Next month’s brand new Romanian Masters invitational tournament will feature many of the world’s best players, it has been announced.

Last week The Old Green Baize reported World Snooker’s announcement of a brand new 16-player competition taking place between March 14 and March 18 in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.

World Snooker has now confirmed that 13 of the world’s top 16 players will be involved in the tournament which will see a top prize of 50,000 Euros handed out.

The three players from the world’s top 16 not taking part include Ronnie O’Sullivan, Ding Junhui and the injured Marco Fu.

Taking their place will be Welshman Ryan Day, China’s Liang Wenbo and Scotland’s Stephen Maguire whom are all currently ranked just outside the top 16 of the world rankings..

The first round draw sees a number of fascinating matches which will be played in a best-of-seven frames format. Arguably the tie of the round sees a rematch of last month’s Masters final between Mark Allen and Kyren Wilson.

The draw is:

Mark Selby vs Liang Wenbo

Stuart Bingham vs Neil Robertson

Mark Williams vs Ali Carter

Shaun Murphy vs Stephen Maguire

John Higgins vs Anthony McGill

Barry Hawkins vs Ryan Day

Mark Allen vs Kyren Wilson

Judd Trump vs Luca Brecel 

The semi-finals will be held on Saturday – March 17 and will be best-of-9 frames, while the Sunday final – March 18, will be played in two sessions with a maximum of 19 frames.

As the tournament is invitational, no victories will count towards world ranking points.