Prior to the 2022 World Snooker Championship, there had been eight different winning nationalities on the World Snooker Tour (WST) in the 2021/22 campaign. This proves that the sport is no longer one which is dominated by British players.
The list of winners includes players from Australia, Belgium, China, England, Iran, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. That list could be even bigger next season as the sport continues to grow around the world.
Australian Neil Robertson goes into this year’s World Snooker Championship as the 3/1 favourite in the latest snooker odds. He has had an excellent season on the tour and is looking to win the title for the second time in his career.
Robertson is one of only three non-British players to have lifted the world title. Chinese star Zhao Xintong will be hoping to join that list this year. He is 22/1 in the Snooker World Championship odds in 2022. Many have predicted the UK Championship winner to be a huge star in the sport.
Although there are a lot of promising players now emerging into the game, Ronnie O’Sullivan remains the world number one. The Rocket has been the box-office attraction in snooker for the last four decades. At the age of 46, he continues to produce exhilarating performances.
O’Sullivan holds just about every record there is in the sport, bar one. He is one world title win away from Stephen Hendry’s record of seven. The Englishman feels he can still carry on playing into his 50s so, by the time he retires, he could surpass the Scot’s tally.
Poland Likely to Be Represented in the Future
Unfortunately, Poland does not currently have a player who has a tour card, however, it may not be long before the country is represented on the WST.
Kacper Filipiak was on the WST between 2011-12 and 2019-20. The man from Warsaw has had wins over the likes of John Higgins, Stephen Maguire and Marco Fu. He also became the first Polish player to hit a maximum 147 break in a professional competition.
Filipiak was once ranked as high as 76th in the world rankings. His best performance at a ranking event was reaching the last 32. He reached the second round of the Northern Ireland Open and Scottish Open in the 2019/20 campaign.
Adam Stefanow is another Polish player who, like Filipiak, will be looking to earn a pro tour card at Q School later this year. He is a former Polish Amateur Championship winner and has featured on the WST in three seasons.
Luca Brecel is a great example of what can be achieved by a player from a country which does not have a strong association with snooker. He is doing a great job of flying the flag for Belgium. The Belgian Bullet won the Scottish Open earlier this season, beating Higgins in the final.
With a European Tour now a big part of the snooker calendar, expect to see many more players from the likes of Poland and neighbouring countries break into the professional game in the upcoming years.