The Players Championship gets underway on Tuesday, featuring the top 16 players of the season so far, but will the winner in Telford have something to worry about?
The current version of the tournament has been in place since 2017, although it has travelled around, stopping off in Llandudno, Preston, Southport, Milton Keynes, Wolverhampton and has now landed at the Telford International Centre.
There have been plenty of memorable moments, but none more so than Ronnie O’Sullivan becoming the first man to reach 1,000 career centuries in the last frame of the tournament as he downed Neil Robertson in the 2019 final.
The standout performance over an event came in 2021 when John Higgins dropped just four frames on his way to the title, whitewashing Jordan Brown and Mark Selby, before a 6-1 thrashing of Kyren Wilson and a 10-3 demolition of the Rocket in the final.
The Players Championship features top players who have shown great form this season, it has also been pretty consistent in its placing on the calendar, always in either February or March.
With this in mind, plenty would expect the player who lifts the trophy in Telford to be beautifully placed for a World Championship challenge at the Crucible in April.
It makes perfect sense, but history suggests otherwise.
In the nine editions of the Players Championship, no winner has gone on to claim the World Championship a couple of months later.
Not only that, but no Players Championship winner has gone on to even reach the final at the Crucible in the same season.
In fact, success in the two events is so uncorrelated, that no finalist at the Players has made a final of the Worlds in the same year.
It does seem odd, but the situation is actually the same at the Tour Championship, which is coming up next month in Manchester.
The Tour Championship has been going since 2019, initially featuring the top eight on the one-year list but since growing to include the top 12.
No one reaching a Tour Championship final has kept up that form to make the World Championship final a matter of weeks later.
It feels like this is more a reflection of the unpredictable nature of the World Championship than anything, especially in recent seasons.
Last season Kyren Wilson won the Players Championship, his fourth ranking event of the campaign, so no surprise there.
John Higgins won the 2025 Tour Championship just weeks after winning the World Open, so that was also no shock.
Zhao Xintong went on to win the World Championship having not been on tour over the season thanks to his ban from the game, coming through the field from the first round of qualifying.
Wilson conquered the Crucible in 2024 having failed to qualify for the Players, Tour or even the 32-man World Grand Prix.
Luca Brecel was 2023 world champ, having made a Players Championship quarter-final, but not qualifying for the Tour Championship that year – he had never won a match at the Crucible before the year he lifted the trophy.
Recent years suggest that being relatively fresh in Sheffield is handier than coming into the World Championship with a successful season behind you.
In 2023 Shaun Murphy looked in unstoppable form as he won the Players and Tour Championships, before losing first round in Sheffield to Si Jiahui.
Success at the Players and Tour Championships not only means that someone has gone deep on those weeks, but has probably been winning matches, travelling the world and draining their batteries on a regular basis for months.
Two notable names missing from the Players Championship this week are Ronnie O’Sullivan, who withdrew, and Kyren Wilson, who did not qualify.
Perhaps their absences will not hurt their chances when they land in Sheffield in April.
Whoever triumphs in Telford this week will have pulled off a great result, beaten four top players and pocketed £150,000 for their efforts, but don’t anoint them 2026 world champion just yet.
Players Championship draw and schedule
Tuesday February 17
1pm
Neil Robertson vs John Higgins
Wu Yize vs Mark Allen
7pm
Chris Wakelin vs Xiao Guodong
Mark Selby vs Jack Lisowski
Wednesday February 18
1pm
Judd Trump vs Zhou Yuelong
Shaun Murphy vs Zhang Anda
7pm
Mark Williams vs Barry Hawkins
Zhao Xintong vs Elliot Slessor
Thu & Fri
1pm & 7pm
Quarter-finals
Saturday
1pm & 7pm
Semi-finals
Sunday
1pm & 7pm
Final
