Players announced for 2010 Premier League Snooker - 22/06/2010

MATCHROOM SPORT can announce the star-packed line up for the 2010 Partycasino.com Premier League Snooker which commences its season at the Southampton Guildhall on Thursday, September 2.

Featuring seven players, everyone is a winner of a major event in the 2009/10 season, including reigning PartyCasino.com Premier League Snooker Champion Shaun Murphy, the World number seven.

Shaun Murphy will be hoping to retain his Premier League trophy. Picture: Lawrence Lustig

Taking place on Thursday nights and live throughout on Sky Sports, Premier League Snooker visits ten towns across England, Scotland and Wales before the November play-offs at Potters Leisure Resort in Norfolk.

Shanghai Masters Champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan, the World number three is a six-time winner of the Premier League and the Rocket will be returning to the fray in a quest to add to his tally of titles.

2010 has been a fantastic year for Australia’s Neil Robertson as he claimed his maiden World Championship in April at the Crucible and climbed to number two on the rankings. Robertson will be making his third appearance in the league and will be looking to improve on two sixth-placed finishes.

Mark Selby claimed his second Masters title in three years at Wembley in January and the Leicester-based World number five will hope to go one better than his only previous Premier League appearance when he lost to O’Sullivan in the 2008 final.

Welshman Mark Williams is slowly returning to the sort of form that won him two World Championships in the 2000s. Now ranked eighth in the world, Williams claimed the China Open last season, his first ranking win for four years.

UK champion Ding Junhui, the world number five, returns to the tournament in 2010 after missing out in 2009 and he will be keen to make an impact on the competition.

Finally, 2002 Premier League Champion Marco Fu returns having won the only direct qualifier for the Premier League – Championship League Snooker. The World number 14 from Hong Kong defeated Mark Allen 3-2 to seal his spot in snooker’s most prestigious invitational.

Now entering its record-breaking 25th season, Premier League Snooker is the world’s only major snooker tournament played to a league format. There are two games taking place per evening and both matches are over six frames, with two points for a win and a point for a 3-all draw.

Following the round robin section of play, the top four players move forward to the big money play-offs in November. The eventual champion receives £30,000, the runner-up £15,000 and the beaten semi-finalists £5,000 each.
There will be a bonus fund of £1,000 per frame won during the round-robin section, making a total of £126,000 available.

In addition, there will be a ‘Double Your Money’ bonus for century breaks made throughout the round robin play which means that any frames won with a 100-plus break will result in a £2,000 payout.

Date posted: June 21, 2010