The tournament will return to the snooker calendar in August.
The upcoming British Open will feature several of the game’s leading players, including world champion Mark Selby, world number one Judd Trump, and former champions John Higgins and Stephen Hendry.
All four competitors have entered the returning ranking event that is due to be played at the Morningside Arena in Leicester between August 16th and 22nd.
Higgins won the British Open when it was last staged 17 years ago and will be joined in the field by the likes of Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy, and Kyren Wilson.
Crucible champion Selby is among several Leicester players hoping to perform well on home soil alongside Tom Ford, Ben Woollaston, and Joe O’Connor.
Meanwhile, the event will mark the first opportunity for Stephen Hendry to compete in front of fans after his unexpected comeback to competitive action last term.
Hendry is a four-time winner of the British Open and last triumphed in 2003 when he overcame Ronnie O’Sullivan to lift the title in Brighton.
O’Sullivan was also set to participate in the tournament, but the Rocket withdrew ahead of the draw for the first round and is being replaced by amateur top-up James Cahill.
The British Open was formerly an annual mainstay for almost two decades and was at one time a prestigious week of snooker on the schedule with the likes of Williams, Steve Davis, Jimmy White, Peter Ebdon, and Paul Hunter among the other notable names on the roll of honour.
This newest edition will be markedly different from those from the past, however, with a varied format that incorporates completely random draws throughout each round.
While that update has generally been well received, a more controversial aspect of the 128-player tournament is that it will feature matches lasting only five frames for the opening four rounds – a decidedly short setup for what is quite a rich event, with £100,000 on offer for the champion.
The quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place over the slightly longer best of seven frames, before an 11-frame final will determine the overall winner.
The British Open will be broadcast live on ITV4, but more details about the full draw and where to watch will be announced in due course.
The frame lengths have definitely diminished my anticipation ahead of an event that deserved better. I’m still looking forward to a bit of a snooker again but the real marquee events aren’t until at least late-September now.
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