Pro Snooker 2022: Back to Berlin After Two Years…

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TODAY sees snooker return to Germany, in Berlin, after a two-year absence due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

After Iranian professional Hossein Vafaei created history at the 2022 Snooker Shootout in Leicester on the weekend for the first Iranian to win a ranking event, 30 players board the plane to Germany to compete at the popular tempodrom venue in the last 32 as snooker begins to resemble something of normality.

Judd Trump, the defending champion, who won it in Milton Keynes last year, and Andrew Higginson have already received BYES into the round of 16 due to Liang Wenbo and Gao Yang testing positive for Covid-19.

First staged in its current guise at the Tempodrom in 2011, Trump and Mark Williams, fresh from a Shootout final against Hossein Vafaei, are the only two players who have managed to triumphantly emerge with the trophy twice.

Selby, who prevailed in 2015, and 2019 winner Kyren Wilson are the other former champions in the 2022 German Masters draw.

Matches are the best of nine frames for the first three rounds before the format is increased, with eleven frames required for the semi-finals and 17 for Sunday’s final.

With a first prize pot of 80K on offer, there is a lot to play for in this week’s event, which runs until Sunday, as pro snooker takes a step closer to something that resembles normality as the Bildbet German Masters 2022 is the first event since March 2020 to be held outside the UK.