We are now in the first ranking in the United Kingdom – the 2019 English Open. After plodding around China and Thailand, the crowd of snooker players will travel to Crawley this month. It would be very easy to make a joke about Neil Robertson travelling to the wrong Crawley, but unfortunately World Snooker have beaten me to it.
Introduction
Since 2016, the Home Nations are among my favourite events in a snooker season. To introduce the “Home Nations” brand and to integrate this, the Scottish Open, the Northern Ireland Open with the already-existing Welsh Open was a stroke of genius. Each trophy is named after the country’s greatest snooker legend, making these tournaments extra special.
I went to the English Open last season. I spent all day at the K2 in Crawley and thoroughly enjoyed myself! During the event, I met some lovely snooker Twitter people face-to-face. It didn’t smell of urine to me, despite what Ronnie thought. I gave a few nods of acknowledgment to snooker players. I ended up shaking Adam Stefanow’s hand as I was heading towards the bus station and saw Hossein Vafaei at a train station. What a time to be alive. Unfortunately, I can’t attend this time around. I just started my job and I think it would be too cheeky if I took a day off this early on! Enjoy it!
Who will follow Liang Wenbo, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stuart Bingham to hold the Steve Davis Trophy?
Draw Analysis
There is a slight change in the format of the Home Nations. Previously, only the Top 16 were seeded but this time it is the Top 32. But that doesn’t mean we are short of interesting ties.
Defending champion Bingham will take on Pole Kacper Filipiak, who was touted as a future world champion many years ago. Ali Carter will take on tough cookie Alan McManus. 2017 Champion O’Sullivan will take on Jamie O’Neill and World Champion Judd Trump has a hard first-round tie against former World Champion Peter Ebdon. Amine Amiri will make his debut in the professional snooker circuit. The Moroccan was nominated by the African Billiards and Snooker Confederation after winning a gold medal in the African Games. He plays Barry Hawkins in the first round. We have two wildcards in the form of English prospects Mark Lloyd and Ryan Davies.
But the two to watch out for are Kyren Wilson vs. Liang Wenbo and Stephen Maguire vs. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. They are salivating ties indeed. We’ve seen a number of awesome displays over the past few years. If it was like O’Sullivan’s performance in 2017, we are in for a good week.
Drumroll for the draw, please!!!
Draw
Top Half
Stuart Bingham vs. Kacper Filipiak
Si Jiahui vs. Soheil Vahedi
Zhou Yuelong vs. Michael White
Ben Woollaston vs. Andrew Higginson
Ali Carter vs. Alan McManus
Gerard Greene vs. Tian Pengfei
Ding Junhui vs. Dominic Dale
Matthew Stevens vs. Xu Si
Quarter-finalist: Stuart Bingham vs. Tian Pengfei
Duane Jones vs. Lu Ning
Tom Ford vs. Peter Lines
Bai Langning vs. Jimmy White
Kyren Wilson vs. Liang Wenbo
Fan Zhengyi vs. Riley Parsons
Anthony McGill vs. Chris Wakelin
Martin Gould vs. Sunny Akani
Shaun Murphy vs. Chang Bingyu
Quarter-finalist: Kyren Wilson vs. Anthony McGill
Neil Robertson vs. Kishan Hirani
Marco Fu vs. Ken Doherty
Scott Donaldson vs. Zhao Xintong
Anthony Hamilton vs. Zhang Jiankang
David Gilbert vs. Stuart Carrington
Ryan Davies (a) vs. Peifan Lei
Jimmy Robertson vs. Robert Milkins
Kurt Maflin vs. Noppon Saengkham
Quarter-finalist: Zhao Xintong vs. Noppon Saengkham
Harvey Chandler vs. Mike Dunn
Graeme Dott vs. Mark Davis
Joe O’Connor vs. Ian Burns
Stephen Maguire vs. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Luo Honghao vs. Sam Craigie
Ricky Walden vs. Alex Borg
Michael Holt vs. James Cahill
Mark Williams vs. Jamie Clarke
Quarter-finalist: Stephen Maguire vs. Ricky Walden
Bottom Half
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Jamie O’Neill
Yuan Sijun vs. Igor Figueiredo
Hossein Vafaei vs. Simon Lichtenberg
Thor Chuan Leong vs. Chen Feilong
Yan Bingtao vs. Mei Xiwen
Li Hang vs. Fraser Patrick
Ryan Day vs. Eden Sharav
Ashley Carty vs. Elliot Slesssor
Quarter-finalist: Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Ryan Day
Jak Jones vs. Brandon Sargeant
Xiao Guodong vs. Rod Lawler
Alfie Burden vs. Andy Hicks
Jack Liowski vs. Jackson Page
Hammad Miah vs. Mitchell Mann
Matthew Selt vs. Craig Steadman
Alexander Ursenbacher vs. Martin O’Donnell
Mark Selby vs. Barry Pinches
Quarter-finalist: Alfie Burden vs. Mark Selby
Mark Allen vs. James Wattana
Andy Lee vs. David Lilley
Luca Brecel vs. Adam Stefanow
Jordan Brown vs. Louis Heathcote
Barry Hawkins vs. Amine Amiri
Michael Georgiou vs. David Grace
Lyu Haotian vs. Zhang Anda
Fergal O’Brien vs. Nigel Bond
Quarter-finalist: David Lilley vs. Barry Hawkins
Billy Joe Castle vs. John Astley
Gary Wilson vs. Mark Joyce
Liam Highfield vs. Oliver Lines
Joe Perry vs. Mark Lloyd (a)
Lee Walker vs. Chen Zifan
Mark King vs. Robbie Williams
Sam Baird vs. Daniel Wells
Judd Trump vs. Peter Ebdon
Quarter-finalist: Joe Perry vs. Judd Trump
2019 English Open winner: Kyren Wilson vs. Barry Hawkins
The 19.com 2019 English Open will take place at the K2 in Crawley, with the tournament running between Monday 14th October – Sunday 20th October.
