Riyadh Season Snooker Championship 2025 | Day One Preview and Order of Play

Ronnie O’Sullivan launches his quest for a second Riyadh Season Snooker Championship title in Boulevard City on Wednesday.

The Rocket was the inaugural winner of the lucrative invitational event in March 2024, beating the reigning World champion Luca Brecel 5-2 in the final.

That triumph at the Global Theatre 20 months ago represents his most recent silverware. Coincidentally, the closest he came to ending his wait for a trophy also came in the Middle East in August, when he was runner-up to Neil Robertson at the Saudi Arabia Masters.

O’Sullivan does have fond memories, though, of the tournament in Jeddah, where he produced two 147 breaks during his semi-final victory over Chris Wakelin – scooping a bonus of £147,000 along the way.

The seven-time World champion will face either Shaun Murphy or 15-year-old Ziyad Alqabbani, who collide in the first round earlier in the day.

Murphy ended his ranking title drought at the British Open in September and was runner-up to Mark Williams at the Xi’an Grand Prix.

His 15-year-old opponent is already a two-time Saudi Arabia Junior Championship winner, and was a gold medallist at the West Asian Under-21 Championship earlier this year.

Elsewhere, four-time World champion John Higgins awaits the winner of the clash between Ding Junhui and Ayman Alamri.

The Wizard reached the final of the International Championship 10 days ago, missing out on the title to an inspired Wu Yize.

Meanwhile, Ding is looking to progress beyond the quarter-finals of an event for the first time this season. The Dragon will be favourite to progress without too many difficulties against 22-year-old Alamri, who is a three-time Saudi Seniors champion and six-time Saudi Under-21 champion.

Play gets under way at 2pm GMT (5pm local time) on Wednesday, with all matches contested over the best of seven frames at the Global Theatre in Boulevard City, Riyadh.

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Riyadh Season Snooker Championship 2025 Schedule

All times GMT (local time +3 hours)

Wednesday November 19

Round One

2pm
Shaun Murphy v Ziyad Alqabbani

3pm
Ding Junhui v Ayman Alamri

Round Two

7pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Murphy/Alqabbani

8pm
John Higgins v Ding/Alamri