2022 English Open (snooker) explained

Tournament Name:	2022 BetVictor English Open
Venue:	Brentwood Centre
Location:	Brentwood
Country:	England
Organisation:	World Snooker Tour
Format:	Ranking event
Total Prize Fund:	£427,000
Winners Share:	£80,000
Highest Break:	(147)
Score:	9–6
Previous:	2021
Next:	2023

The 2022 English Open (officially the 2022 BetVictor English Open) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 12 to 18 December 2022 at the Brentwood Centre in Brentwood, England.^[1] The seventh ranking event of the 2022–23 season, it was the third tournament in the Home Nations Series, following the Northern Ireland Open and the Scottish Open and preceding the Welsh Open. It was the fourth of eight tournaments in the season's European Series. Qualifiers took place from 25 to 30 October at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, although matches involving the top 16 players in the world rankings were held over to be played at the final venue. Organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored by BetVictor, the tournament was broadcast by Eurosport in the UK and Europe. The winner received £80,000 from a total prize fund of £427,000.

On the first day of the tournament, the WPBSA suspended Yan Bingtao from professional competition, making him the seventh player suspended from the tour since October amid a major match-fixing investigation.^{[2] [3]}

Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having defeated John Higgins 9–8 in the 2021 final.^[4] However, he was beaten 4–6 by Mark Selby in the semi-finals, meaning that he lost at the semi-final stage in each of the season's first three Home Nations events.^[5] Selby recorded his first win over Robertson in two years, after seven consecutive losses to him,^[6] and reached his first ranking final since winning the 2021 World Championship.^[7] He went on to win the event, defeating Luca Brecel 9–6 in the final to capture his 21st ranking title.^[8] He became the first player to win the English Open twice, and the second player, after Judd Trump, to win four Home Nations tournaments.^[9]

Mark Williams made the tournament's highest break, the third maximum break of his career, in the fourth frame of his quarter-final match against Robertson.^[10] Aged 47 years and 270 days, he became the oldest player to make an officially recognised maximum break in professional competition.^{[11] [12]}

Prize fund

The breakdown of prize money for this event is shown below:^[13]

• Winner: £80,000
• Runner-up: £35,000
• Semi-final: £17,500
• Quarter-final: £11,000
• Last 16: £7,500
• Last 32: £4,500
• Last 64: £3,000
• Highest break: £5,000
• Total: £427,000

Main draw

Final

Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Tatiana Woollaston Brentwood Centre, Brentwood, England, 18 December 2022
Mark Selby (4)	9–6	Luca Brecel (11)
Afternoon: 90–0, 64–4, 74–14, 27–96, 77–43, 45–96, 7–78, 2–72 Evening: 83–33, 73–5, 0–123 (122), 67–36, 62–20, 0–113 (113), 87–0
90	Highest break	122
0	Century breaks	2

Qualifying

Qualification for the tournament took place from 25 to 30 October 2022 at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, England.^{[1] [14]}

Main Qualifying

A single pre-qualifying match was played before the main qualifying draw was conducted:

• PQ3: 4–2

• 4–1
• 1–4
• 4–0
• 0–4
• 4–1
• 3–4
• w/d–w/o
• 2–4
• 2–4
• 4–2
• 3–4
• 4–1
• 0–4
• 4–2
• 4–1
• 4–3
• 4–0
• 4–3
• 3–4
• 1–4
• 1–4
• 2–4
• 4–0
• 4–2
• 4–0
• 4–1
• 4–2
• 0–4
• 2–4
• 2–4
• 0–4
• 4–1
• 4–2
• 3–4
• 4–3
• 0–4
• 4–0
• 4–0
• 2–4
• 4–0
• 4–0
• 4–2
• 4–1
• 2–4
• 4–1
• 4–3

Held-Over Matches

Matches involving the Top 16, the defending champion and the nominated wild-card players were played at the Brentwood Centre. The matches involving winners from the held-over pre-qualifying matches were also held over to the venue.

• PQ1: 4–0
• PQ2: 4–1

• (1) 4–0
• 4–2
• 1–4
• (9) 4–1
• 4–0
• (8) 4–3
• (5) 4–0
• 4–2
• 4–2
• (4) 4–3
• (3) 4–3
• 1–4
• 4–3
• (6) 4–0
• (7) 4–2
• 4–1
• (15) w/d–w/o
• (2) 4–3

Century breaks

Main stage centuries

Total: 73^[15]

• 147, 135, 134, 130, 123 Mark Williams
• 142, 136, 100 Ali Carter
• 141, 135, 113, 109, 100 Mark Allen
• 141, 130, 127, 122, 110, 102, 100 Neil Robertson
• 137, 105 Mark Joyce
• 136, 134, 121 Lei Peifan
• 136, 128, 127, 105, 104, 102 Mark Selby
• 135, 122, 113, 108, 101 Luca Brecel
• 135 Zhao Xintong
• 130, 126, 103 Ryan Day
• 129, 125, 122, 122, 102 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
• 128, 118 Judd Trump
• 128, 118 Martin Gould
• 128 Scott Donaldson
• 127, 126, 101 Barry Hawkins
• 127, 119, 111, 105 Shaun Murphy
• 124 Ding Junhui
• 121, 111 Jack Lisowski
• 121 Pang Junxu
• 118 Sam Craigie
• 114 Louis Heathcote
• 113 Matthew Selt
• 111 Marco Fu
• 106 Cao Yupeng
• 106 Noppon Saengkham
• 104 Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 103 John Higgins
• 102 Jamie Jones
• 102 Yuan Sijun
• 101 Ashley Hugill
• 101 Tian Pengfei

Qualifying stage centuries

Total: 26^[16]

• 141 Michael White
• 140 Wu Yize
• 138, 134, 106 Ding Junhui
• 134 Muhammad Asif
• 132 David Gilbert
• 122 Alfie Burden
• 122 Chen Zifan
• 120, 105 Xu Si
• 118 Lu Ning
• 112, 100 Sam Craigie
• 109 Mohamed Ibrahim
• 109 Jamie Jones
• 107, 100 Dylan Emery
• 104 Chang Bingyu
• 104 Martin Gould
• 103 Ricky Walden
• 101 Fan Zhengyi
• 101 Zhang Anda
• 101 Zhou Yuelong
• 100 Ali Carter
• 100 Mark Davis

Notes and References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20210512210836/https://wst.tv/tournaments/english-open/ BetVictor English Open - World Snooker
2. Web site: 2022-12-12 . Yan Bingtao Becomes Seventh Player To Be Suspended In Snooker Match-Fixing Probe . 2022-12-13 . The Sportsman . EN.
3. News: Yan suspended from tour amid match-fixing probe . en-GB . BBC Sport . 2022-12-12.
4. News: Robertson beats Higgins 9-8 in final. en-GB. BBC Sport. 2022-12-05.
5. Web site: Snooker results: Mark Selby rallies to beat Neil Robertson 6-4 at English Open. 2022-12-17. www.sportinglife.com. en-GB.
6. Web site: Selby Ends Losing Streak Against Robertson. https://web.archive.org/web/20221217181045/https://wst.tv/selby-ends-losing-streak-against-robertson/. dead. December 17, 2022. 17 December 2022. World Snooker Tour.
7. News: Selby to face Brecel in English Open final . en-GB . BBC Sport . 2022-12-17.
8. News: Selby Ends Barren Streak With English Title. https://web.archive.org/web/20221218220336/https://wst.tv/selby-ends-barren-streak-with-english-title/. dead. December 18, 2022. World Snooker Tour. 18 December 2022.
9. Web site: Davies. Jonathan. Mark Selby beats Luca Brecel to end title drought at English Open. 18 December 2022. livesnooker.com.
10. News: Williams Makes 147 In Brentwood . en-GB . World Snooker Tour . https://web.archive.org/web/20221216142106/https://wst.tv/williams-makes-147-in-brentwood/ . dead . December 16, 2022 . 2022-12-16.
11. News: Williams becomes oldest player to make 147 break . en-GB . BBC Sport . 2022-12-16.
12. Web site: 2022-12-16 . Neil Robertson Makes Semi-Final Of English Open Despite Mark Williams' 147 . 2022-12-16 . The Sportsman . EN.
13. Web site: 2022–23 Season Prize Money Breakdown. WST. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20220512160752/https://wst.tv/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Click-here-for-the-prize-money-breakdown.pdf. 12 May 2022.
14. https://web.archive.org/web/20221005181137/https://wst.tv/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Click-here-for-the-draw-1.pdf BetVictor English Open 2022 Qualifiers
15. Web site: 12–18 December 2022. BetVictor English Open 2022 Centuries. World Snooker Tour. 12 December 2022. 20 December 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221220000416/https://livescores.worldsnookerdata.com/Centuries/CenturyBreaks/14566/betvictor-english-open-2022. dead.
16. Web site: 25–30 October 2022. BetVictor English Open 2022 Qualifiers Centuries. World Snooker Tour. 25 October 2022. 20 December 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221220000258/https://livescores.worldsnookerdata.com/Centuries/CenturyBreaks/14567/betvictor-english-open-2022-qualifiers. dead.