Here we are in Tuvalu, a tiny island north of Fiji! It’s amazing how global snooker can get, isn’t it JV? Just kidding, of course we are still in Milton Keynes. Which is reasonably similar to Milton Keynes I’m sure you will agree.
The English Open is the second proper ranking event of the season! We had some excitement during the European Masters. Let’s look at the lowdown!
Flashes of Promise in the European Masters
It’s always difficult to predict who will do well in the first tournament. The draw is open enough as it is, but one has to bear in mind that some players will be very rusty indeed. A few seeded players lost in the early rounds, such as John Higgins, Joe Perry, Kurt Maflin and Ronnie O’Sullivan. With that means a number of young players took the limelight. Young rookies Pang Junxu, Peter Devlin and Aaron Hill reached the Last 16. More notably, Devlin beat Mark Williams by scoring a century in the deciding frame and Aaron Hill beat Ronnie O’Sullivan and Matthew Stevens!
But the man of the tournament has to be Martin Gould.
It’s amazing to think that a few months ago, Gould had a retirement speech ready during the World qualifiers. His battle with mental health and depression were well documented during the World Championships. Thankfully, Gould has learned to control his demons and is in a much better place. He managed to defeat Higgins, Yan Bingtao and Judd Trump on his route to the final. His new ranking of No. 36 is far too low of a player of his calibre. You can read more on Gould’s resurgence in the Metro by clicking here.
I mentioned in my previous preview that one should be drawn to players who perform well a decent C-game or without practice. Mark Selby fitted the bill and he has lifted the European Masters trophy! By beating Gould 9-8 in the final, Mark Selby has now won ten ranking finals in a row. In fact, he has won fifteen of the last sixteen ranking finals, dating back to his 2014 World Championship victory. He will defend his English Open crown by facing young Chinese pro Fan Zhengyi in the first round.
The History of the English Open
The English Open isn’t the best event of the Home Nations events, but it has produced a couple of memorable finals. This was the event where Liang Wenbo won his first ranking title in 2016. Ronnie O’Sullivan produced a masterclass by thrashing Kyren Wilson 9-2 in 2017. Stuart Bingham and Mark Selby have won their titles here as well. The tournament has travelled from Manchester to Barnsley to Crawley and now Milton Keynes. I think only O’Sullivan will be delighted just because he doesn’t get to play in Crawley anymore!
Draw
All rounds are BO7 matches, except the quarters (BO9), semis (BO11) and the final (BO17).
Section 1
Mark Selby (1) vs. Fan Zhengyi
Chang Bingyu vs. Aaron Hill
Martin O’Donnell (32) vs. Ashley Carty
Jackson Page vs. Liang Wenbo
Joe Perry (16) vs. Riley Parsons
Lukas Kleckers vs. Hossein Vafaei
Ali Carter (17) vs. Jamie Clarke
Mitchell Mann vs. Liam Highfield
Quarter-final winner: XXX vs.
Section 2
David Grace vs. Paul Davison (a)
Scott Donaldson (24) vs. Andy Hicks
Barry Pinches vs. Andrew Higginson
Stephen Maguire (9) vs. Sunny Akani
Rod Lawler vs. Farakh Ajaib
Zhou Yuelong (25) vs. Chris Wakelin
David Lilley vs. Eden Sharav
Shaun Murphy (8) vs. Robert Milkins
Section 3
Mark Allen (5) vs. Mark King
Gerard Greene vs. Robbie Williams
Kurt Maflin (28) vs. Peter Devlin
Jordan Brown vs. Lee Walker
Yan Bingtao (12) vs. Alan McManus
Martin Gould vs. Steven Hallworth
Anthony McGill (21) vs. Sam Craigie
Noppon Saengkham vs. Oliver Lines
Section 4
Lei Peifan vs. Brandon Sargeant
Barry Hawkins (20) vs. Igor Figueiredo
Soheil Vahedi vs. Joe O’Connor
David Gilbert (13) vs. Rory McLeod
Daniel Wells vs. Mark Davis
Zhao Xintong (29) vs. Pang Junxu
Tian Pengfei vs. Mark Joyce
Neil Robertson (4) vs. Lyu Haotian
:focal(862x740:864x738)/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2019/08/15/2655635-54935010-2560-1440.jpg)
Section 5
Judd Trump (3) vs. Louis Heathcote
Amine Amiri vs. Yuan Sijun
Michael Holt (30) vs. Jimmy White
Zak Surety vs. Lu Ning
Mark Williams (14) vs. Allan Taylor
Simon Lichtenberg vs. Anthony Hamilton
Gary Wilson (19) vs. Iulian Boiko
Ricky Walden vs. Billy Joe Castle
Quarter-final winner: XXX vs.
Section 6
Nigel Bond vs. Ashley Hugill
Graeme Dott (22) vs. Alexander Ursenbacher
Ben Woollaston vs. Alex Borg
Stuart Bingham (11) vs. Fergal O’Brien
Xu Si vs. Ken Doherty
Matthew Selt (27) vs. Jamie Wilson
Gao Yang vs. Kacper Filipiak
Kyren Wilson (6) vs. Dominic Dale
Section 7
John Higgins (7) vs. James Cahill
Fraser Patrick vs. Connor Benzey (WC)
Jimmy Robertson (26) vs. Chen Zifan
Peter Lines vs. Luo Honghao
Ding Junhui (10) vs. Si Jiahui
Ian Burns vs. Luca Brecel
Tom Ford (23) vs. Xiao Guodong
Jamie Jones vs. Duane Jones
Section 8
Sean Maddocks vs. Ben Hancorn
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (18) vs. Stuart Carrington
Jak Jones vs. Elliot Slessor
Jack Lisowski (15) vs. Li Hang
Michael White (a) vs. Zhao Jianbo
Matthew Stevens (31) vs. Jamie O’Neill
Ryan Day vs. Mark Lloyd (WC)
Ronnie O’Sullivan (2) vs. Brian Ochoiski (a)
The 2020 English Open will take place at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes from 12 to 18 October 2020.
