Hong Kong border controls force snooker event to try again in October. Will its progress set precedent for Sevens, marathon?
- Organisers seek progress regarding quarantine for delayed tournament, with government telling them to prepare with expectation of 7 days’ isolation on arrival
- ‘This will be very difficult for the players to accept, with the rest of the world having opened,’ source says. ‘The world governing body could not believe it’
The bid to revive the Hong Kong Masters tournament next month proved impossible under the city’s current Covid-19 border restrictions, with organisers running out of time to clarify logistics, such as trying to gain exemptions from quarantine for the players.
Leading stars including Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson, John Higgins and home favourite Marco Fu Ka-chun were among those lined up by snooker bosses to feature in an invitation event at Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai – with officials hopeful that July’s 25th anniversary celebrations of Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China may help to pave the way.
Invitations were sent to the players, but Hong Kong’s mandatory quarantine requirements for arrivals in the city remain in place and the organisers have yet to obtain guarantees from the government.
Whether they can do so in time to hold the Masters in October will be a gauge of progress in the city’s reopening as a sporting venue, and may offer an indication of arrangements for international events pencilled in for November: the Hong Kong Sevens, the Hong Kong Marathon and badminton’s Hong Kong Open.
