The 2021 Welsh Open (officially the 2021 BetVictor 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 that took place from 15 to 21 February 2021 at the

Celtic Manor Resort Celtic Manor Resort is a golf, spa and leisure hotel and resort in the city of Newport, South East Wales. Owned by Sir Terry Matthews, the resort is located on the south-facing side of Christchurch Hill in eastern Newport, near Junction 24 o ...

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay * Newport (Vietnam), a United States Army and Army of t ...

, Wales. It was the 10th

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

2020–21 snooker season The 2020–21 snooker season was a professional snooker season with tournaments played from 13 September 2020 to 9 May 2021. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the season was played almost entirely without a live audience with only the 2021 W ...

and the 30th 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 ...

. It was the fifth of six tournaments in the

European Series The BetVictor European Series was a snooker tournament series established in 2019. It was expanded from four tournaments in the 2019–20 season to six tournaments in the 2020–21 season and then to eight tournaments from the 2021–22 season ...

and the fourth and final event of the

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 ...

. 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 ...

, with the winner being awarded £70,000 from a total prize fund of £405,000.

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 ...

was the defending champion, having won the 2020 event with a 9–1 victory over

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 ...

in the final. However, Murphy lost 5–4 to

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-finals. Jordan Brown defeated

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 ...

9–8 in the final to win the first ranking title of his career. Ranked 81st in the world, Brown became the lowest-ranked player to win a ranking event since world number 93

Dave Harold David William Harold (born 9 December 1966) is an English former professional snooker player from Stoke-on-Trent. He was known by the nicknames of "the Hard Man" and "the Stoke Potter" (conflating his home city's pottery industry and his prof ...

won the

1993 Asian Open The 1993 Thailand Masters, Nescafe Asian Open was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place between 13–20 March 1993 at the Imperial Queens Park Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. Dave Harold won the tournament ...

Format

The Welsh Open began as a

tournament in 1992. The 2021 tournament took place at the

between 15 and 21 February, the thirtieth edition of the event. It was the tenth

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 2020-21 snooker season, following 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 ...

and preceding the

2021 Players Championship The 2021 Players Championship was the 47th Players Championship and was played March 11–14 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. It was the fortieth edition held at the Stadium Course; the 2020 tournament was abandoned before the fir ...

. It was the fifth of six events in the BetVictor European Series and the fourth and final event of the

. The defending Welsh Open champion from 2020 was

who won the final with a 9–1 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

, 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, ...

. It was also broadcast by

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 ...

in the United Kingdom;

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

in Europe; CCTV5,

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 ...

, Zhibo.tv and Migu in China;

Now TV Now (formerly Now TV and often stylised as NOW) is a subscription over-the-top streaming television service launched in the United Kingdom in 2012. It is operated by Sky Group in Europe, and Xfinity in the US; both owned by the American media ...

in Hong Kong; 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;

DAZN DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

in Canada; and Astrosport in Malaysia. In all other locations it was broadcast by

Matchroom Sport Matchroom Sport is a UK-based sporting event promotions company founded by Barry Hearn and run by him and his son Eddie Hearn. It first came to attention in the sports of snooker and boxing and is also involved in pool (cue sports), pool, bowl ...

Prize fund

The event's total prize fund was £405,000, with the winner receiving £70,000. The player accumulating the highest amount of prize money over the six events received a bonus of £150,000. The breakdown of prize money 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

Early rounds

The first two rounds of the competition were played between 15 and 17 February, with rounds three and four on 18 February. Defending champion Shaun Murphy was 20th in the one year ranking event, and required to gain four places to play in the next event, the Players Championship. Murphy reached the last 16 with wins over

Zak Surety Zak Surety (born 4 October 1991) is an English professional snooker player. He practises frequently with Stuart Bingham and Allan Taylor. Career As an amateur, Surety based in Basildon entered in Players Tour Championship events from their e ...

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 ...

, Ryan Day and

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 ...

. World number one

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 ...

defeated Chinese players

Zhao Jianbo Zhao Jianbo (, born 27 August 2003) is a Chinese former professional snooker player. The WPBSA suspended Zhao from World Snooker Tour events in January 2023, amid a match-fixing investigation, and subsequently charged him with fixing a match. ...

and

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 ...

but lost in the third round to Iranian player

Hossein Vafaei Hossein Vafaei (; born 15 October 1994) is an Iranian professional snooker player. He is the first professional player from Iran. He won his first ranking title at the 2022 Snooker Shoot Out, beating Mark Williams 1–0 (71–0) in the final. ...

2–4. Two-time winner Mark Williams defeated Michael White 4–1 in the first round, with an average shot time of only 15 seconds. Williams later commented that "I’m going to play as fast as I can and get in and out as quick as I can. I’m actually going to see if I can get one match down as quick as ten seconds a shot. That’s my goal for the rest of the season." Williams 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 ...

, Joe Perry and Vafaei to reach the quarter-finals.

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 ...

made a of 134 in his opening round win over

Barry Pinches Barry Pinches (born 13 July 1970 in Catton, Norwich) is an English former professional snooker player, recognisable for his bright and flamboyant waistcoats, which usually feature the yellow and green colours of Norwich City F.C. He is a form ...

, but missed the final when on route to 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 ...

. Selby then defeated

Jamie O'Neill Jamie O'Neill (born 1 January 1962) is an Irish author. His critically acclaimed novel, ''At Swim, Two Boys'' (2001), earned him the highest advance ever paid for an Irish novel and frequent praise as the natural successor to James Joyce, Flan ...

, Joe O'Connor and Masters champion

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 ...

to reach the quarter-finals. Jordan Brown defeated

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 ...

Sam Craigie Sam Craigie (born 29 December 1993) is an English professional snooker player from Newcastle. He enjoyed a successful junior career before turning professional in 2011. Career Early career Craigie qualified for the 2011/2012 Main Tour after ...

and

Alexander Ursenbacher Alexander Ursenbacher (born 26 April 1996) is a Swiss professional snooker player from Rheinfelden. He is the first snooker player from Switzerland to have competed professionally (former professional Darren Paris represented England, in the mid ...

before beating Mark King 4–3 to reach his second ranking quarter-final of his career.

Ali Carter Allister Carter (born 25 July 1979) is an English professional snooker player. He has twice been a World Championship finalist, in 2008 and 2012, losing both finals to Ronnie O'Sullivan. He has won six ranking titles and briefly reached number t ...

defeated Daniel Wells and Aaron Hill before beating both

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 ...

and

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 ...

to reach the quarter-finals.

lost only one frame in his first four matches to reach the quarter-finals,

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 ...

ing three players. Eighth seed

defeated two Welshmen in

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 ...

and

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 ...

before beating

Matthew Selt Matthew Selt (born 7 March 1985) is an English professional snooker player. He qualified for the professional tour by finishing seventh in the Pontin's International Open Series in 2006/2007. Selt played in his first professional final in 2014 ...

and

Pang Junxu Pang Junxu (; born 15 February 2000) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He was awarded the "Rookie of the Year" Award in 2021. Career As a result of Pang's performances on the CBSA Tour, he was awarded a two-year card on the World Snoo ...

to reach the last eight.

Quarter-finals–final

The quarter-finals were played as the best-of-9 frames matches on 19 February. Ali Carter withdrew from the event shortly before his match against Ronnie O'Sullivan due to health concerns. The remaining three quarter-finals all went to a . Murphy, the defending champion, was defeated 4–5 by Maguire. He made breaks of 105, 84, 55, 90 and 133 to defeat Murphy. In losing the match, Murphy was unable to qualify for the Players Championship, finishing 17th in the one-year rankings. Playing in the second ranking quarter-final of his career, Jordan Brown met Mark Selby. The match lasted three hours and 48 minutes and with the scores tied at 4–4, Selby missed the final into the centre pocket, which Brown potted to win the match. Mark Williams defeated Tom Ford 5–4 in the final quarter-final match which decided which of the two players would qualify for the Players Championship. The semi-finals were played as the best-of-11 frame matches on 20 February. Williams took the opening frame in his match against O'Sullivan, before his opponent won the next six successive frames. O'Sullivan commented "I knew he was playing well and scoring well. I had to be on my guard. I played pretty solidly." The other semi-final was played between Jordan Brown and Steven Maguire. Brown made a break of 135 in the opening frame, before Maguire tied the scores at 1–1. Brown then made breaks of 56, 113 and 59 winning the next five frames to take the match 6–1. Brown commented "Three years ago I was working in a petrol station and serving customers... To be in a ranking tournament final is just incredible". The final was played as the best-of-17 frames held over two . Brown was playing in his first ranking event final; whilst his opponent O'Sullivan was playing in his 56th. Brown took the first two frames of the match before O'Sullivan won frame three. Brown won frame four with a break of 78 and led 4–1 after a

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 ...

. The next two frames were won by O'Sullivan, however, Brown took the next frame to lead 5–3 after the first session. After the break, O'Sullivan won the next three frames to take the lead, but Brown leveled the match in frame 12 to 6–6, and level again at 7–7. In frame 15, O'Sullivan missed a pot on the and showed signs of frustration. Brown made a break of 56 to lead 8–7. The match was taken into a after a break of 119 by O'Sullivan. Brown won the match 9–8 after a break of 74. Ranked 81st in the world, Brown became the lowest-ranked player to win a ranking event since world number 93

won the

. He also became the first Northern Irish player to win a Welsh Open title.

Tournament draw

Below is the main draw for the event. Numbers in brackets denote seeded players. Players in bold denote match winners.

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Bottom half

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Finals

Final

Century breaks

There were 72

s made during the event. The highest was a 143 made by

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 ...

in frame three of his first round win over

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 ...

. * 143

* 141 Ryan Day * 138, 135, 122, 121, 119, 102

* 138, 124, 107, 101

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, ...

* 135, 113, 107, 105 Jordan Brown * 134, 131, 128, 109

* 134, 123, 101

Scott Donaldson Scott Donaldson (born 19 March 1994) is a Scottish professional snooker player. Donaldson turned professional in 2012 after winning the 2012 EBSA European Snooker Championship and gained a two-year tour card for the 2012–13 and 2013–14 ...

* 133, 119, 107, 103

* 133, 105, 105, 104, 100

* 133

* 132, 126, 123, 118, 101

Zhou Yuelong Zhou Yuelong (; born 24 January 1998) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He has been runner-up at three ranking events, the January 2020 European Masters, the 2020 Snooker Shoot Out, and the 2022 Northern Ireland Open. Career Between 2 ...

* 130, 124, 101

* 130, 106

Graeme Dott Graeme Dott (born 12 May 1977) is a Scottish professional snooker player and snooker coach from Larkhall. He turned professional in 1994 and first entered the top 16 in 2001. He has won two ranking titles, the 2006 World Snooker Championship ...

* 130

Billy 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 ...

* 128

Martin Gould Martin Gould (born 14 September 1981) is an English former professional snooker player from Pinner in the London Borough of Harrow. He has appeared in four ranking finals and won one ranking title, the 2016 German Masters. Career Gould began ...

* 127, 114, 113, 104

* 124

* 121 Joe O'Connor * 121

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 ...

* 120

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 ...

* 120

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 ...

* 117

* 114, 101

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 ...

* 114

* 113

Fraser Patrick Fraser Patrick (born 8 November 1985) is a Scottish former professional snooker player from Glasgow. Career Patrick started his professional career in 2002 by playing Challenge Tour, where he spent three seasons without success. In 2007 Patric ...

* 110

* 109

* 107

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, ...

* 106

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 ...

* 106

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 ...

* 103

* 102

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 ...

* 102

Andrew Higginson Andrew Higginson (born 13 December 1977) is an English professional snooker player from Widnes, Cheshire. He is best known for being the surprise finalist of the 2007 Welsh Open (snooker), 2007 Welsh Open. Career Early years After some succ ...

* 101, 101 David Gilbert * 100 Jamie Jones * 100

Lei Peifan Lei Peifan (; born 31 May 2003) is a Chinese professional snooker player. While ranked 84th in the world, he won his first ranking event in December 2024, the 2024 Scottish Open, by defeating Wu Yize 95 in the final. Career In May 2019, Lei ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welsh Open, 2021 Home Nations Series

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2021 in snooker 2021 in Welsh sport February 2021 sports events in the United Kingdom

European Series