The venue stages of the Scottish Open begin on Monday with Judd Trump and Mark Allen among the star names in the draw.
The circuit heads to Edinburgh for the third Home Nations tournament of the 2023/24 snooker season.
Silverware will be up for grabs for the last time on the main tour this calendar year, with the contenders hoping to claim the Stephen Hendry Trophy next weekend.
Prize, history, format
There have been various versions of the Scottish Open down through the years, but this particular event has been staged since 2016.
Marco Fu beat home favourite John Higgins to claim the inaugural title, with the latter a runner-up again in 2021 when he was denied by Luca Brecel.
In between, there were victories for Neil Robertson, Mark Allen, and back-to-back successes for Mark Selby.
The defending Scottish Open champion is Gary Wilson, whose triumph twelve months ago earned him a maiden ranking title.
Like the other Home Nations events in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, there is a top prize worth £80,000 on offer.
The format follows its usual guise, with best-of-seven frame clashes for the first four rounds, nine-frame quarter-final affairs, 11-frame semi-finals, and a final lasting a possible 17 frames.
2023 Scottish Open draw
A preliminary phase was already held just over a month ago at the Morningside Arena, with most of the round of 128 already completed in Leicester.
The top 16 seeds, however, have all had their first fixtures in the competition held over to the Meadowbank Sports Centre in the Scottish capital city.
Gary Wilson will look to prolong his reign when he faces Elliot Slessor on Monday morning.
Ronnie O’Sullivan had been set to make his first appearance since winning the UK Championship, but the Rocket withdrew on the morning of day one.
Fresh off his victory in the Snooker Shoot Out on Saturday, Mark Allen opens his account in the Scottish Open draw against Jamie Jones.
World champion Luca Brecel meets Iulian Boiko, Mark Selby encounters Sean O’Sullivan, while Judd Trump is in action against Sydney Wilson.
The likes of Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, Barry Hawkins, Mark Williams, and John Higgins are also in the field hoping to challenge.
Neil Robertson is the most high-profile name not involved, with the Australian taking the rest of 2023 off in order to spend some time with his family Down Under.
Following his poor run of form, Robertson’s absence guarantees his failure to qualify for the World Grand Prix in January.
Results from this Scottish Open are the last to be counted towards the Race to the World Grand Prix one-year rankings.
Only the top 32 from that list after the conclusion of the Scottish Open will qualify to compete at the World Grand Prix.
Scottish Open draw
Round of 128 (bo7)
Gary Wilson 4-3 Elliott Slessor
Xing Zihao 4-3 Fergal O’Brien
Joe O’Connor 4-0 Andy Lee
Scott Donaldson 4-3 Ashley Hugill
Hossein Vafaei 3-4 Daniel Wells
Rory Thor 4-1 Graeme Dott
Ryan Day 4-2 Jiang Jun
Ashley Carty 4-2 Andres Petrov
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4-2 Ma Hailong
Chris Wakelin 4-2 Mark Joyce
Yuan Sijun 4-0 Muhammad Asif
Mark Williams 3-4 Sam Craigie
Robbie Williams 4-1 Rod Lawler
David Gilbert 4-3 Jak Jones
Jordan Brown 4-2 Adam Duffy
Kyren Wilson 4-2 Mostafa Dorgham
Mark Allen 2-4 Jamie Jones
Dominic Dale 4-1 Ross Muir
Jimmy Robertson 4-2 Amaan Iqbal
Jimmy White 4-3 Duane Jones
Robert Milkins 0-4 Mark Davis
Andrew Higginson 4-3 Allan Taylor
Zhou Yuelong 4-0 Anthony Hamilton
Martin Gould 4-2 Reanne Evans
Manasawain Phetmalaikuk 4-2 Ben Woollaston
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Michael White
Aaron Hill 4-1 Ken Doherty
Jack Lisowski 4-0 Mohamed Ibrahim
Julien Leclercq 4-0 Baipat Siripaporn
Si Jiahui 4-3 Tian Pengfei
Zhang Anda 4-2 Andy Hicks
Judd Trump 4-0 Sydney Wilson
Liam Graham w/o Ronnie O’Sullivan
Ben Mertens 4-0 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Sanderson Lam 4-3 Fan Zhengyi
Cao Yupeng 4-2 David Lilley
Barry Hawkins 3-4 Pang Junxu
Xu Si 4-0 Mink Nutcharut
Anthony McGill 4-0 Ryan Thomerson
Oliver Lines 4-0 John Astley
Lukas Kleckers 4-1 Stuart Carrington
Noppon Saengkham 4-0 Rebecca Kenna
Jack Borwick 1-4 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Ali Carter 4-3 Long Zehuang
Alfie Burden 4-1 Ian Burns
Matthew Selt 4-1 Dylan Emery
Matthew Stevens 4-0 Victory Sarkis
Mark Selby 4-2 Sean O’Sullivan
Shaun Murphy 1-4 Liu Hongyu
Zak Surety 4-1 Liam Pullen
Lyu Haotian 4-2 Joe Perry
Jackson Page 4-1 Himanshu Jain
John Higgins 4-0 Oliver Brown
He Guoqiang 4-0 Peng Yisong
Ricky Walden 4-3 Hammad Miah
Alexander Ursenbacher 4-0 Wu Yize
Liam Highfield 4-0 Dean Young
Tom Ford 4-1 Louis Heathcote
Jenson Kendrick 4-2 Anton Kazakov
Ding Junhui 4-0 David Grace
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Andrew Pagett
Jamie Clarke 4-2 Xiao Guodong
James Cahill 4-3 Stan Moody
Luca Brecel 4-0 Iulian Boiko
Round of 64 (bo7)
Gary Wilson 4-3 Xing Zihao
Joe O’Connor 4-1 Scott Donaldson
Daniel Wells 3-4 Rory Thor
Ryan Day 3-4 Ashley Carty
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 2-4 Chris Wakelin
Yuan Sijun 0-4 Sam Craigie
Robbie Williams 3-4 David Gilbert
Jordan Brown 0-4 Kyren Wilson
Jamie Jones 3-4 Dominic Dale
Jimmy Robertson 3-4 Jimmy White
Mark Davis 1-4 Andrew Higginson
Zhou Yuelong w/o Martin Gould
Manasawin Phetmalaikul 0-4 Stuart Bingham
Aaron Hill 4-1 Jack Lisowski
Julien Leclercq 2-4 Si Jiahui
Zhang Anda 4-2 Judd Trump
Liam Graham 4-2 Ben Mertens
Sanderson Lam 4-1 Cao Yupeng
Pang Junxu 4-1 Xu Si
Anthony McGill 4-2 Oliver Lines
Lukas Kleckers 1-4 Noppon Saengkham
Ishpreet Singh Chadha 3-4 Ali Carter
Alfie Burden 1-4 Matthew Selt
Matthew Stevens 3-4 Mark Selby
Liu Hongyu 4-0 Zak Surety
Lyu Haotian 4-0 Jackson Page
John Higgins 4-1 He Guoqiang
Ricky Walden 4-3 Alexander Ursenbacher
Liam Highfield 2-4 Tom Ford
Jenson Kendrick 1-4 Ding Junhui
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Jamie Clarke
James Cahill 3-4 Luca Brecel
Round of 32 (bo7)
Gary Wilson 4-3 Joe O’Connor
Rory Thor 4-3 Ashley Carty
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Sam Craigie
David Gilbert 3-4 Kyren Wilson
Dominic Dale 4-1 Jimmy White
Andrew Higginson 2-4 Zhou Yuelong
Stuart Bingham 4-2 Aaron Hill
Si Jiahui 2-4 Zhang Anda
Liam Graham 3-4 Sanderson Lam
Pang Junxu 2-4 Anthony McGill
Noppon Saengkham 4-2 Ali Carter
Matthew Selt 4-3 Mark Selby
Liu Hongyu 2-4 Lyu Haotian
John Higgins 4-3 Ricky Walden
Tom Ford 3-4 Ding Junhui
Martin O’Donnell 4-2 Luca Brecel
Round of 16 (bo7)
Gary Wilson 4-1 Rory Thor
Chris Wakelin 4-2 Kyren Wilson
Dominic Dale 0-4 Zhou Yuelong
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Zhang Anda
Sanderson Lam 4-1 Anthony McGill
Noppon Saengkham 4-3 Matthew Selt
Lyu Haotian 2-4 John Higgins
Tom Ford 4-2 Martin O’Donnell
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
Gary Wilson 5-0 Chris Wakelin
Zhou Yuelong 5-4 Stuart Bingham
Sanderson Lam 3-5 Noppon Saengkham
John Higgins 5-3 Tom Ford
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Gary Wilson 6-5 Zhou Yuelong
Noppon Saengkham 6-3 John Higgins
Final (bo17)
Gary Wilson 9-5 Noppon Saengkham
How to watch the 2023 Scottish Open
Live coverage of the 2023 Scottish Open will be available across Europe on discovery+ and Eurosport.
Viewers in the UK and Ireland will have the additional option of watching on DMAX, a Freeview channel.
If you’re living in another territory, there are various other ways to watch the tournament.
More information on how to watch the Scottish Open around the world is available on the World Snooker Tour website by clicking here.
Dave Hendon said Robertson was playing an exhibition in Finland last week.
I would say there’s been two significant iterations of this event. Wikipedia claims it began in 1981 as the International but that event was never in Scotland and was discontinued in 1989. Sky Sports brought the event back in 1993 and later renamed it the Scottish Open in 1998. For me, the first iteration is 1993-2004. In its last year before pulled Sky stopped showing it the event was billed as the Player’s Championship.
Mark Selby is the only player under the Scottish Open name to retain the title. John Higgins the only Scottish winner.
Yeah, Robertson definitely was in Finland over the weekend. But he previously said he was taking a break and going to Australia before Christmas.
I mentioned it as found it odd given he’d said about needing to get home. I can only think his children’s schooling delayed him going earlier. He’d ideally need to be back no later than the 5th for the Masters.
Snooker.org has O’Sullivan down as having withdrawn now. No great shock! The Rocket was champion in 1998 and 2000 but has been an irregular presence at this event since it was revived.
As much as the Rocket is the undisputed GOAT, his behaviour, not just today, but in events not just this season, but prior, in withdrawing at extremely late notice leaves something to be desired…… Unacceptable from the world number 1, disrespectful to his fellow professionals and more importantly to his adoring fans
Joe Johnson might be a professional snooker player but he’s the worst commentator on the snooker television channels 🥴🥴
i disagree, i think Joe Johnson is actually the best. He is so knowledgeable and has a very calming voice.