WORLD OPEN SNOOKER BETTING

World Open Snooker History

The first edition was hosted in 1982 and that was won by Ray Reardon. That inaugural edition was held in Birmingham, England. The first couple of editions of the tournament was known as the Professional Players Tournament before it switched to being called just the Grand Prix.

The event found a new home in Reading for a few years. Then it made a jump to Preston (with a few other stops along the way) when the event went through a change as the LG Cup.

It then went back to being the Grand Prix in 2004 and a couple of interesting changes happened.

There was a round-robin format introduced then, but it only lasted a couple of seasons before it returned to being a straight knockout event. The tournament did, quite exciting only, have a totally random draw with no seeding.

So that threw a wonderful variable into the mix, becoming the FA Cup of snooker really.

But that idea was ditched for the start of the 2011 Snooker World Open and seeding returned. In 2010 the tournament was played as the World Open for the first time. That was held in Glasgow and it would be the last time that the event would be held on British shores.

After skipping a year it moved to China to become the Haikou World Open in 2012.

Famous Winners

From 1985 through to 1991 inclusive, Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry both won the World Open three times. Neither of them managed to do that in consecutive years, however.

But those were the dominant duo. Hendry would go on to top out Davis however, by winning it for a fourth time in 1995.

There was a record set in the 1985 Snooker World Open final between Steven Davis and Dennis Taylor as it became the longest-ever one-day snooker final lasting 10 hours and 21 minutes.

Steve Davis was the first player to win the tournament in back to back years (1998 and 1989) and then Stephen Hendy achieved the same feat in the following two years.

John Higgins earned his first title at the event in 1994, one of four titles at the event that he would pick up before the tournament became the World Open.

There was a really long break from Stephen Hendry in 1991 until the next player managed to win the Snooker World Open in back to back to years.

That was Neil Robertson in 2009 and 2010.

Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen would follow straight up with back to back successes in 2012 and 2013 as the tournament moved to China.

During the second incarnation of the Grand Prix, Ronnie O’Sullivan won the tournament for the first time in 2004.

2019 World Open Snooker Review

The 2019 edition of the tournament hosted in Yushan, China was the fifth ranking event of the 2019/20 season. The defending champion was Mark Williams but he did not take part in the 2019 edition.

It was Judd Trump who would claim the title at the event, getting his first-ever World Open title.

The tournament was the best-of-9-frames before moving to the best of 11 for the semi’s and then best of 19 for the final itself. The main draw had 64 players taking part with the winner earning £150,000.

Ronnie O’Sullivan had failed to make it through qualifying for the event, leaving Trump as the favourite. Trump opened with a victory over Sam Craigie and then followed up with a success over Liang Wenbo.

In the last sixteen Trump squeaked past Joe Perry in a deciding frame before sending Michael Holt packing in the quarters.

There was a big semi final clash between Judd Trump and John Higgins and that was a nailbiter, with Trump needing another deciding frame to win through.

Opposing him in the final was Thephcaiya Un-Nooh whose big successes in the draw came against David Gilbert and Kyren Wilson in the latter stages.

The Final was, by and large, dominated by Trump who just powered away to a 10-5 victory. The Englishman closed out the deal with three straight frames.

2020 World Open Snooker Preview

The 2020 World Open Snooker details TBA