2023 English Open – Draw and Qualifiers Format

Monique Professional snooker tournament

WST have yesterday published the draw and the qualifiers format for the 2023 English Open

BetVictor English Open Draw

The 2023/24 BetVictor Home Nations series gets underway with the BetVictor English Open, with the first round draw as well as the match schedule for the qualifying round now available.

CLICK HERE FOR THE DRAW

CLICK HERE FOR THE QUALIFYING FORMAT

The qualifying round runs from September 6-8 in Leicester*, followed by the final stages

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Matches involving the top 16 seeds will be held over to the final venue in Brentwood. These are:

Defending champion Mark Selby v Xing Zihao
Ryan Day v Ashley Hugill
John Higgins v Marco Fu
Kyren Wilson v Oliver Lines
Judd Trump v Sean O’Sullivan
Robert Milkins v Robbie Williams
Barry Hawkins v Anthony Hamilton
Mark Allen v Mostafa Dorgham
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Andrew Pagett
Jack Lisowski v Matthew Stevens
Ali Carter v Jamie Clarke
Neil Robertson v Sanderson Lam
Shaun Murphy v Liu Hongyu
Mark Williams v Ian Burns
Ding Junhui v Ma Hailong
Luca Brecel v Stan Moody

The two English amateur wild cards, Ryan Davies and Bradley Cowdroy, will also go head to head at the Essex venue, with the winner to face Elliot Slessor in the first round.

Notable matches in the qualifying round include Stephen Hendry v Fergal O’Brien, Jimmy White v Joe O’Connor, Gary Wilson v Pang Junxu, Ricky Walden v Jordan Brown, Ken Doherty v Jackson Page and Si Jiahui v Alexander Ursenbacher.

Once again the WST selection of “notable” matches leaves me wondering, although it is a better one than their Wuhan’s qualifiers. For me the Hendry v O’Brien match is totally uninteresting baring a Hendry miracle. There are more intriguing matches IMO and those are my pick:

  • Barry Hawkins x Anthony Hamilton – two very shrewd players
  • Sam Craigie v Michael White – two who were once “hot prospects” but haven’t quite evolved as hoped
  • Jack Lisowski v Matthew Stevens – two who can be brilliant but have often disappointed
  • Zhou Yuelong v Ben Woollaston
  • Chris Wakelin v Lyu Haotian

3 thoughts on “2023 English Open – Draw and Qualifiers Format”

  1. I am pleasantly surprised that Ronnie entered the English Open because after the World Championship he mentioned in an interview that he would like to focus on the tournaments in China and wouldn’t play as many tournaments in Britain. Since the English Open takes place just one week before the Wuhan Open, I expected him not to enter. But he seems to have had a change of mind, which gives him options.

    • It’s his home tournament… iIt’s in Brentwood, he lives nearby. And he would be there anyway I reckon as it’s an Eurosport tournament.

    • Still plenty of time for Ronnie to withdraw. Most likely, he’ll show up, play kamikaze, and lose in the 2nd or 3rd round.

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