The 16th ranking event of the season is next up on the snooker calendar with the 2026 World Open returning to Yushan in China.
There has been a brief respite on the World Snooker Tour with two weeks off at the beginning of March, but it’ll be back to the green baize again for the end-of-season push.
The World Open is an important event as, for most, it will represent the last opportunity to secure better seeding positions in the World Championship draw.
With a total prize fund in excess of £800,000, the tournament also acts as a vital stop in the race for tour survival.
2026 World Open prize money
Champion: £175,000
Runner-up: £75,000
Semi-final: £33,000
Quarter-final: £22,000
Last 16: £14,000
Last 32: £9,000
Last 64: £5,000
Highest Break: £5,000
Total: £825,000
When is the 2026 World Open?
The 2026 World Open commences on Monday, March 16th with the final to be played over 19 frames on Sunday, March 22nd.
Who are the former champions?
The World Open sort of evolved from the old Grand Prix, but in its current form the ranking event in China has existed since 2012.
Mark Allen won his maiden ranking title at the inaugural edition, which was staged in Hainan, and the Northern Irishman backed it up with a repeat success a year later.
Shaun Murphy, Ali Carter, Ding Junhui, Mark Williams, and Judd Trump subsequently etched their names onto the trophy before there was a five-year hiatus as a result of the pandemic.
Trump defended the crown in 2024 with John Higgins emerging as the champion last year courtesy of a 10-6 defeat of Joe O’Connor in the final.
Higgins is fancied as an 8/1 shot in the outright online betting market to repeat that success with Trump regarded as the favourite alongside Zhao Xintong with odds of 11/4.
How does the format work?
A qualifying round was staged in Barnsley last month, which accounted for 2017 winner Ding and last year’s beaten finalist O’Connor.
Most of the round of 64 is confirmed, although a few marquee players had their last-128 fixtures in the competition held over to the venue stages.
That includes the likes of reigning champion Higgins, world number one Trump, world champion Zhao, and fan favourite Ronnie O’Sullivan.
The 2026 World Open draw has already been negatively impacted by a number of high-profile withdrawals, however.
Recent winners on the tour, Mark Selby and Barry Hawkins have both pulled out while Chris Wakelin, Stephen Maguire, Jak Jones, and David Gilbert are also among the growing list of no-shows.
That’s good news for Michael Holt, Ian Burns, Artemijs Zizins, Xu Si, Luca Brecel, and Matthew Selt who have each been rewarded with byes through to the last 32.
One of the ranking events that adopts a traditional format, each round is played under the best-of-nine frames guise until the semis, which increases to 11, and the final that’ll be played over 19 frames.
The World Open is the last stop on the calendar before the Tour Championship in Manchester, where only the top 12 from the one-year list will compete.
Wakelin, Higgins, O’Sullivan, and Mark Allen currently occupy the bottom four spots with Xiao Guodong, Jack Lisowski, Elliot Slessor, and Zhou Yuelong among the immediate chasing pack.
With the World Championship on the horizon, this tournament will additionally provide one last chance for most players to gain automatic seeding at the Crucible, or at the very least a better seeding in the qualifiers draw.
2026 World Open draw
Round of 64 (bo9)
John Higgins/Liam Highfield vs Stan Moody
Lei Peifan vs Ryan Day
Artemijs Zizins w/o Chris Wakelin
Luca Brecel w/o Jak Jones
Matthew Selt w/o David Gilbert
Ishpreet Singh Chadha vs Ronnie O’Sullivan/Ross Muir
Xu Si w/o Stephen Maguire
David Lilley vs Shaun Murphy
Umut Dikme vs Xu Yichen
Zhou Yuelong vs He Guoqiang
Mark Allen vs Antoni Kowalski
Jack Lisowski vs Cheung Ka Wai
Anthony McGill vs Stuart Bingham
Chang Bingyu vs Wu Yize
Zak Surety vs Allan Taylor
Lyu Haotian vs Kyren Wilson
Judd Trump/Mark Lloyd vs Florian Nuessle
Liu Wenwei vs Jackspon Page/Wildcard
Zhao Hanyang vs Robbie Williams
Elliot Slessor vs Daniel Wells
Steven Hallworth vs Zhang Anda/Wildcard
Julien Leclercq vs Xiao Guodong/Ben Mertens
Matthew Stevens vs Hossein Vafaei
Ricky Walden/Mitchell Mann/Wildcard vs Mark Williams
Michael Holt w/o Mark Selby
David Grace vs Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Marco Fu vs Iulian Boiko
Ali Carter vs Martin O’Donnell
Aaron Hill vs Gary Wilson
Ian Burns w/o Barry Hawkins
Yao Pengcheng vs Sam Craigie
Long Zehuang vs Zhao Xintong/Wildcard
How to watch the 2026 World Open
There are several options available to watch the upcoming snooker live, depending on your location.
Many of the popular betting sites provide live streaming of snooker events through signing up on their websites or apps.
Below is a full list of official options, as published on the World Snooker Tour website:
UK & Ireland: TNT Sports, discovery+
Mainland Europe: Eurosport; discovery+ (Germany, Italy, Austria); HBO Max (all other markets)
China: Huya.com, Migu, CBSA-WPBSA Academy (WeChat & Douyin)
Hong Kong China: Now TV
Malaysia & Brunei: Astro Supersport
Taiwan: Sportcast
Thailand: True Sport
Philippines: TAP Sports
Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana & Kenya: SportyTV
Singapore: Star Hub
All Other Territories: WST Play
Featured photo credit: WST
The first edition in Glasgow, taking place in 2010, operated a short frame format. Neil Robertson defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-1 in the final.
The event was introduced in an effort to keep the BBC deal at four tournaments across the BBC network.
The venue and facilities in Yushan (‘Billiards City’) are the best I’ve seen worldwide. There is a snooker museum, and a Q Sports academy under Roger Leighton – one of the best technical coaches in the world and the man behind Wu Yize, Si Jiahui, Chang Bingyu, Fan Zhengyi and several other professionals. The main venue is like a palace, with capacity 4000 and an carefully designed 8-table layout. It would make an ideal venue for the new World Championship. The problem is that Yushan itself isn’t a top-tier city, and the travelling is complicated – there isn’t even an airport. The usual route is a 2-hour HS rail journey from Shanghai. The past couple of days have seen the usual press events and red carpets introducing the players.
Two ‘wildcard’ players Han Fuyuan and Liu Yang won through a 64-player amateur-only event in Nanchang (the nearby provincial capital, with a club owned by professional Yuan Sijun). Liu Yang is quite a decent younger player. There are also two junior wildcards, Wang Xinbo and Xu Jiarui, who are outstanding teenagers – Wang is currently top of the CBSA rankings after two tournament wins and is guaranteed to qualify for the tour next season via this route, having narrowly missed out losing both WSF finals in Bulgaria.
Unfortunately, the most celebrated player Ding Junhui was forced to qualify, and didn’t get past Marco Fu in Barnsley. That’s probably a situation the organisers (not to mention fans) were very unhappy about, and hopefully will be addressed in future years. Ultimately, we’ll have to do away with these UK-based qualifier matches.
Always thought it was a bit odd the Billiards City was there, but it does sound great.
It’s an area undergoing development, so it’s possible before long the transport will get better. Perhaps an airport will suddenly appear!
But this region is known for manufacturing snooker tables and cloths, from natural resources abundant in Jiangxi.