A former Welsh Open champion has suffered a dramatic downturn in fortunes since lifting the trophy.
Robert Milkins beat Shaun Murphy to win the Welsh Open (Picture: Getty)
A former Welsh Open champion faces a battle to retain his tour card as his wretched kind continues. Robert Milkins received one in all snooker’s longest-running tournaments simply three years in the past when he defeated Shaun Murphy 9-7 within the last, having crushed Mark Selby and Mark Allen earlier within the competitors.
However the Milkman has been absent from the 2026 version in Llandudno this week after dropping to teenager Liam Pullen in qualifying. The defeat continued a worrying pattern for the 49-year-old, who has been ever-present on the World Snooker Tour since 1995. Nevertheless, this season he has confronted the prospect of dropping his card. In October, he was provisionally ranked as little as 74th, with gamers ending the season outdoors the highest 64 dropping their playing cards and needing to undergo the brutally powerful Q-College to get them again.
A run to the final 16 of the Xi’an Grand Prix in October lifted him again into the highest 64 however he hasn’t been capable of again up that efficiency since. Because it stands, Milkins, now sixtieth on the provisional record, would cling on to his tour card for an additional season.
In Milkins’ absence, the 2026 Welsh Open reaches its crescendo this weekend with two mouthwatering semi-finals on Saturday. Within the first, Chinese language star Wu Yize faces Barry Hawkins, earlier than snooker legend John Higgins takes on Northern Eire Open champion Jack Lisowski.
If the latter can beat the four-time world champion, he would get his arms on the £150,000 bonus for ending high of the House Nations Sequence, which encompasses the English, Scottish, Northern Eire and Welsh Opens. Milkins received the House Nations Sequence himself in 2023, however that may be a distant reminiscence now as he strives to maintain his place on the tour.
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