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A 14-YEAR-OLD snooker player secured the first win of his professional career on day one of the Saudi Arabia Masters.
And at the other end of the age scale, Ken Doherty won the Battle of the Baize Oldies as he eliminated Jimmy White from the Jeddah tournament.
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Polish teenager Michal Szubarczyk hit back-to-back breaks of 68 and 56 as he celebrated a 4-2 victory over English amateur Ryan Davies.
It is a career milestone, one he will remember forever, given he only received his two-year Tour Card at the start of this season.
In round two in the desert nation, Szubarczyk will play Hungarian world No.79 Bulcsu Revesz on Saturday.
And the winner of that clash will then take on Essex cueist Stuart Bingham, who was champion of the world 10 years ago.
The Eastern European – whose highest official break is 126 – took the 2025 European Championships in Turkey by storm, winning the under-16s and under-18s events before reaching the final of the open-age event.
Mark Williams, the three-time world champion, watched that tournament live and said Szubarczyk was “one of the best 14-year-olds I’ve ever seen in my life”.
The Welsh sporting legend added: “He’s up there with Ronnie O’Sullivan at that age.
“Maybe not as good, but not far away. Every time I watched him he was knocking in 80s, 90s, 100s. It was frightening.”
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In April, dad Kamil told SunSport that his son modelled his game on seven-time world champion O’Sullivan.
Kamil said: “One of Michal’s special skills is his ability to play with the audience and the cameras.
“Normal teenagers are tense and stressed. He is more motivated.
“He loves playing when he has an audience, and so I know that anything can happen during this tournament.
“From the first time Michał saw snooker on TV, his hero was Ronnie. It was also my idol. This hasn’t been changed.
“And for both of us whenever Ronnie got knocked out of a tournament, we stopped watching it.
“That man played a key role in creating Michal’s playing style. Mike was fascinated by how offensive Ronnie played all of his games. But he wants to be more than just offensive.
“Ronnie is still motivating Michal to be better and better.”
On Friday evening in the Kingdom, two veterans of the sport took to the baize, though disappointingly only a few people bothered to watch from the stands at the Green Halls.
Former world champion Doherty, 55, took on White, 63, and he prevailed 4-1, hitting a 96 break in frame two.
They had rekindled a rivalry that began in 1991 and saw them battle it out at the World Championships and Masters.
The duo, who have a combined age of 118, are nowhere near their best these days but it is commendable and shows their genuine love for the sport that they are continuing to play professionally.
Doherty, who now plays Latvian Zizins Artemijs in round two on Saturday evening, has now won 17 of their 30 meetings.
Elite players such as Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson will enter the competition – which has a £500,000 top prize – in round five on Tuesday.
List of all-time Snooker World Champions
BELOW is a list of snooker World Champions by year.
The record is for the modern era, widely considered as dating from the 1968-69 season, when the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) took control of the sport.
The first World Championships ran from 1927 – with a break from 1941-45 because of World War II and 1958-63 because of a dispute in the sport.
Joe Davis (15), Fred Davis and John Pulman (both 8) were the most successful players during that period.
Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O’Sullivan share the record for the most titles in the modern era, with seven each.
- 1969 – John Spencer
- 1970 – Ray Reardon
- 1971 – John Spencer
- 1972 – Alex Higgins
- 1973 – Ray Reardon (2)
- 1974 – Ray Reardon (3)
- 1975 – Ray Reardon (4)
- 1976 – Ray Reardon (5)
- 1977 – John Spencer (2)
- 1978 – Ray Reardon (6)
- 1979 – Terry Griffiths
- 1980 – Cliff Thorburn
- 1981 – Steve Davis
- 1982 – Alex Higgins (2)
- 1983 – Steve Davis (2)
- 1984 – Steve Davis (3)
- 1985 – Dennis Taylor
- 1986 – Joe Johnson
- 1987 – Steve Davis (4)
- 1988 – Steve Davis (5)
- 1989 – Steve Davis (6)
- 1990 – Stephen Hendry
- 1991 – John Parrott
- 1992 – Stephen Hendry (2)
- 1993 – Stephen Hendry (3)
- 1994 – Stephen Hendry (4)
- 1995 – Stephen Hendry (5)
- 1996 – Stephen Hendry (6)
- 1997 – Ken Doherty
- 1998 – John Higgins
- 1999 – Stephen Hendry (7)
- 2000 – Mark Williams
- 2001 – Ronnie O’Sullivan
- 2002 – Peter Ebdon
- 2003 – Mark Williams (2)
- 2004 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (2)
- 2005 – Shaun Murphy
- 2006 – Graeme Dott
- 2007 – John Higgins (2)
- 2008 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (3)
- 2009 – John Higgins (3)
- 2010 – Neil Robertson
- 2011 – John Higgins (4)
- 2012 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (4)
- 2013 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (5)
- 2014 – Mark Selby
- 2015 – Stuart Bingham
- 2016 – Mark Selby (2)
- 2017 – Mark Selby (3)
- 2018 – Mark Williams (3)
- 2019 – Judd Trump
- 2020 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (6)
- 2021 – Mark Selby (4)
- 2022 – Ronnie O’Sullivan (7)
- 2023 – Luca Brecel
- 2024 – Kyren Wilson
- 2025 – Zhao Xintong
Most World Titles (modern era)
- 7 – Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O’Sullivan
- 6 – Ray Reardon, Steve Davis
- 4 – John Higgins, Mark Selby
- 3 – John Spencer, Mark Williams
- 2 – Alex Higgins
