2026 World Open (snooker)

2026 World Open
Tournament information
Dates16–22 March 2026 (2026-03-16 – 2026-03-22)
CityYushan
CountryChina
OrganisationWorld Snooker Tour
FormatRanking event
Total prize fund£825,000
Winner's share£175,000
Defending champion John Higgins (SCO)
← 2025

The 2026 World Open is an upcoming professional snooker tournament that will take place from 16 to 22 March 2026 in Yushan, China. Qualifiers took place from 10 to 12 February at the Barnsley Metrodome in Barnsley, England. The 11th edition of the tournament since it was rebranded as the World Open in 2010, it will be the 16th ranking event of the 2025‍–‍26 snooker season, following the 2026 Welsh Open and preceding the 2026 Tour Championship. The winner will receive £175,000 from a total prize fund of £825,000.

John Higgins will be the defending champion, having defeated Joe O'Connor 10‍–‍6 in the 2025 final.

Overview

The World Open originated as the Professional Players Tournament, which was first held in 1982. Ray Reardon won the inaugural edition, defeating Jimmy White 10–5 in the final.[1] Staged as the Grand Prix from 1984 to 2000, the LG Cup from 2001 to 2003, and the Grand Prix from 2004 to 2009, the tournament was rebranded as the World Open in 2010. Until 2004, the tournament was played in England, and from 2005 to 2010, it was held in Scotland.[2][3] No edition was held in 2011, and in 2012 the tournament was moved to China. Editions from 2012 to 2014 were staged in Haikou, but the tournament was not held in 2015 after the contract with the promoter was not renewed.[4] In 2016, the World Open moved to Yushan. Cancelled from 2020 to 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it returned to the calendar for the 2024 edition.[5]

The 2026 edition of the tournament—its 11th staging since it became the World Open in 2010—will take place from 16 to 22 March in Yushan, China.[6] Qualifiers took place from 10 to 12 February at the Barnsley Metrodome in Barnsley, England.[7] It will be the 16th ranking event of the 2025‍–‍26 snooker season, following the 2026 Welsh Open and preceding the 2026 Tour Championship.[8] John Higgins will be the defending champion, having defeated Joe O'Connor 10‍–‍6 in the 2025 final.[9]

Format

All matches are played as the best of nine frames up to and including the quarter-finals. The semi-finals will be the best of 11 frames and the final will be a best of 19-frame match played over two sessions.

Broadcasters

The qualifying matches played in Barnsley were broadcast in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Austria by Discovery+ and in other European territories by HBO Max. They are being broadcast in mainland China by the CBSA‑WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel, the CBSA‑WPBSA Academy Douyin, Huya Live, and Migu. In all other territories (including Ireland) they are being streamed by WST Play.[10]

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for the event is shown below:[11]

  • Winner: £175,000
  • Runner-up: £75,000
  • Semi-final: £33,000
  • Quarter-final: £22,000
  • Last 16: £14,000
  • Last 32: £9,000
  • Last 64: £5,000
  • Highest break: £5,000
  • Total: £825,000

Summary

Qualifying round

The 12th seed Ding Junhui (pictured in 2025) was the highest-ranked player to lose in the Barnsley qualifiers. Marco Fu defeated him 5‍–‍2.

Two-time World Open champion Mark Allen, who had claimed consecutive titles in 2012 and 2013, made century breaks of 124 and 108 as he defeated Louis Heathcote 5‍–‍2. Shaun Murphy trailed Chatchapong Nasa 1‍–‍2 but recovered to win 5‍–‍3, and Stephen Maguire produced a century of 140 as he beat Sanderson Lam 5‍–‍1. Stuart Bingham advanced with a whitewash win over Ng On-yee, while He Guoqiang made a century of 104 to win the deciding frame against Amir Sarkhosh. Antoni Kowalski won the first four frames against Liu Hongyu, but Liu also won four consecutive frames, tying the scores at 4‍–‍4. Kowalski made a 90 break to win the decider.[12]

Kyren Wilson, the world number two, made breaks including 89 and 64 as he whitewashed Alexander Ursenbacher in 68 minutes, and Mark Williams also whitewashed Kreishh Gurbaxani, making breaks including 67, 95, 95, and 57. Michael Holt lost the first two frames against Ken Doherty, but made breaks including 88 and 89 as he won five consecutive frames for a 5‍–‍2 victory. Ali Carter beat Jimmy White by the same score. Daniel Wells recovered from 2‍–‍4 behind to defeat Robbie McGuigan, making an 86 break in the deciding frame. Scott Donaldson produced a 141 break against Xu Yichen, but Xu won the match in a decider. Luca Brecel defeated Mateusz Baranowski, also in a deciding frame.[13]

Marco Fu made breaks including 86, 91, and 116 as he defeated the 2017 champion Ding Junhui 5‍–‍2. The result meant that Ding, who had not qualified for the 2026 Players Championship or 2026 Tour Championship and had not entered the 2026 Welsh Open, was at risk of losing his top-16 ranking before the 2026 World Snooker Championship. Another top-16 Chinese player, Si Jiahui, also exited after a 3‍–‍5 defeat to Zhao Hanyang. From 3‍–‍4 behind, Stan Moody recovered to beat Jiang Jun on the final black of a deciding frame. Haydon Pinhey made a 137 break in his match against Mark Selby, but Selby went on to win in a deciding frame. Jack Lisowski advanced with a 5‍–‍2 win over Gong Chenzhi, his first victory at a ranking event since early in November 2025. Wu Yize produced a 131 break as he won four consecutive frames to defeat Liam Pullen by the same score. Robert Milkins, Jamie Jones, and Mark Davis all lost their qualifying matches, putting them in danger of relegation from the tour at the end of the season.[14][15] The previous year's runner-up Joe O'Connor lost 3‍–‍5 to Liu Wenwei.[16]

Qualifying

Qualifiers were held from 10 to 12 February 2026 at the Barnsley Metrodome in Barnsley, England. Qualifying matches involving the defending champion John Higgins, the reigning World Champion Zhao Xintong, the world number one Judd Trump, the seven-time World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, the next two highest-ranked Chinese players (Xiao Guodong and Zhang Anda), and four Chinese wildcards were held over to be played at the main venue in Yushan.[17] Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding, and players in bold denote match winners. An (a) indicates amateur players not on the World Snooker Tour.

Pre-qualifying

The following match is a pre-qualifier and will be played at the main venue in Yushan:

  •  Mitchell Mann (ENG) (80) v  Wildcard (CHN) (a)

Held-over matches

The following qualifying matches will be played at the main venue in Yushan:

Qualifying round

The results of the qualifying matches played in Barnsley are as follows:[18][19]

Century breaks

Qualifying stage centuries

A total of 32 century breaks were made during the qualifying stage of the tournament in Barnsley.[20]

References

  1. ^ "Professional Players Tournament 1982 - snooker.org". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  2. ^ Turner, Chris. "Brief History of the World Open". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  3. ^ Turner, Chris. "A brief history of the Grand Prix and LG Cup (Formerly the Professional Players Tournament)". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.
  4. ^ "World Open removed from calendar". World Snooker Tour. 7 November 2014. Archived from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  5. ^ "Snooker's resurgence in China continues with Yushan to stage World Open". World Snooker Tour. 18 August 2023. Retrieved 11 February 2026.
  6. ^ "Tournaments 2025–26". World Snooker Tour. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  7. ^ "World Open Qualifiers 2026". snooker.org. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  8. ^ "Calendar 2025/2026". snooker.org. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  9. ^ "Higgins wins World Open for first title in four years". BBC Sport. 1 March 2025. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  10. ^ "How to watch World Open qualifiers". World Snooker Tour. 9 February 2026. Retrieved 9 February 2026.
  11. ^ "World Open". World Snooker Tour. Retrieved 2 February 2026.
  12. ^ "Allen and Murphy through to Yushan". World Snooker Tour. 10 February 2026. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  13. ^ "Wilson qualifies for World Open". World Snooker Tour. 11 February 2026. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  14. ^ "Ding at risk of top 16 exit after Fu defeat". World Snooker Tour. 12 February 2026. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  15. ^ Day, Michael (12 February 2026). "Who has qualified for the World Open; results and stories from Barnsley preliminaries". Totally Snookered. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
  16. ^ "2026 World Open qualifiers: Joe O'Connor v Liu Wenwei". World Snooker Tour. 12 February 2026. Retrieved 13 February 2026.
  17. ^ Day, Michael (9 February 2026). "2026 World Open qualifiers explained: Who is playing and what is the format?". Totally Snookered. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
  18. ^ "World Open Qualifiers 2026". snooker.org. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
  19. ^ "World Open 2026 qualifiers matches". World Snooker Tour. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
  20. ^ "Centuries: World Open qualifiers - 32". snookerinfo.co.uk. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
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