The 2024–25 Q Tour was a series of second-tier snooker tournaments, run by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, that took place during the 2024–25 snooker season for players not on the main World Snooker Tour.
Zhao Xintong is the prize money winner of the tournament. Steven Hallworth, Liam Highfield and Florian Nüßle won their respective Q Tour playoffs to each secure their own two-year tour cards for the subsequent two seasons.
Overview
A series of seven Q Tour Europe events were played, with the leading money-winner gaining a place on the main tour for the 2025–26 snooker season. Eighteen players – the highest-ranked players who had not already secured a place on the main tour for the 2024–25 season – gained entry to a further event, the WPBSA Q Tour Global Play-Off; They were joined by five players from the Q Tour Global qualifying from regional Q Tour series. These players competed for a further three places on the World Snooker Tour. In total, 1542 Q Tour matches were played, competed by 711 players from 54 countries.
This season's tournament saw the integration of CBSA China Tour into the Q Tour's playoff stage for its third-place finisher (as the first and second places directly qualified for the main tour); Luo Honghao was the first snooker player to qualify for the playoffs in such manner.
After returning from a 20-month ban for breaching match-fixing rules, former top-16 professional player Zhao Xintong won four Q Tour Europe events in a row, topping the rankings list and securing a professional tour card for the next two seasons. He made two maximum breaks while competing on the Q Tour, the first ever achieved at Q Tour events. Following the conclusion of the Q Tour, he qualified for and won the 2025 World Snooker Championship, securing professional status by ending the season at 11th place in the world rankings. The tour card Zhao had secured through the Q Tour was then awarded to Dylan Emery, who had finished second in the Q Tour Europe rankings and was thus the highest ranked eligible player. A record-breaking total of seven top-ranked Q Tour players have qualified for the main tour, with the other players qualified through regional championships and Q School.
Q Tour Europe Format Q Tour Europe events are generally played over three days. The first day is an open qualifying day with 16 places available. The main draw starts on the second day when the 16 qualifiers are joined by the 48 seeded players who qualified based on their rankings in the 2024 Q School Orders of Merit to make a first round field of 64 players. There are two rounds on the second day and a further four on the final day, to determine the winner of the event. The 48 who qualified directly included the top 32 eligible players from the 2024 UK Q School Order of Merit, the top eight from the 2024 Asia-Oceania Q School Order of Merit, and the eight highest ranked junior players on the 2024 UK Q School Order of Merit, not already qualified.
Prize fund Each Q Tour Europe event featured a prize fund of £14,300 with the winner receiving £3,000.
Winner: £3,000 Runner-up: £1,500 Semi-final: £900 Quarter-final: £600 Last 16: £300 Last 32: £200 Total: £14,300
Schedule
The schedule for the seven Q Tour Europe events is given below. Date Country Tournament Venue City Field Winner Runner-up Score Ref. 15 Aug 18 Aug Event 1 Northern Snooker Centre Leeds 154 Andres Petrov Ryan Thomerson 4–3 20 Sep 22 Sep Event 2 Bulgarian Snooker Academy Sofia 108 Dylan Emery Harvey Chandler 4–3 4 Oct 6 Oct Event 3 Snookerhallen Stockholm 116 Zhao Xintong Craig Steadman 4–3 7 Nov 10 Nov Event 4 Club 200 Manchester 156 Zhao Xintong Ryan Davies 4–2 13 Dec 15 Dec Event 5 Austrian Snooker Academy Vienna 103 Zhao Xintong Ryan Thomerson 4–2 10 Jan 12 Jan Event 6 Delta Moon Snooker Club Mons 87 Zhao Xintong Ehsan Heydari Nezhad 4–1 7 Feb 9 Feb Event 7 Landywood Snooker Club Great Wyrley 124 Liam Highfield Dylan Emery 4–3
Rankings Below are listed the leading players in the prize money rankings. The top-ranked player gets a place on the main tour for the 2024–25 season. 16 other players—the tournament winners and the highest-ranked players who have not already got a place on the main tour—will gain entry to a further event, the WPBSA Q Tour Global Playoff. Players on equal points are ranked by "countback", with the player having won the most prize money in the latest event played being ranked higher. Rank Player Event 1 Event 2 Event 3 Event 4 Event 5 Event 6 Event 7 Total (£)1 Zhao Xintong ^ – 0 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 – 12,0002 Dylan Emery + * – 3,000 – 900 200 0 1,500 5,6003 Liam Highfield % 300 900 0 0 600 200 3,000 5,0004 Ryan Thomerson + 1,500 600 300 0 1,500 0 0 3,9005 Andres Petrov + 3,000 300 0 0 300 0 – 3,6006 Craig Steadman + 200 300 1,500 900 200 200 0 3,3007 Ryan Davies + 900 0 200 1,500 200 200 200 3,2008 Steven Hallworth % 600 0 900 200 300 900 200 3,1009 Iulian Boiko + ^ 600 600 – 300 300 200 900 2,90010 Sean O'Sullivan + 0 300 300 600 900 200 600 2,90011 Florian Nüßle % 300 200 300 200 200 900 600 2,70012 Harvey Chandler + 0 1,500 200 300 0 300 300 2,60013 Mark Joyce + 600 900 – 200 0 600 200 2,50014 Alex Clenshaw + 300 0 600 0 200 200 900 2,20015 Joshua Thomond + 200 200 200 300 300 600 300 2,10016 Ehsan Heydari Nezhad + 0 – – – 0 1,500 200 1,70017 Oliver Sykes + 200 300 300 600 300 0 0 1,70018 Kuldesh Johal + 0 600 0 200 0 200 600 1,60019 Connor Benzey + ^ 300 200 0 600 200 0 300 1,60020 Hayden Staniland 200 0 200 200 900 0 0 1,500 * Qualified for the main tour by order of merit ^ Qualified for the main tour through other means % Qualified for the main tour as play-offs winners + Qualified for the play-offs
Event 1 The first Q Tour Europe event took place at Northern Snooker Centre in Leeds from 15 to 18 August 2024. Andres Petrov beat Ryan Thomerson 4–3 in the final. Petrov came from 3–1 down in both the quarter and semi-finals and, after leading 3–0, also won the final in the deciding frame. Thomerson had had to qualify to reach the last-64 stage and won a further five matches to reach the final. The final-day results are given below.
Event 2 The second Q Tour Europe event took place at the National Snooker Academy of Bulgaria in Sofia from 20 to 22 September 2024. Dylan Emery beat Harvey Chandler 4–3 in the final, winning the last three frames after trailing 1–3. Emery and Liam Highfield both made a 142 total clearance in the first frame of their respective semi-finals, the highest breaks of the event. The final-day results are given below.
Event 3 The third Q Tour Europe event took place at the Snookerhallen in Stockholm from 4 to 6 October 2024. Zhao Xintong made a maximum break in his last-64 match against Shaun Liu, the first in a Q Tour event. Zhao beat Craig Steadman 4–3 in the final. In the event Zhao won 8 matches and made 8 century breaks. The final-day results are given below.
Event 4 The fourth Q Tour Europe event took place at the Club 200 in Manchester from 7 to 10 November 2024. Zhao Xintong made a maximum break in his quarter-final match against Oliver Sykes. Zhao beat Ryan Davies 4–2 in the final to win his second Q Tour Europe event in a row. The final-day results are given below.
Event 5 The fifth Q Tour Europe event took place at the Austrian Snooker Academy in Vienna from 13 to 15 December 2024. Zhao Xintong defeated Ryan Thomerson 4–2 in the final to win his third Q Tour Europe event and 24th match on the Q Tour in a row. The final-day results are given below.
Event 6 The sixth Q Tour Europe event took place at the Delta Moon Snooker Club in Mons, Belgium, from 10 to 12 January 2025. In the third frame of his last-64 match against Daan Leyssen, Iulian Boiko made a maximum break, becoming the second player after Zhao Xintong to record a maximum break on the Q Tour. Zhao defeated Ehsan Heydari Nezhad 4–1 in the final to win his fourth Q Tour Europe event and 32nd match on the Q Tour in a row. The final-day results are given below.
Event 7 The seventh Q Tour Europe event was held at the Landywood Snooker Club in Great Wyrley from 7 to 9 February 2025. Liam Highfield defeated Dylan Emery 43 in the final, thereby winning his first Q Tour event. Emery made the highest break of the event, a 140 compiled in his match against Anton Kazakov in the early rounds of the event. The final-day results are given below.
Q Tour Global The Q Tour Global will consist of regional Q Tour series held outside Europe.
Americas series Two players will qualify from a series of events organised by the Pan American Billiards and Snooker Association.
The schedule for the Q Tour Americas events is given below. Date Country Tournament Venue City Field Winner Runner-up Score Ref. 7 Mar 10 Mar Event 1 H Niteroi Hotel Rio de Janeiro 37 Igor Figueiredo Noel Rodrigues Moreira 5–1 31 Oct 3 Nov Event 2 H Niteroi Hotel Rio de Janeiro 37 Claudio Menechini Dhiones Moraes Arent 5–1 13 Dec 15 Dec Event 3 Arizona Snooker Academy Chandler 20 Andy McCloskey Ajeya Prabhakar 4–2 17 Jan 19 Jan Event 4 The Corner Bank Toronto 16 Vito Puopolo Indi Lotey 5–0
Asia-Pacific series One player will qualify from a series of events organised by the Asia-Pacific Snooker and Billiards Federation.
The schedule for the Q Tour Asia-Pacific events is given below. Date Country Tournament Venue City Field Winner Runner-up Score Ref. 28 Jun 30 Jun Event 1Event also known as the West Coast International. Pot Black Snooker Centre North Perth 44 Vinnie Calabrese Ben Foster 5–4 2 Aug 4 Aug Event 2Event also known as the Fred Osbourne Classic. Commercial Club Albury 81 Vinnie Calabrese Hassan Kerde 4–2 26 Sep 29 Sep Event 3Event also known as the New Zealand Open. Papatoetoe Cosmopolitan Club Auckland 30 Matthew Scarborough Lawrence Millington 6–3 10 Oct 13 Oct Event 4Event also known as the Bob Hawke AC Australian Open. Mounties Club Sydney 92 Vinnie Calabrese Hassan Kerde 6–5 24 Jan 27 Jan Event 5Event also known as the Clem Jones AO Queensland Open. Redcliffe Snooker Club Redcliffe 66 Vinnie Calabrese Shaun Dalitz 5–1
Middle East series Two players will qualify from a series of events played in the Middle East.
The schedule for the Q Tour Middle East events is given below. Date Country Tournament Venue City Field Winner Runner-up Score Ref. 21 May 23 May Event 1 Bahrain Snooker Academy Manama 40 Habib Subah Humood Ismail Türker 4–1 19 Jul 21 Jul Event 2 Emirates Snooker Academy Abu Dhabi 56 Ali Gharahgozlou Amin Sanjael 4–1 16 Jan 18 Jan Event 3 Cue Sports Academy Abu Dhabi 25 Ali Gharahgozlou Ismail Türker 4–2
Q Tour Playoff The final event, the WPBSA Q Tour Playoff, was held at the Pine Beach Belek Hotel in Antalya, Turkey, from 11 to 13 March. Steven Hallworth, Liam Highfield and Florian Nüßle won their respective playoffs, gaining two-year tour cards starting from the 2025–26 season. Mark Joyce made the highest break of the event, a 147 maximum break in his 62 victory over Dylan Emery in the semi-final of Playoff 1. It was the fourth maximum ever compiled on the Q Tour. The complete results are shown below.
Prize fund The prize money for each play-off is shown below.
Winner: £2,000 Runner-up: £1,000 Semi-final: £750 Quarter-final: £500 Total: £19,500
Playoff 1
Playoff 2
Playoff 3
Notes
References