Scheduling at the upcoming International Championship has come in for criticism as some players face playing two best-of-11 matches in the same day.

The ranking event in Nanjing, China begins on Saturday and it is going to be a long day for three players who will compete in a preliminary round in the morning and then a first round match in the evening.

It is not unusual for players to play twice in the same day in events when matches are best-of-seven, or over two sessions at the World Championship, but the prospect of playing up to 22 frames over two games in the same day is extreme.

The preliminary round exists as local wildcards are in the event and three unlucky professionals are drawn to face them.

Steven Hallworth, Michal Szubarczyk and Liu Wenwei are the players taking on Li Jun, Chen Qi’en and Dong Zihao respectively.

If the professionals win on Saturday morning, Hallworth will return in the evening to play Fan Zhengyi, Szubarczyk will face Jackson Page and Liu will have the unenviable task of taking on Judd Trump.

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Hallworth explained the situation on WST’s Snooker Club podcast, saying: ‘I’ve actually been drawn out to play a pre-qualifier, which is a round before round one. The Chinese promoters put in some wildcards and filter them into a pre-qualifier.

‘It’s probably going to be a busy day, I’ll play first session because it’s the pre-qualifier. If I win that best-of-11, I’ll play again that night in another best-of-11.’

Former world champion Neil Robertson feels that playing two matches of that length on the same day is not fair and should not be signed off.

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‘That just flat out shouldn’t be allowed to happen,’ Robertson told Metro. ‘If I was still on the players’ board, I would have been absolutely howling over that.

‘It’s a lot different from playing a session at the World Championship of eight frames. If you win a match it’s a completely different mindset.

‘You can’t have a player, first day in China when you’re struggling for jet-lag, 9.30 in the morning playing a best out of 11. They need to come down from that, then get back up again for the nighttime session. It’s not fair to have to do that.’

This is not the first time this has happened, with Bai Yulu facing wildcard Wang Xinzhong in the preliminary round of the International Championship last year.

It was an incredible achievement for Wang given he was just 14 at the time and showed that wildcards are not to be taken lightly.

‘Gone are the years of drawing these wildcard players and thinking it’s a bit of a walkover,’ said Hallworth. ‘Just a few years ago, [world number one] Zhao Xintong was one of the wildcards.

‘They’re proper players, they’re knocking on the door for getting on the tour and a lot of them are at tour level anyway. You can’t go into that thinking it’s a bit of a pushover, you’ve got to hit the ground running.’

In a confusing move, the now 15-year-old amateur Wang is in the tournament again this week, but goes in at round one despite three professionals having to play a preliminary round.

World Snooker Tour has been approached for comment.

The International Championship begins on Saturday October 31, with the final on Saturday November 7 when the winner will pick up the top prize of £175,000.

World champion Wu Yize is the defending champion after beating John Higgins in last year’s final to lift his first ranking title.

Now boasting three ranking events, including the biggest in the sport, Wu told WST: ‘Winning in Nanjing last year was definitely my first major breakthrough, and it was particularly special to me. Looking back at my career since turning professional, I feel that tournament was the first time I managed to perform consistently well in almost every match.

‘I’m really looking forward to returning to Nanjing this year and hopefully defending my title. To me the event overall, the venue and the fans there are among the best and most passionate.’