December 24th 2023.
Mark Selby had a successful festive trip to Macau after winning the rearranged exhibition event. The event had caused quite a stir earlier in the season when Selby, Ali Carter, John Higgins, Luca Brecel and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh were supposed to play it during the Northern Ireland Open in October. The World Snooker Tour was not pleased since the players had pulled out of a ranking event in favour of playing the exhibition in Macau.
The Macau event was eventually rearranged to run from the 22nd to 24th of December and Barry Hawkins was also invited to take part. Selby eventually emerged as the winner, beating Carter 6-3 in the final. There were no shortage of heavy scoring, with Selby making a 147 in his semi-final win against John Higgins and Higgins even knocking in a maximum in his group stage win against Hawkins.
Following the event, another exhibition tournament was organized for the region. The Macau Masters ran from the 25th to 29th of December and featured a star-studded line-up of Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ding Junhui, Judd Trump, Mark Williams, Kyren Wilson, Si Jiahui, Jack Lisowski, and Marco Fu. Despite the impressive line-up, the results were not of any particular importance since nothing of importance was on the line in the events.
After Christmas, the action on the main tour resumes with the Championship League from the 2nd to 5th of January, followed by the Masters at Alexandra Palace from the 7th of January. For snooker fans, these events will be the real curtain-raiser for 2024.
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