Is Tour Championship a 'Crucible Curse' on hopes of world snooker title glory after Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams and Neil Robertson exits?
Published 30/03/2026 at 14:31 GMT+1
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The 12-player Tour Championship is the final ranking event of the snooker season before the sport's biggest tournament, the 50th World Championship, gets underway at the Crucible between April 18-May 4, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max. John Higgins is the defending Tour champion at Manchester Central with former winners Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy and Neil Robertson all chasing the title this week.
'That's got to be shot of the week!' - Higgins hits tremendous red down the rails
Video credit: TNT Sports
Does winning the Tour Championship provide a snooker player with a major boost ahead of the World Championship?
The coveted Tour event, the penultimate ranking tournament of the 2025/26 campaign, gets underway at Manchester Central on Monday, March 30, with the top 12 players on the one-year ranking chasing the trophy.
But history suggests it has become a poisoned chalice as much as a prestigious prize in terms of emulating the feat a few weeks later at the big show in Sheffield - which is live from April 18 on TNT Sports and HBO Max.
Ronnie O'Sullivan, who has opted out of this week's event, won the inaugural Tour tournament with a 13-11 win over Neil Robertson in Llandudno in 2019, but it hardly boosted his Crucible prospects.
Handed a first-round match with amateur qualifier James Cahill, O'Sullivan lost 10-8 to the Blackpool potter in one of the biggest shocks in snooker history.
Stephen Maguire claimed the 2020 title with a 10-6 win over Mark Allen, a tournament staged behind closed doors due to the Covid pandemic.
But the Scot did very little when he arrived at the Crucible a few weeks later, losing 10-3 to Martin Gould in the first round.
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More Ronnie magic! Watch as O’Sullivan books spot in final with mesmeric clearance
Video credit: TNT Sports
Yet Maguire's fate has been very much in keeping with the other Tour Championship winners.
Indeed, oddly enough, the winner of the season's penultimate ranking event has yet to reach the semi-finals of the World Championship and the fabled one-table set-up.
Defending Tour champion John Higgins, a 10-8 winner against Mark Selby a year ago in Manchester, came closest last season when he lost 13-12 on the final black to Mark Williams in an epic quarter-final in Sheffield.
"It would be good to qualify for the Tour Championship, but if I do qualify and do well there, I could be adding 70 to 80 frames into the tank going into the World Championship," said Higgins, Crucible winner in 1998, 2007, 2009 and 2011, last month.
"Someone like myself, maybe doesn't have the energy for that. If I don't qualify, then who knows, it could end up helping me be a bit fresher."
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But Williams also suffered an early exit at the World Championship in 2024, losing 10-9 to Si Jiahui in the first round, only weeks after defeating O'Sullivan 10-5 to lift the Tour title.
Neil Robertson won back-to-back Tour Championships in 2021 and 2022, defeating O'Sullivan 10-4 before edging Higgins 10-9 a year later, but it hardly boosted the 2010 world champion's performance levels in Sheffield.
A 13-8 loss to Kyren Wilson in the quarter-finals five years ago was followed by a 13-12 defeat to Jack Lisowski in the last 16 in 2022.
The theme continued in 2023 as Shaun Murphy clinched the Tour title with a 10-7 win over Kyren Wilson, but then lost 10-9 to Si in the first round in Sheffield.
And when looking at the last three world champions - Zhao Xintong, Wilson and Luca Brecel - none of them even competed at the Tour Championship in the season they won the big one in Yorkshire.
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‘What a story’ - Un-Nooh 'stuns' O’Sullivan to become World Open champion
Video credit: TNT Sports
The 2026 event gets underway in Manchester on Monday with new World Open champion Thepchaiya Un-Nooh facing Barry Hawkins, and world No. 1 Trump taking on Mark Allen.
Reigning world champion Zhao Xintong - who has won the World Grand Prix, Riyadh Season Championship and Players Championship this season - is the second seed, and will take on the winner of Wu Yize or Chris Wakelin, a best-of-19-frame match that takes place over Monday and Tuesday.
Higgins begins his title defence against fellow world champion Williams in a blockbuster meeting on Tuesday.
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Watch and stream the 2025/26 snooker season, including the 50th World Championship, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max
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