guodong, back-to-back champion at the Wuhan Open. Nostradamus would have trouble calling that one.

There's a world champion in every match on Wednesday, and you'd have to say each one of them would probably be favourite to progress to the next round.

Judd Trump's unlikely 14-month title drought ended two weeks ago at the German Masters, and he'll be targeting more silverware here.

Trump plays Zhou Yuelong, a man who has been knocking on the door of being a ranking event winner for some time now. Zhou came agonisingly close earlier this season, losing 9-8 to Mark Allen in the English Open final, and his time will surely come soon.

Shaun Murphy is right up there as one of the best players in the game over the last year or so and he will take on Zhang Anda, who we know is in decent form as he made it through to the World Grand Prix final last weekend.

In the evening, we have a match between Mark Williams and Barry Hawkins that transports me back in an instant to their epic World Championship semi-final meeting in 2018. That was such a nerve shredder at the Crucible, even the nonchalant Williams admitted to really suffering before edging to victory.

Meanwhile, the current world champion, Zhao Xintong, will do battle with Elliot Slessor.

The narrative a couple of months ago was that Zhao was finding it tough going since his Crucible triumph. That's changed now, especially after his sparkling performance to win the World Grand Prix, which included making five centuries in the final against Zhang.

Just the fact Slessor has made this tournament for the first time is testament to the season he's having. And Zhao will be all too aware that the Englishman gave him probably his hardest match on the way to world title glory last spring, when he just edged out Slessor 10-8 in qualifying.

What a smashing week we have to look forward to then, and with new television coverage to enjoy as well on Channel 5.

Four-time world champion Higgins will be part of the team. He's a man we've been privileged to see play for more than three decades, but haven't always heard an immense amount from. Nuggets of wisdom from the Scot are an absolute given.

If all this wasn't enough to fill your snooker heart with joy, Neal Foulds will review the event for Sporting Life when it's over.

Hold on to your hats folks – spring is on the way, and the season is bubbling up nicely.

More Nick Metcalfe columns

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Kyren Wilson imperious in Masters win

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