Brentwood is going to feel very different to Riyadh for the stars of the World Snooker Tour, but the English Open is back with bigger prize money and a revamped format.
The players made it clear that they thoroughly enjoyed the big-money Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters last week, with Judd Trump leaving the Kingdom with a top prize of £500,000.
A return to the greying skies of Essex in September and the no-frills atmosphere of the Brentwood Centre will be a stark contrast, but there are reasons to be cheerful.
The prize pot this season is up to £550,400 from last season’s £427,000. which represents a meaningful increase of £123,400, after discussions between WST and the WPBSA Players Board.
The boost to the prize fund means the winner will leave Brentwood with £100,000, while the new tiered system means money is won down to the last 96 rather than last 64.
The tiered draw has been brought in for the Home Nations this season, meaning players seeded 65-96 meet players seeded 97-128 in round one, with those 32 winners taking on players seeded 33-64 in round two.
The 32 players that come through that round join the top 32 seeds in the last 64 from Monday onwards.
English Open prize money
Winner: £100,000 (up from £80,000)
Runner-up: £45,000 (up from £35,000)
Semi-finals: £21,000 (up from £17,500)
Quarter-finals: £13,200 (up from £11,000)
Last 16: £9,000 (up from £7,500)
Last 32: £5,400 (up from £4,500)
Last 64: £3,600 (up from £3,000)
Last 96: £1,000
While there could still be some late withdrawals, it is a star-studded line-up that will be in Brentwood, featuring all the game’s top names.
Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson, Mark Allen and the rest of the world’s top 16 are all in action, apart from Ding Junhui who has not entered.
English Open Draw and Schedule
Monday 16 September
10am
L64: Ali Carter vs Ian Burns
L64: Dave Gilbert vs Michael Holt
L80: Ricky Walden vs Mink Nutcharut
L80: Yuan Sijun vs Bulcsu Revesz
1pm
L64: Mark Selby vs Aaron Hill
L64: Zhang Anda vs Mark Davis
L80: Dominic Dale vs Liam Davies
L80: Xiao Guodong vs Mitchell Mann
3pm
L64: Judd Trump vs Liu Hongyu
L64: Ryan Day vs Fan Zhengyi
L64: Stuart Bingham vs Wu Yize
L64: Noppon Saengkham vs Zak Surety
7pm
L64: Joe O’Connor vs Artemijs Zizins
L64: Si Jiahui vs Andrew Pagett
L64: Jak Jones vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha
L64: Kyren Wilson vs David Grace
8pm
L64: Rob Milkins vs Oliver Lines
L64: Chris Wakelin vs Joe Perry
L64: Pang Junxu vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
L64: Shaun Murphy vs Jamie Clarke
Tuesday 17 September
All Last 64
10am
Hossein Vafaei vs Matthew Stevens
Gary Wilson vs Ross Muir
1pm
Matt Selt vs Walden/Mink
Tom Ford vs Jiang Jun
Mark Allen vs Long Zehuang
Lyu Haotian vs Dale/Davies
3pm
Mark Williams vs Ben Woollaston
Stephen Maguire vs Yuan/Revesz
Neil Robertson vs Jackson Page
Barry Hawkins vs Jimmy Robertson
7pm
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs He Guoqiang
John Higgins vs Andrew Higginson
Zhou Yuelong vs Jamie Jones
Anthony McGill vs Xiao/Mann
8pm
Luca Brecel vs Anthony Hamilton
Jack Lisowski vs Xu Si
How to watch the English Open
The tournament will be shown on Eurosport, Discovery+ and Dmax in the UK.
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