Top snooker stars have ‘massively unfair advantage,’ says Chris Wakelin

Chris Wakelin says he is feeling the benefit of a ‘massively unfair advantage’ as a top 16 player in the current snooker landscape.

The 34-year-old is firmly inside that elite group at number 12 in the world, havign won last season’s Scottish Open and produced a string of other good runs in ranking events.

It is a great time to be in the top 16 as many tournaments have moved to tiered draws, meaning lower-ranked players have to qualify to join the top stars at the main venues of events.

That set-up sees lots of matches being played behind-closed-doors at Leicester’s Mattioli Arena for the lesser lights of the tour as they attempt to earn their spots alongside the brightest stars.

Over the last week-and-a-half there have been qualifiers for the Northern Ireland Open, International Championship in Nanjing and Scottish Open, all held at the Mattioli, meaning that if you’ve had a bad few days then your calendar looks pretty bare in the coming weeks.

Wakelin does not have to deal with many of these qualifiers, but did have to play a match to reach the main stage of the International Championship and he feels he is in too privileged a position to avoid as he avoids that fate more often than not.

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‘It’s something that needs to be addressed for sure,’ Wakelin told Metro. ‘From my perspective it’s a massively unfair advantage, being in the top 16 and not having to go to these qualifiers. It’s not the most lively of places, a little bit soulless and playing in front of nobody.

‘I understand why they have to do things in that manner, but for the guys that are having to go to qualifiers and they’re never actually seeing the inside of a proper venue, it’s not really the dream a lot of people had when they turned professional, to play in front of nobody.’

With the tiered system, top players can win one match at the venue and earn more money – and therefore ranking points – than their opponent has for winning multiple matches to get there.

This has long been the case in some tournaments, most notably the World Championship, but Wakelin feels it is not a fair system to be used across the tour.

‘We all know qualifying is an important part of progressing in the sport, but being in the 16 is such a massive advantage at the moment,’ he said. ‘I’ve only won four or five matches so far this season, while there’s players that have won 10, maybe 15 matches that still haven’t got the same number of ranking points that I’ve accrued.

‘It’s a nice position to be in from my point of view, but I don’t think it’s fair on the other players that are trying to make progress up the rankings.’

Wakelin spent over a decade on tour before cracking the top 16, so even though he doesn’t think it warrants the rewards he is now enjoying, he knows just how much work it takes to get there.

‘I’ve served my apprenticeship. I did 10 years of not really achieving a great deal,’ he said. ‘To be in this position now, I feel very, very fortunate.

‘There’s a lot of players that graft their whole careers and don’t manage to get into the top 16 and for me only a couple of years ago it seemed impossible.

‘But look at the points that you need over two years to get into the top 16. It’s a massive challenge. If you’re in the top 16 you’ve won some big matches, you’ve gone deep in a lot of tournaments.’

At next week’s Shenzhen Open, Wakelin takes on a player who has been in rampant form in the qualifiers, Liam Davies.

The 20-year-old from Wales is in the situation Wakelin has described, winning a huge amount of matches compared to his higher-ranked rivals, but without receiving the same rewards.

As Davies beat Long Zehuang in Scottish Open qualifying on Wednesday, he picked up his 19th win of the season in ranking events. Wakelin has won eight but sits ahead of him on the one-year ranking list.

Wakelin says the youngster may even go in as favourite when they meet in China, given the amount of games he has been winning.

‘He’s a smashing lad, smashing talent,’ said Wakelin. ‘He’s got the potential now to go deep in pretty much every tournament he plays in and good luck to the kid.

‘I want to see these guys doing well, I’m a big advocate of the youngsters from this side of the world. They’re learning how to win matches against people that have been doing it since before they were born.

‘The likes of Liam, Liam [Pullen], Liam [Graham] and Stan [Moody]. Antek [Kowalski] and [Iulian] Boiko, they’re all making their way up.

‘Last season I think Liam Davies struggled to really find his feet, but I’m buzzing for him now that he has done.

‘If anything, I’d say he probably goes into the match in Shenzhen as favourite because he’s done really well in recent tournaments. Obviously found himself comfortable in these big arenas and big tournaments and I’m sure it’ll be a good game, whoever wins.’

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