With 30+ years in racing and betting, Darren helps punters develop their skills. As OLBG’s Tipster boss and expert guide, he turns insight into winning strategy.
Saudi Arabia Masters 2025 - Round Five Draw onwards
Neil Robertson won his thrid big event in just under a year when defeating Ronnie O'Sullivan in a final frame decider that was worth a cool £500,000!
Robertson has engineered a remarkable turn around in form recently after previously dropping out of the top sixteen and is now firmly back in the world's top five players.
In a classic match, the Australian raced into a 7-2 lead but a rejuvenated Ronnie O'Sullivan won seven of the next eight frames to take a 9-8 lead. Robertson held his nerve and made breaks of 101 and 87 to take one of the biggest prizes in snooker.
Here are the results for the Saudi Arabia Masters from the fifth round onwards when the top sixteen-ranked players are introduced into the draw:
Final - Best of nineteen frames (Player's ranking in brackets)
- Neil Robertson (9) v Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) 10-9
Semi Finals - Best of eleven frames (Player's ranking in brackets)
- Neil Robertson (9) v Elliot Slessor (28) 6-3
- Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) v Chris Wakelin (15) 6-3 (O'Sullivan made two 147 breaks in this match)
Quarter Finals - Best of eleven frames (Player's ranking in brackets)
- Ali Carter (16) v Neil Robertson (9) 4-6
- Elliot Slessor (28) v Mark Williams (4) 6-5
- Kyren Wilson (3) v Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) 5-6
- Barry Hawkins (10) v Chris Wakelin (15) 5-6
Round Six - Best of eleven frames (Player's ranking in brackets)
- Oliver Lines (64) v Ali Carter (16) 3-6
- Neil Robertson (9) v Mark Selby (8) 6-4
- Elliot Slessor (28) v Stuart Bingham (21) 6-5
- Shaun Murphy (13) v Mark Williams (4) 1-6
- Kyren Wilson (3) v Si Jiahui (14) 6-3
- Chang Bingyu (114) v Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) 5-6
- Ding Junhui (7) v Barry Hawkins (10) 3-6
- Chris Wakelin (15) v Zhao Xintong (2) 6-5
Round Five - Best of nine frames (Player's ranking in brackets)
- Judd Trump (1) v Oliver Lines (64) 3-5
- Ali Carter (16) v Gary Wilson (17) 5-4
- Neil Robertson (9) v Ben Woollaston (41) 5-2
- Mark Selby (8) v Long Zehuang (57) 5-3
- John Higgins (5) v Elliot Slessor (28) 4-5
- Zhang Anda (12) v Stuart Bingham (21) 2-5
- Shaun Murphy (13) v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (45) 5-1
- Mark Williams (4) v Yuan Sijun (29) 5-3
- Kyren Wilson (3) v Iulian Boiko (103) 5-4
- Si Jiahui (14) v Wu Yize (19) 5-3
- Mark Allen (11) v Chang Bingyu (114) 4-5
- Ronnie O'Sullivan (6) v Joe O'Connor (27) 5-0
- Ding Junhui (7) v Stephen Maguire (26) 5-2
- Barry Hawkins (10) v Martin O'Donnell (42) 5-3
- Chris Wakelin (15) v Farakh Ajaib (82) 5-1
- Xiao Zintong (2) v Steven Hallworth (100) 5-0
Saudi Arabia Masters 2025: Format and Prizemoney
Last season's Saudi Arabia Masters was the first ranking event to be played in the country and was introduced after the success of the previous year’s invitational event, The World Masters.
The 2025 event runs from the 8th to the 16th August and has a total prize fund of £2,302,000 of which £500,000 goes to the winner. The winner's cheque is equal to that picked up by Zhao Xintong earlier this year for winning the World Championship.
The event will be played at the Green Rooms, Riyadh.
The format of the event differs from most events as the draw will be staggered with the higher ranked players being introduced after each completed round, as in the World Championship. For example, players such as Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump won’t start in the competition until Round five.
The number of frames played increases as the tournament progresses:
Rounds 1, 2 and 3 - best of seven frames
Rounds 4 and 5 - best of nine frames
Rounds 6, quarter-finals and semi-finals - best of eleven frames
Final - best of nineteen frames
If you need some help with who to back in the Wuhan Open why not check out who OLBG's snooker tipsters are tipping
Event Win Percentages From The Last Four Seasons
Unsurprisingly Judd Trump has won the most tournaments over the last four-seasons but how have the top sixteen seeds fared on a tournament wins to played record?:
(Table does not include any events where match frames played is under seven)
| Player | 2025/226 | 24/25 | 23/24 | 22/23 | 4-Year Record | 4-Year event win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ronnie O'Sullivan | 0 wins from 2 events | 0/9 | 5/12 | 2/12 | 7 wins from 35 events | 20% |
| Judd Trump | 0 wins from 2 events | 3/18 | 5/18 | 1/14 | 9 wins from 52 events | 17% |
| Kyren Wilson | 1 wins from 2 events | 4/22 | 1/15 | 1/16 | 7 wins from 55 events | 13% |
| Mark Allen | 0 wins from 1 event | 2/21 | 2/19 | 3/15 | 7 wins from 56 events | 13% |
| Zhao Xintong | 0 wins from 2 event | 1/2 | DNP | 0/8 | 1 win from 12 events | 8% |
| Neil Robertson | 1 win from 2 events | 3/19 | 0/14 | 0/12 | 4 wins from 47 events | 9% |
| Mark Selby | 0 wins from 2 events | 2/21 | 0/17 | 2/16 | 4 wins from 56 events | 7% |
| Shaun Murphy | 0 wins from 2 events | 1/21 | 0/17 | 2/14 | 3 wins from 54 events | 6% |
| Mark Williams | 0 wins from 2 event | 1/20 | 2/20 | 0/13 | 3 wins from 55 events | 5% |
| John Higgins | 0 wins from 2 events | 2/21 | 0/18 | 0/13 | 2 wins from 55 events | 4% |
| Xiao Guodong | 0 wins from 1 event | 1/17 | 0/13 | 0/11 | 1 win from 42 events | 2% |
| Zhang Anda | 0 wins from 2 events | 0/19 | 1/17 | 0/10 | 1 win from 48 events | 2% |
| Ding Junhui | 0 wins from 2 events | 1/17 | 0/17 | 0/13 | 1 win from 49 events | 2% |
| Barry Hawkins | 0 wins from 2 events | 0/19 | 1/17 | 0/12 | 1 win from 50 events | 2% |
| Ali Carter | 0 wins from 2 events | 0/19 | 0/17 | 1/13 | 1 win from 51 events | 2% |
| Si Jiahui | 0 win from 2 events | 0/19 | 0/13 | 0/10 | 0 wins from 44 events | 0% |
| Chris Wakelin | 0 wins from 2 events | 0/16 | 0/15 | 0/11 | 0 wins from 44 events | 0% |
Recent Major Event Winners
Below is a table of all the major tournament winners and runners-up for the last twelve months.
Despite the perceived dominance of Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson last season, we've seen twelve different tournament winners over the last year:
| Tournament | Winner | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|
| Xian Grand Prix | Kyren Wilson | Judd Trump |
| Saudi Arabia Masters | Judd Trump | Mark Williams |
| English Open | Neil Robertson | Wu Yize |
| British Open | Mark Selby | John Higgins |
| Wuhan Open | Xiao Guodong | Si Jiahui |
| Northern Ireland Open | Kyren Wilson | Judd Trump |
| International Championship | Ding Junhui | Chris Wakelin |
| Champion of Champions | Mark Williams | Xiao Guodong |
| UK Championship | Judd Trump | Barry Hawkins |
| Scottish Open | Lei Peifan | Wu Yize |
| Riyadh Season Snooker Championship | Mark Allen | Luca Brecel |
| Masters | Shaun Murphy | Kyren Wilson |
| German Masters | Kyren Wilson | Barry Hawkins |
| Welsh Open | Mark Selby | Stephen Maguire |
| World Open | John Higgins | Joe O'Connor |
| World Grand Prix | Neil Robertson | Stuart Bingham |
| Players Championship | Kyren Wilson | Judd Trump |
| Tour Championship | John Higgins | Mark Selby |
| World Championship | Zhao Xintong | Mark Williams |
| Helsinki Cup | Mark Allen | Zhang Anda |
| Shanghai Masters | Kyren Wilson | Ali Carter |
Top scorers: Centuries scored by player
When looking for the winner of an upcoming tournament it's worth knowing who are the in-form players and who are the heavy scorers.
Those players who frequently complete century breaks tend to be the players who win plenty of matches and tournaments.
Below is a table of the top century break scorers over the last three seasons:
| Player | Centuries 23/24 | Centuries 24/25 | Centuries 25/26 | Three season total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judd Trump | 79 | 107 | 7 | 193 |
| Kyren Wilson | 69 | 61 | 9 | 139 |
| Mark Selby | 47 | 73 | 6 | 126 |
| John Higgins | 54 | 44 | 0 | 98 |
| Mark Allen | 47 | 47 | 1 | 95 |
| Shaun Murphy | 32 | 58 | 3 | 93 |
| Ronnie O'Sullivan | 62 | 25 | 5 | 92 |
| Neil Robertson | 41 | 43 | 9 | 93 |
| Ding Junhui | 45 | 35 | 3 | 83 |
| Xiao Guodong | 19 | 54 | 8 | 81 |
| Mark Williams | 40 | 39 | 2 | 81 |
| Jak Jones | 18 | 56 | 3 | 77 |
| Barry Hawkins | 39 | 36 | 3 | 78 |
| Jack Lisowski | 31 | 43 | 1 | 75 |
| Ali Carter | 37 | 19 | 10 | 66 |
| Si Jiahui | 16 | 34 | 8 | 58 |
| Wu Yize | 9 | 44 | 5 | 58 |
| Zhao Xintong | 0 | 22 | 8 | 30 |
Judd Trump has topped the centuries chart for the last two seasons and has made a good start once again in the very early stages of the 25/26 season.
It is noticeable that Mark Selby made considerable improvement on his century tally last season moving up to 73 from 47 the year before. Selby's well documented problems on and off the table may now be behind him and after a semi-final appearance in Shanghai the Leicester man may be in for a good season.
It's somewhat surprising to see Kyren Wilson's century score dropping last season to 61 compared to 69 the season before. He did win the World Championship in 23/24 but he has won multiple titles in 24/25 so strange to see his century tally slightly down.
Understandably, Ronnie O'Sullivan made far fewer centuries last season than we have come to expect from the great man but that was almost certainly down to The Rocket playing a compacted season. It will be interesting to see if the player with the most century breaks ever (1289 as of 3rd August 2025) can get back to his best in 25/26.
Most of the other top players appear to be pretty consistent hitting around 40 centuries a season although one player who may be a surprise on our chart is Jak Jones. The Welshman accrued an impressive 56 centuries last season despite only making a couple of big event quarter-finals. He did play extensively in the short-format Championship League which accounted for some of his big breaks but he should be a player to note when considering century breaks in his individual matches.
Saudi Arabia Masters 2024: Review
Judd Trump won his seventh event since the start of the 23/24 season and picked up a cool £500,000 winners cheque for doing so when taking the inaugural Saudi Arabia Masters.
It wasn't all plain sailing for the Ace in the Pack who had to come through three final frame deciders on the way to the title, including when coming back from 4-0 down to Wu Yize in his first match. Trump admitted that he had been checking flights home at the interval but somehow managed to win five frames in a row to make it through to the next round. Trump also survived final frame deciders against Shaun Murphy in the semi-final and in the nineteen frame final against Mark Williams. In the final the Welshman had a 62-0 lead in the final frame but missed a crucial red and allowed Trump back in to make a superb 72 clearance to take the title.
Trump's start to the 24/25 season had been particularly impressive having won the Shanghai Masters, losing in the final of the Xian Grand Prix to Kyren Wilson and now winning in Saudi Arabia. Trump has returned to the summit of the world rankings and has now won twenty-nine ranking events, with just John Higgins, Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan ahead of him in number of career titles won.
Saudi Arabia Masters 2024: Results from Round Six onwards
Final - Best of nineteen frames:
Judd Trump v Mark Williams 10-9
Semi-Finals - Best of eleven frames:
Mark Williams v Si Jiahui 6-3
Judd Trump v Shaun Murphy 6-5
Quarter-Finals - Best of eleven frames:
Mark Williams v Jimmy Robertson 6-0
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Si Jiahui 4-6
Judd Trump v Neil Robertson 6-3
Shaun Murphy v Xiao Guodong 6-2
Round Six - Best of eleven frames:
Kyren Wilson v Jimmy Robertson 4-6
Mark Williams v Stuart Bingham 6-2
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Zhang Anda 6-5
Si Jiahui v Pang Junxu 6-5
Judd Trump v Jack Lisowski 6-1
Gary Wilson v Neil Robertson 1-6
Shaun Murphy v Elliot Slessor 6-3
Scott Donaldson v Xiao Guodong 5-6
