The Coral Cup consists of my favourite tournaments in the whole snooker season, with the exception of the Triple Crown. They operate slightly differently to other tournaments and provide some of the best matches which could contest a major final in their own right. As the series progresses, the competition only gets better and success in these events can have drastic impacts on a players earnings and therefore, ranking.

If you’re unaware, the Coral Snooker series is made up of the World Grand Prix, Players Championship and lastly, the Tour Championship. The Grand Prix is the oldest of the three events, dating back to the 1980s and going through numerous rebrands; the Players Championship goes back to 2011 and the PTC; while the Tour Championship was only introduced last season when the Coral Cup brand was formed. They are all held fairly closely to each other after the New Year and include competitors in the Top 32/16/8 of the one-year ranking list.

That’s one of the main qualities that make these tournaments fascinating to watch. Near enough every other event is based on using the two-year world ranking data in which certain players can win a big tournament and sit on the prize winnings for quite some time – two years to be exact. The Coral events reflect those who have performed best in the current season and pretty much give a clear, up-to-date picture on who the top players are.

If a player has won any kind of ranking event in the season, then they are pretty much guaranteed a spot in the Top 32 or even the Top 16. For instance, Ding Junhui is securely in the Players and Tour Championship thanks to his UK Championship victory, despite not winning anything on either side of this tournament for quite some time. Even if you’re a defending champion, a poor performance in the season will not get you into the later, more lucrative Coral events. It’s a shame the Shanghai Masters isn’t a ranking event.

There are six-figure prizes on offer for the winner of any of these events (GP - £100k; Players - £125k; Tour - £150k), making it a worthwhile endeavour for those aiming to get towards the top of the rankings. Considering the available winnings, it’s quite amazing to realise there were still 6 tournaments last season that dished out higher prize money to the winners. However, when the prize money is this high you can expect the best players to show up and given the format of the Coral Cup, you can expect to see matches that you’d watch in the Masters.

One of my favourite features of the Coral Snooker Series is the progression that you’re able to witness as the weeks roll by. Unlike the Home Nations or the recently created European Series, the Coral Cup filters the best among the best (among the best) through the series. While other events have an element of unpredictability due to the short format matches and flat-128 draw, you have a better idea of the quality and calibre of snooker to expect with the Coral events.

Whether Coral remain the sponsor for the series indefinitely or not, I do hope that WST continue to brand these events together. Similar to the Home Nations, these tournaments create a unique storyline when bundled together, particularly with the bonuses that are up for grabs. I wonder if something similar could be created earlier in the season for those ranked 33-64.

Like this Short? Click here to read: Top Ranking Events in 2018/19 Season

Have an idea for a Short post? Feel free to get in touch using the social media links below! Thanks for reading!