2026 Tour Championship Starts in Manchester

The 2026 Tour Championship, snooker's penultimate ranking event of the season, began on Monday at Manchester Central in Manchester, England, bringing together the top 12 players from the one-year ranking list to compete for a 150,000 top prize and a share of a 500,000 pot. Defending champion John Higgins leads the field as players vie for momentum ahead of the World Snooker Championship, which starts April 18 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

The tournament, the third in the Players Series following the World Grand Prix and Players Championship, features all matches in a best-of-19 frames format, with the top four seeds—Neil Robertson, Zhao Xintong, Mark Selby, and Shaun Murphy—receiving byes into the quarterfinals. The remaining eight players contest the round of 12 over the first few days, setting up potential clashes with the seeds. Reigning world champion Zhao Xintong, who has already claimed the World Grand Prix and Players Championship this season, enters as the second seed and will face the winner of Wu Yize versus Chris Wakelin in the quarters.

Action opened on March 30 with Judd Trump, the world number one, taking on Mark Allen in the afternoon session, while Barry...