Covid Bubble Planned For Hong Kong Masters Players

Organisers of the Hong Kong Masters snooker tournament say they are in talks with the government about a bubble arrangement for participating international players.

Some of the world's top players – including world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan, as well as Judd Trump and Mark Selby – have accepted invitations to play in the event at the Hong Kong Coliseum from October 6-9.

The tournament will also feature Hong Kong's Marco Fu and Ng On-yee, the three-time women's world champion.

Vincent Law from the Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council on Friday said the details of a bubble arrangement for the international players will be confirmed in the next few weeks.

“They will not be allowed to go out freely, but they will be protected inside the bubble so that they don’t have to sit through three days of quarantine in a hotel," he said.

"This is one of the conditions that the World Snooker Tour imposed on us... if there’s quarantine, they won’t allow their players to come to Hong Kong,” he said.

With a surge in Covid-19 cases recently, the government decided to limit the number of people allowed to join large-scale sports events at 500, leading to the cancellation of a 10-kilometre run and the possible cancellation or postponement of the cross-border swim.

Law said he's not worried about a sudden change of rules for the snooker tournament, saying it cannot be compared to the other sports events.

"They are fundamentally different from the Hong Kong Masters that we are going to showcase. We are a snooker event with only eight players, but the marathon and the swimming event will have thousands of people taking part," Law said.

"Of course we will have a few thousand spectators, but it is the same as a concert. As long as people can go to see concerts, they should be allowed to see people playing snooker at the same venue."