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The 2023 British Open is the third ranking event of the 2023/24 World Snooker Tour. This year’s edition of the popular tournament takes place from September 25th to October 1st, hosted at The Centaur in Cheltenham.
Heading to the Gloucestershire venue as the reigning British Open champion is Ryan Day. He defeated Mark Allen in a competitive 2022 Final 10-7. For the 2023 edition, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump are strong at the head of the market.
Both arrive in Cheltenham with some good early form behind them, having reached finals already this term. They make up a stellar field in the popular British Open snooker draw. One of the great features of this event is how the draw itself is set up.
Each round of the British Open is a randomised draw, just like football’s FA Cup. Therefore, it can produce some heavyweight clashes before the latter stages depending on which names come out of the hat.
The final draw for the First Round of action at the British Open won’t be settled until September 25th. That’s when the final qualifying matches, involving the sport’s top players (as no one gets a free pass into the British Open draw), happens.
Select British Open Qualifying Matches – September 25th
Contents
Ding Junhui (CHN) v Luca Brecel (BEL)
Anton Kazakov (UKR) v Judd Trump (ENG)
Mark Allen (NIR) v Anthony McGill (SCO)
Ronnie O’Sullivan (ENG) v Jimmy Robertson (ENG)
Sean O’Sullivan (ENG) v Ryan Day (WAL)
Ben Woollaston (ENG) v Mark Selby (ENG)
Kyren Wilson (ENG) v Martin O’Donnell (ENG)
Shaun Murphy (ENG) v Rebecca Kenna (ENG)
John Higgins (SCO) v Long Zhuang (CHN)
Important Dates
Here are the important dates that you need to mark in your sporting diary so that you don’t miss a single stroke of action at the British Open.
October 25th – Qualifying
October 26 to September 30th – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, QF and SF
October 1st – Finals
British Open Prize Money
This is a big-ranking tournament on the Snooker World Tour. The prize money comes in at just under half a million at £478,000. The winner of the tournament will take £100,000 from the prize pot.
All entered players will claim prize money. There is also a £5,000 bonus to be earned for the tournament’s Highest Break.
Winner: £100,000
Runner-up: £45,000
Semi-final: £20,000
Quarter-final: £12,000
Last 16: £8,000
Last 32: £5,000
Last 64: £3,000
Highest break: £5,000
Total: £478,000
Players And British Open Draw
The top fifteen players in the world along with the reigning champion Ryan Day have to go through a qualifying round hosted at Cheltenham. That’s a familiar set-up for ranking events, and it can cause some early upsets before the main draw has even started – Ronnie O’Sullivan for example, suffered a shock upset in last year’s British Open qualifiers.
Once all the qualifying is in the bag, there will be a main draw of 64 players. The tournament is played over the Best of 7 Frames for the first three rounds. The Quarter-finals move up to the Best of 9 frames and it is the Best of 11 for the Semi-finals. The British Open Final is a much longer test over the Best of 19 Frames.
While some earlier qualifying events were hosted, the real meat of the First Round draw won’t happen until the fates of the Top 16 seeds are known. All of snooker’s heavyweights are in there, with familiar faces making up the main list of contenders in the British Open snooker betting market.
Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan were the only two players in single figures ahead of the tournament. Trump lost this season’s European Masters Final to Barry Hawkins in Germany in the second-ranking event of the season. In the season’s first non-ranking event, Ronnie O’Sullivan rose to the occasion as he defeated Luca Brecel in the final of the Shanghai Masters.
Other players expected to be in contention for the title include John Higgins, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy. Selby posted a 147 maximum break in last year’s British Open Third Round against Jack Lisowski.
World Snooker Tour 2023 Season Ranking Events Finals
Championship League – Shaun Murphy 3-0 Mark Williams
European Masters – Barry Hawkins 9-6 Judd Trump
Shanghai Masters – Ronnie O’Sullivan 11-9 Luca Brecel
Where to watch the 2023 British Open Snooker
UK viewers can catch the 2023 British Open snooker on ITV. They have full coverage of the event, while the Matchroom live-streaming subscription service will also carry streams.
About the British Open
The first edition of what is now known as the British Open was held in 1980 and won by Alex Higgins. The tournament went through plenty of changes in its early days before becoming the British Open ranking event from 1985 through to 2004 after which the event was dropped
But the British Open was resurrected in 2021 with Mark Williams winning the title before Ryan Day swept his way to victory in last year’s edition.
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