The 2020 Welsh Open (officially the 2020 ManBetX Welsh Open) was a professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

tournament which took place from 10 to 16 February 2020 at the Motorpoint Arena in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, Wales. It was the 12th

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

event of the

2019–20 snooker season The 2019–20 snooker season was a series of professional snooker tournaments played between 9 May 2019 and 22 August 2020. In total, 47 events were held during the season: however, the ending of the season was highly disrupted by the ...

, and the final tournament of the season's

Home Nations Series The Home Nations Series, also known as the BetVictor Home Nations Series for sponsorship reasons, is a snooker tournament series in the four home nations of the United Kingdom. It began in the 2016–17 snooker season, combining two existing tou ...

. It was the 29th edition of the Welsh Open, first held in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

. The event featured a prize fund of £405,000 with the winner receiving £70,000.

Neil Robertson Neil Alexander Robertson (born 11 February 1982) is an Australian professional snooker player, who is a former List of World Snooker Championship winners, world champion and former List of world number one snooker players, world number one. He ...

was the defending champion, having beaten

Stuart Bingham Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former World Champion and Masters winner. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his pro ...

9–7 in the

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

final, but he lost in the quarter-finals to

Kyren Wilson Kyren James Wilson (; born 23 December 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Kettering. He has won 10 ranking titles. Wilson made his professional tour debut in the 2010–11 snooker season, 2010–11 season after finishing fif ...

Shaun Murphy Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Snooker Championship, 2005 World Championship and has completed the Triple Crown (snooker), Triple Crown. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murp ...

won the event, with a 9–1 win over

in the final. There were a total of 77

century break In snooker, a century break (also century, sometimes called a ton) is a of 100 points or more, compiled in one to the table. A century break requires potting at least 25 consecutive balls, and the ability to score centuries is regarded as a m ...

s at the event, the highest made by Wilson, a maximum break of 147 in the first frame of his first-round match with

Jackson Page Jackson Page (born 8 August 2001) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He was born in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, and is a former European U-21 champion and the former Under-18 World Snooker Champion and in 2017 also became the Under-18 Europ ...

Format

The Welsh Open began as a

tournament in 1992. The 2020 tournament took place at the Motorpoint Arena in

, Wales between 10 and 16 February, the 29th edition of the event. It was the twelfth

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of about 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. It is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial arm of professional snooker, ...

ranking competition in the

, following the World Grand Prix and preceding the

Snooker Shoot Out The Snooker Shoot Out is a professional snooker tournament played under a variation of the standard rules. First staged in 1990 Shoot-Out, 1990 as the Shoot-Out, the event was revived in 2011 Snooker Shoot-Out, 2011 and renamed the Snooker Sho ...

. It was the fourth and final event of the

, and featured 128 participants from the World Snooker Tour. The defending Welsh Open champion from 2019 was

who won the final with a 9–7 victory over

. All matches were best-of-seven until the quarter-finals, which were the best-of-nine, the semi-finals the best-of-eleven. The final was played over two , as the best-of-17 frames. The event was sponsored by sports betting company

BetVictor BetVictor, founded in 1946, is an online gambling company based in Gibraltar, owned by British businessman and racehorse owner Michael Tabor. It provides services such as sports betting and online casinos. History The company was founded ...

, and broadcast locally by

BBC Cymru Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

;

Quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. It serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of every nat ...

;

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in Europe and Australia;

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signa ...

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Youku Youku Tudou Inc. (formerly Youku Inc.), doing business as Youku (), is a video streaming service and former video sharing website based in Beijing, China. It operates as a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Limited. Youku has its headquart ...

and Zhibo.tv in China; True sport in Thailand;

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

in New Zealand and

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in Canada. A single qualifying match was played between two local amateur players –

Darren Morgan Darren Morgan (born 3 May 1966) is a Welsh former professional snooker player who now competes as an amateur and is considered amongst the best in the world. Morgan won the World Amateur Championship in 1987 and played on the professional m ...

and Gavin Lewis.

Prize fund

The event's total prize fund is £405,000, with the winner receiving £70,000. The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below: * Winner: £70,000 * Runner-up: £30,000 * Semi-final: £20,000 * Quarter-final: £10,000 * Last 16: £7,500 * Last 32: £4,000 * Last 64: £3,000 * Highest break: £5,000 * Total: £405,000

Summary

The opening round was played on 10 and 11 February. Local amateur Darren Morgan completed a 4–0 win over fellow Welsh amateur Gavin Lewis, but lost to

0–4 in the opening round.

Ashley Carty Ashley Carty (born 17 July 1995) is an English professional snooker player. Career At age 17, he reached the final of the 2013 EBSA European Under-21 Snooker Championship, losing 0–6 to James Cahill. He won the 2014 English Under-21 Champi ...

defeated Joe Perry, 4–3 after a break of 66 in the .

Soheil Vahedi Soheil Vahedi (, born March 15, 1989) is an Iranian former professional snooker player. Career In 2009 Vahedi entered the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship, World Amateur Under-21 Snooker Championships in his home country in Kish Island, ...

defeated 20th seed

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (, ; born 18 April 1985) is a Thai professional snooker player. He has won one ranking event, the 2019 Snooker Shoot Out, and finished as runner-up in the 2019 World Open. He is regarded as one of the fastest snooker players ...

4–2, whilst 12th seed David Gilbert was beaten by

Matthew Stevens Matthew John Stevens (born 11 September 1977) is a Welsh professional snooker player. He has won two of the game's Triple Crown events, the Masters in 2000 and the UK Championship in 2003. He has also been a two-time runner-up in the other t ...

2–4.

defeated

4–3, and made a

maximum break A maximum break (also known as a maximum, a 147, or orally, a onefourseven) is the highest possible in snooker in normal circumstances and is a special type of . A player compiles a maximum break by potting all 15 with 15 for 120 points, fo ...

in the opening frame, the second of his career. The next three rounds were played on 12 and 13 February. After defeating Jamie Clarke in the first round, defending champion

defeated

Mark Joyce Mark Joyce (born 11 August 1983) is an English former professional snooker player who lives in Walsall. He began his professional career by playing on the Challenge Tour in 2003. Joyce enjoyed an outstanding amateur career, winning the Europea ...

Noppon Saengkham Noppon Saengkham (; born 15 July 1992) is a Thai professional snooker player. Since turning professional in 2010, he has reached one ranking final (the 2023 Scottish Open) in which he finished as runner-up to Gary Wilson. Career Early years I ...

and completed a

whitewash Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes ...

over

Gerard Greene Gerard Eamonn Greene (born 12 November 1973 in Chatham, Kent) is a Northern Irish former professional snooker player. He represents Northern Ireland in international events, as his parents are from Belfast. Greene has enjoyed moderate success ...

to reach the quarter-finals. Wilson defeated

Liam Highfield Liam Highfield (born 1 December 1990) is an English professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2010 after finishing second in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He plays left-handed. Career Amateur years In the 2007/2008 season, Highfi ...

Martin O'Donnell Martin O'Donnell (born May 1, 1955) is an American composer, audio director, and sound designer best known for his work on video game developer Bungie's titles, such as the ''Myth'' series, ''Oni'', the ''Halo'' series, and ''Destiny''. O'Don ...

and ninth seed

Ding Junhui Ding Junhui (; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 15 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (2005 ...

to play Robertson, which he won 5–0.

Mark Selby Mark Anthony Selby (born 19 June 1983) is an English professional snooker player. Ranked List of world number one snooker players, world number one on multiple occasions, he has won a total of 24 ranking titles, placing him eighth on the all ...

defeated David Grace,

Chen Zifan Chen Zifan (; born 17 September 1995) is a Chinese professional snooker player who, in 2023, received a five-year ban from professional competition after committing match-fixing offences. In December 2022, Chen was suspended from the professio ...

Andy Lee Andy Lee may refer to: __NOTOC__ Sportspeople * Andy Lee (American football) (born 1982), American football punter * Andy Lee (boxer) (born 1984), Irish boxer * Andy Lee (footballer, born 1982), English footballer for Bradford City * Andy Lee (footb ...

and

Zhao Xintong Zhao Xintong (; born 3 April 1997) is a Chinese professional snooker player and the reigning World Snooker Champion. He first turned professional in the 2016–17 season, aged 19, having previously recorded wins against a number of top p ...

to play

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a m ...

in the quarter-finals, with O'Sullivan winning 5–1. Seeded 19,

Yan Bingtao Yan Bingtao (; born 16 February 2000) is a Chinese former professional snooker player who is currently serving a five-year ban from professional competition after committing a range of match-fixing offences. He rose to prominence by winning th ...

defeated Michael Holt,

Mitchell Mann Mitchell Dennis Mann (born 26 December 1991) is an English professional snooker player. Career Junior Mann first played snooker aged 9, after being forced to quit football after a diagnosis of Legg–Calvé–Perthes syndrome, a rare disease ...

and

Anthony McGill Anthony McGill (born 5 February 1991) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He is a practice partner of retired snooker player Alan McManus. McGill turned professional in 2010, after finishing fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He ...

to reach the quarter-finals, who had defeated

Luca Brecel Luca Brecel (; born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player. A four-time snooker world rankings, ranking event winner, Brecel is a former World Snooker Championship, World Snooker Champion, having won the 2023 World Snooker Champ ...

4–3 in the last 16. Yan defeated Higgins 5–2, where Higgins described his performance as "pathetic". Murphy defeated

Alfie Burden Alfred Burden (born 14 December 1976) is an English former professional snooker player from London. He first turned professional in 1994 and reached his highest world ranking of 38th in the 2001–02 and 2002–03 seasons. His best results in ...

in the second round 4–3, before beating

Ben Woollaston Ben Woollaston (born 14 May 1987) is an English professional snooker player from Leicester. His sole professional title came at the minor-ranking Players Tour Championship 2011/2012 – Event 3, third Players Tour Championship event in 2011. W ...

and

Dominic Dale Dominic Dale (born Christopher Dale; 29 December 1971) is a Welsh retired professional snooker player, as well as a current snooker commentator, pundit and presenter for BBC Cymru Wales and TNT Sports (United Kingdom), TNT Sports (formerly Eur ...

4–1. He met

Judd Trump Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player who is a former List of World Snooker Championship winners, world champion and the current List of world number one snooker players, world number one. He is currently in ...

, the world number one, who had defeated James Cahill,

Billy Joe Castle Billy Joe Castle (born 14 July 1992 in Marchwood, Hampshire) is an English professional snooker player. Career Castle came through the 2017 Q School by winning six matches to earn a two-year card on the World Snooker Tour for the 2017–18 a ...

Igor Figueiredo Igor Almeida Figueiredo (born October 11, 1977) is a Brazilian professional snooker player. An amateur, Figueiredo entered the International Open Series (PIOS) tour in 2009 finishing 12th at year end. The same year, he was a finalist at the IBS ...

and

Stephen Maguire Stephen Maguire (born 13 March 1981) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He has won six major ranking tournaments, including the 2004 UK Championship, and has twice since reached the finals of that event. Maguire turned professional in ...

in the quarter-final and won 5–3. Wilson defeated O'Sullivan in the first semi-final on a deciding frame 6–5, whilst Murphy overcame Yan by the same scoreline. The final was played between eighth seed Kyren Wilson and tenth seed Shaun Murphy on 16 February. The final was played over two as a best-of-17 frames match. Murphy won the opening frame with a break of 108, and made a second

, a 134, in frame eight as he won seven of the opening session frames to lead 7–1. Wilson won only frame seven during the opening session. On the resumption of the match, Murphy a to win frame nine and took frame ten with a third century break to finish a 9–1 victory. This was Murphy's second championship victory of the season, having also won the

2019 China Championship The 2019 China Championship (officially the 2019 Evergrande China Championship) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 23 to 29 September 2019. The event was held at the Guangzhou Tianhe Sports Centre in Guangzhou, China. Qual ...

9–8 over Mark Williams.

Tournament draw

The results from the event is shown below. Players in bold denote match winners, whilst numbers in brackets are player's seedings.

Qualifying round

4–0

Main draw

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Finals

Final

Century breaks

The event had a total of 77

s made during the event, the highest being a maximum break of 147 by Kyren Wilson in the second frame of his first round match. * 147, 136, 100

* 142, 131, 125, 118, 100

* 142, 100

* 141

Lyu Haotian Lyu Haotian (; born 29 November 1997) is a Chinese professional snooker player, notable for being one of the youngest snooker players to have played in professional tournaments, aged only 14. He reached the quarter-finals of the 2012 Internatio ...

* 140

Si Jiahui Si Jiahui ( ; born 11 July 2002) is a Chinese professional snooker player. After training at the Wiraka Billiard Academy in Foshan, he moved to the United Kingdom aged 16 and earned a two-year tour card through the 2019 Q School for the 2019 ...

* 139, 114, 111

* 138, 117

* 136, 128

* 135, 133, 121, 116

* 135

Luo Honghao Luo Honghao (; born 31 January 2000) is a Chinese former professional snooker player. Career Amateur In July 2017, he reached the final of 2017 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship where he lost the final 7–6 to Fan Zhengyi. Later ...

* 135

* 134, 116, 109, 108, 102, 101, 100

* 133

Robert Milkins Robert Milkins (born 6 March 1976) is an English professional snooker player known for quick play. Milkins has been a member of snooker's main tour since regaining a tour card in 1998. Milkins reached a career high rank of 12 in 2014 and 2023, ...

* 132, 126, 121, 121, 101, 100, 100

* 132 Ryan Day * 130

* 129 David Grace * 128, 117

* 127, 122

Barry Hawkins Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championship, ...

* 127

Ricky Walden Ricky Walden (born 11 November 1982) is an English professional snooker player from Chester. Walden turned professional in 2000 and it took him eight years to win his first ranking title at the Shanghai Masters. He has since won the 2012 Wuxi ...

* 126, 106

Chen Feilong Chen Feilong (; born 4 September 1982) is a former professional Chinese snooker player, playing on the World Snooker Tour from the 2018–19 season. Career He has been awarded a two-year professional tour card following his performances on the ...

* 125, 108, 100

* 123

* 120, 114

* 117

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...

* 116, 110

* 116, 107, 104, 100

John Higgins John Higgins (born 18 May 1975) is a Scottish professional snooker player from Wishaw in North Lanarkshire. Since turning professional in 1992, he has won 33 ranking titles, placing him in third position on the List of snooker players by num ...

* 116

Liang Wenbo Liang Wenbo ( zh, s=梁文博; born 5 March 1987) is a Chinese former professional snooker player. During his playing career, he won one ranking title at the 2016 English Open, twice won the World Cup for China in 2011 and 2017 with teammate ...

* 114, 101

Mark Allen Mark may refer to: In the Bible * Mark the Evangelist (5–68), traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark * Gospel of Mark, one of the four canonical gospels and one of the three synoptic gospels Currencies * Mark (currency), a currenc ...

* 110, 100

* 109 Jimmy Robertson * 108

Jack Lisowski Jack Lisowski (born 25 June 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Churchdown, Gloucestershire. He turned professional in 2010 by finishing first in the 2009/2010 International Open Series, PIOS rankings. A left-handed player, he ...

* 108

Tian Pengfei Tian Pengfei (; born 16 August 1987) is a Chinese former professional snooker player. He began his career by playing the Challenge Tour in 2004, at the time the second-level professional tour. Tian played on the Main Tour in 2006 and competed o ...

* 105

Stuart Carrington Stuart Carrington (born 14 May 1990) is an English former professional snooker player. He practises frequently with Steven Hallworth and Ian Glover in Grimsby. In May 2011, Carrington qualified for the 2011–12 professional Main Tour as on ...

* 104

* 101

Xiao Guodong Xiao Guodong (; born 10 February 1989) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2007 after winning the Asian Under-21 Championships. He won his first ranking event 17 years after first turning professional at the 202 ...

* 100

Elliot Slessor Elliot Slessor (born 4 August 1994) is an English professional snooker player. In May 2013, Slessor qualified for the 2013–14 and 2014–15 professional Main Tour as one of four semi-finalists from the first Q School event. Career Sles ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welsh Open, 2020 Home Nations Series

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2020 in snooker 2020 in Welsh sport February 2020 sports events in the United Kingdom Sports competitions in Cardiff