The 2013β14 snooker season was a series of
snooker tournaments played between 6 June 2013 and 5 May 2014. From this season every qualifying match was held open to the public at various venues in the
United Kingdom, replacing the
World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. The number of wild-card players at the Chinese ranking events, except the
Shanghai Masters,[1] was reduced from eight to four and former
Main Tour players were excluded. A professional player could not be selected for more than one wild-card match during the season.[2]
In all but three tournaments, every player participated in round one featuring 64 seeds for the first time in the
history of snooker.[3] In nine of the ranking tournaments all players took part in the first round, with the winners travelling to the final venue. At three events, the
UK Championship, the
Welsh Open and the
PTC Finals, all matches were held at the final venue. The only three events using the old system were the
Australian Goldfields Open, the Shanghai Masters and the
World Championship. If a seeded player lost his first-round match in these events, then only half of the prize money counted to his official ranking. This was used in all tournaments following the
2012 World Championship.[2]
The season had a total of at least
Β£8 million of prize money.[2] The World Championship, the UK Championship, the
International Championship and the
Masters were the four biggest tournaments in terms of prize money with the total pot being at least Β£600,000 at each event.[4] The
Indian Open became the first ranking event held in India,[5] and the
Champion of Champions was held again after
1980 replacing the
Premier League Snooker.[6] At the end of the season
Ronnie O'Sullivan was named the World Snooker Player of the Year and the Fans Player of the Year,
Ding Junhui the Snooker Writers Player of the Year and
John Astley the Rookie of the Year.
Mark Selby received the "Performance of the Year" and "The Magic Moment of the Year" awards for winning his first World title and compiling the 100th
maximum break in the history of snooker.
Dennis Taylor and
Cliff Thorburn were inducted into the
Hall of Fame.[7]
Neil Robertson became the first player in the history of snooker to compile one hundred
century breaks in a season.[8] Ding Junhui equalled
Stephen Hendry's then record of winning five major ranking titles in a season by claiming the Shanghai Masters, the Indian Open, the International Championship, the German Masters and the China Open.[9][10]
^"Ch" = Change since the beginning of the season 2013/2014. See [98] for the player rankings at the start of the season.
^The 2011/2012 points only include the ranking points that count towards the next seedings update. All 36 new players will start on 0 points. Players on 0 points are ranked alphabetically.[100] See [101] for the points accumulated during the 2011/2012 season and see [102] for points accumulated during the 2012/2013 season.
^See [98] for the rankings at the first seedings cut-off point; see [104] for the rankings at the second cut-off point; see [105] for the rankings at the third cut-off point; see [106] for the rankings at the fourth cut-off point; see [107] for the rankings at the fifth cut-off point; see [108] for the rankings at the sixth cut-off point; see [103] for the rankings at the end of the season.
^Composed by the European Tour and the Asian Tour.