Northern Ireland Open (snooker)

The Northern Ireland Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament. The players compete for the Alex Higgins trophy.

For the previous tournament held in Belfast, see Northern Ireland Trophy. For the previous tournament held in Tallaght, see Irish Open (snooker).
Northern Ireland Open
Tournament information
LocationBelfast
CountryNorthern Ireland
Established2016
Organisation(s)World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
FormatRanking event
Total prize fund£405,000
Current champion(s) Judd Trump

History

On April 29, 2015, World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn announced it would be added to the main tour in 2016 as the "Northern Ireland Open"[1] at a Belfast venue, as part of a new Home Nations Series with the existing Welsh Open and new English Open and Scottish Open tournaments.[2][3]

The 2017 Final made history as Yan Bingtao became the youngest player to reach a ranking final. Yan came close to breaking Ronnie O'Sullivan's record of the youngest player to win a ranking event, which had stood for 24 years, but he narrowly lost to Mark Williams 8–9 after having led 8–7. This final also featured one of the biggest age gaps between finalists as Williams was almost 25 years older than Yan. Additionally, Yan also became the first player born in the 2000s to reach the final of a ranking tournament.

The 2020 tournament was staged outside Northern Ireland, at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom on the 2020–21 snooker season.[4]

For the last three consecutive years of the tournament, Judd Trump has defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–7 in the final.

Winners
Year Winner Runner-up Final score Sponsor Venue Season
Northern Ireland Open (ranking)
2016 Mark King Barry Hawkins 9–8 Coral Belfast 2016/17
2017 Mark Williams Yan Bingtao 9–8 Dafabet 2017/18
2018 Judd Trump Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–7 BetVictor 2018/19
2019 Judd Trump Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–7 19.com 2019/20
2020 Judd Trump Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–7 Matchroom.live Milton Keynes 2020/21

See also

References
  1. http://www.worldsnooker.com/tournaments/irish-open-2016/
  2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/32519199
  3. http://www.worldsnooker.com/hearn-announces-new-five-year-plan/
  4. "World Snooker: Milton Keynes to host first eight events of 2020-21 season". BBC Sport. 28 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
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